Part 2: Food and Mood Connection
/In part 1 of the food and mood connection we specifically addressed:
How the gut and brain communicate
Connection between high inflammatory diet and mood
What foods cause inflammation
What diseases & feelings are connected to inflammation
In part 2, I would like to discuss leaky gut. There are several other highly skilled practitioners who have already gone in-depth about this topic. One of my favorites is Chris Kresser! Has done this via podcast and a blog series devoted to healing leaky gut.
My Goal is to help you understand what leaky gut is, symptoms, and the connection to your mood and health!
So why even care about the gut in the first place? Here is a fun fact.
The intestinal barrier covers a surface area of about 400 m² and requires about 40 percent of the body’s energy expenditure, and that’s pretty remarkable when you consider that only 20 percent of the body’s energy expenditure is required by the brain. So this tells us that the gut barrier is really crucial. It plays an important role in human health and disease.
Chris Kresser
Our bodies wouldn’t devote that much energy to a useless system. In fact 70% of our immune cells are located in our gut. So if our health is 100% connected to our gut’s health, it seems pretty important to make sure that it is functioning at peak capacity!
This brings us to leaky gut. A sign that the gut is sick.
Leaky gut in a nut shell looks like this….
Due to inflammation which we talked about extensively in part 1 of the blog, the cells of the gut separate allowing particles of food, toxins, and microorganisms to go into the blood stream.
The body then launches an attack on these foreign particles. Two things can occur here.
The foreign particles interrupt the natural follow of the body and make you sick
The body launches an attack on the particles, but also in the process ends up attacking itself
The later of the two is called an Auto-Immune Disease. Some examples are : arthritis, lupus, crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, alopecia, psoriasis, hashimotos, grave’s disease, etc. By healing the gut you can improve and in some cases reverse auto-immune conditions.
In addition to the above diseases other symptoms of leaky gut include:
Anxiety
Depression
Adult acne
Brain fog
Fluid retention
Loose stools
Constipation
Excessive abdominal fat
And more
It’s important to note that it is not typically just one factor that causes leaky gut. It is normally a combination of two or more of the following: high inflammatory diet, food intolerance, infection, chronic stress, medications, poor sleep, etc.
So how is leaky gut connected to your mood?
In addition to the body fighting off foreign invaders and it’s functions being interrupted, your gut also has it’s own nervous system called the enteric nervous system. This has over 100 million nerve endings. You feelings of sadness, aggression, melancholy, and uneasy could be the literal response of your gut feeling inflamed and leaking
With inflammation and leaky gut you digestive tract can feel the physical disturbances and is communicating back to you!
Does this resonate with you? Learn more about your signs and symptoms connection to leaky gut by scheduling a discovery call with me today.