Catherine de Lange

the benefits of fasting is that eating less gives our metabolism a break, affording our body respite from this process.

The brain is a hungry organ, consuming about 20 per cent of the body’s energy.

eat a diverse range of plant-based foods, in order to nurture a diverse microbiome.

by and large the medical profession too has underappreciated the role that diet plays in our mental wellbeing.

That is despite the fact that we have long known that the gut is not a standalone organ, and that it is in constant dialogue with the brain. Now, science is starting to home in on this conversation, and the findings are quite astounding.

but are they all they are cracked up to be, and can going hungry really fine-tune your brain?

per cent of the body’s energy

Bad diet is the leading risk factor for

The vagus nerve is considered to be the body’s sixth sense,

indeed some recent research suggests that the very reason the Mediterranean diet is so good for us is the way it influences our gut microbes.22 People in Okinawa also tend to eat very few calories, even by Japanese standards, a hint that keeping calories low, as we learned in the previous chapter, could be a good strategy for health. The diets of blue-zoners also fits with the recent finding that a poor diet is the leading cause of death in most countries. The biggest culprits? Too much salt, too few whole grains and not enough vegetables. Exactly the opposite of the blue-zone diet.
Med diet marvel
Living longer is one thing, but what about the brain? Here, the Mediterranean diet really comes into its own. Studies consistently find that sticking to it reduces the risk for numerous brain conditions including stroke, depression and Alzheimer’s.23 On the other hand, unhealthy diets high in processed foods have been linked to increased risk of depression as well as anxiety.24 Diet and mental health, then, are clearly connected, but most of these studies are observational – meaning that people’s habits are observed and measurements are made, but the scientists aren’t trying to change the outcome – so we can’t definitively say that diet is the driving force.