Can the Anti-Inflammatory Diet Help With Mental Health?
When Lisa Moses, a psychologist based in Mamaroneck, New York, started experiencing episodes of gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea, diarrhea and cramping, along with mood symptoms like anxiety, depression and a feeling of dread, she used her professional expertise to uncover what was really going on.
“GI doctors did a whole workup and didn’t find anything seriously wrong,” she says. “I started doing my own research about gut health and the gut-brain connection.” After eliminating certain foods to see which affected her most, she found that the artificial sweetener sucralose, which is present in a lot of processed foods, was contributing to her condition.
“When I cut it out of my diet I felt better,” she says. “Since then, I’ve seen many clients in my practice who also have both gut and mood symptoms. I try to reassure them that they aren’t ‘crazy’ and that they can experiment with changes to their diet to see whether a food is contributing to symptoms.”
Excerpted from U.S. News
