Well, here's the summary of my readings on the dietary concerns:
First and foremost eat a generally healthy diet and eat reasonable amounts, this avoids blood sugar spikes and lows, it also helps you avoid the natural depression that comes with being unhealthy and/or overweight.
Now the specifics.
Avoid processed sugar and caffeine. Both of them cause energy spikes and lows. These highs and lows can cause mini-cycles which can lead to bigger ones.
Avoid white flour when possible. Highly processed and refined flour is easily converted to sugar by the body (almost everything you eat is converted to one type of sugar or the other, but white flour is converted at a high rate). This process can cause the same types of highes and lows discussed above.
Finally, what to eat. Get your RDA of fruits and vegetables, that means at least 7 servings a day. It doesn't take long to get used to this, but the expense can get to you. Fresh fruits and vegies aren't cheap.
Next, maximize Omega 3's and minimize Omega 6's. Omega 3's have been removed from the modern diet, but they are needed for good brain health (the human body can't make them, the only way to get them is to eat them). Omega 6's are not good for you, but their presence in the modern dieat has been greatly enhanced through partially hydrogenated (sp?) oils and saturated fats. A diet that isn't properly balanced in these two nutrients doesn't do anything to encourage healthy brain chemistry.
The best run down of Omega content in food is "The Omega Diet" by Simopoulos and Rodinson. Basically, fish are good, and you can get Omega fortified eggs and butter.
Fianlly, the hardest thing for me to accept, give up alcohol. It obivous causes dramatic highs and lows, and half the meds we take don't mix with it. I'd recommend picking up a copy of the Omega diet, you can skip the start of the book (first few chapters are about why its a good diet) and skip right to the how to protions.
Comments