Dr. Uma's Mood Foods

Hi ,

Are you looking for ways to naturally boost your mood and emotional wellbeing? Are you interested in making healthy choices now that will benefit your health in the future?

Nutritional Psychiatry focuses not only on how specific foods help improve our mood and reduce stress, but also how we can use food to impact our cognitive ability and memory as we age.

Simple adjustments can slowly but steadily become habits you can incorporate for the rest of your life in order to create lasting mental fitness. Each week, I’ll share recommendations here using foods you can add to your diet to support your mental health.

I love bringing you the latest in Nutritional Psychiatry each week to boost your overall well-being. My new book, Calm Your Mind with Food is a revolutionary full-body approach to relieving anxiety, including anti-anxiety recipes and meal plan guidelines.

Mood: Anxiety
Food: Spinach

Research has shown that spinach can help calm the mind because…

Spinach is high in fiber, which helps to feed the good bacteria in the gut for a balanced microbiome and reduced neuro-inflammation that is associated with stress.

Spinach is rich in magnesium, a nutrient whose deficiency has been linked to an increased risk of anxiety.

Leafy greens, including spinach, contain folate, which plays a role in regulating neurotransmitter function for improved mood and focus.

How to add this MOOD FOOD to your diet:
Spinach is an extremely versatile leafy green that can be enjoyed raw or cooked, and prepared in a variety of ways. It is a delicious addition to a colorful Kaleidoscope Salad, (see recipe on page 254 of Calm Your Mind with Food) or as the star ingredient in a spinach salad with a clean protein and a drizzle of olive oil. It can be blended into a green smoothie or added to soups, stews and sauces. Because of its mild taste and versatility, spinach is an easy food to sneak into kids meals to provide them with the many brain boosting nutrients that their growing minds need!

How to buy spinach:
Spinach is widely available in grocery stores, produce markets and farmers markets and can be purchased fresh or frozen. I love keeping a bag of frozen spinach in my freezer to add an easy pop of vegetables to my meals! When accessible, I recommend looking for organic varieties as spinach is consistently included in the “Dirty Dozen” vegetable, meaning that it is high in pesticides which can be damaging to mental fitness.

Wishing you a joyful & calm week,
Dr. Uma Naidoo, MD

Live with Kelly & Mark: I had a blast with Kelly Ripa and Mark Conseulos on Live with Kelly and Mark last week discussing Calm Your Mind With Food! I loved getting to explain the beautiful Kaleidoscope of foods and the many ways that the different phytonutrients and bioactives found in different colored foods help to calm the mind (much more info on this in my book!). Watch here.

The Washington Post: Through my practice as a nutritional psychiatrist, I have found that diet and lifestyle changes can play a drastic role in reducing symptoms of anxiety for anyone dealing with stress. I am thrilled to have recently shared my favorite anxiety reducing foods with The Washington Post! Read here.

Time Magazine: Honored to be featured in Time Magazine as a pioneer of Nutritional Psychiatry and thrilled to see this field continue to grow! Check out this article about how food can improve your mood here.

Glamour Magazine: In a recent interview with Glamour, I share how my parents and childhood experiences motivated my education choices that guided me to where I am today. Read it here.