In this episode, she explains what our brains need to be healthy and how micronutirents can make a difference to mental health. It鈥檚 all part of her mission to reverse the mental health epidemic.
Listen on聽听触听听触听听触听
In this episode
02:01聽We鈥檙e the critics and conscience of society.聽And if there are new and crazy ideas that contravene our current way of thinking,听it鈥檚 still our duty and our role to investigate them.
07:19聽Where do you get these nutrient-dense types of foods? It's going to be in fruits and vegetables, nuts, fish, grains. That's where you're going to get those vitamins and minerals.
07:58 I always say food first.聽If you can try to get your nutrients from your food, and you can feel well and feel healthy, and you're feeling, vital and energized and all of those things, then you don't need to then consider supplements.
08:32 Our food is probably not as nutrient dense as it used to be.聽聽We have a lot of mouths to feed and so聽we're going to favour crops that grow quickly and have a high yield. If a crop grows really quickly, then it's going to have less time to take the nutrients out of the soil into the plant.聽That selection for food is probably to the detriment of the nutrient density of the food.
10:47 stress really seems to deplete us of our nutrients.聽It makes absolute sense, your body needs to survive and it's going to prioritize the fight-flight response over anything else that's happening. It needs those nutrients to make the adrenaline. So聽your nutrients get diverted to make sure you survive, but it's at the expense of everything else that's going on in your body.
12:25聽We don't have, you know, the anxiety for earthquakes and the anxiety for exams and聽we don't compartmentalize anxiety that way, we just feel anxiety.
13:36聽Essentially, we found that聽people who happened to be taking nutrients聽at the time of the September 2010 earthquake聽recovered far more quickly than people who weren't taking nutrients.
16:08 We're ignoring the brain at our peril, and we see already the evidence of it in the mental health statistics, in the mental health epidemic.
17:20聽The approach we take is saying, 鈥淥kay, let's give the body what it needs, the brain what it needs, in terms of the nutrients.鈥 And聽see what happens when you end up being well-nourished.
19:08聽Oh, I know. I can often get just thrown into the camp of snake oil salesman and that's unfortunate.
20:33聽We have to change the way we've been educating our psychiatrists, our psychologists, to understand that聽nutrition really is a foundation pillar of health.
21:51听You asked me, verbose Julia, to say one sentence of why my work is so important?聽Because it's going to reverse the mental health epidemic.
Meet our speakers
Julia Rucklidge
Julia Rucklidge聽is a Professor of Clinical Psychology in the University of mini传媒's聽School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing; and the Director of聽Te Puna Toiora | Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group. She is passionate about helping people find alternative treatments for their psychiatric symptoms and being a voice for those who have been let down by the current mental health system. Originally from Toronto, Canada, she completed her PhD at the University of Calgary in clinical psychology followed by a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In 2000, she joined the Department of Psychology at UC, where she teaches child psychology in the Clinical Psychology Programme.
In the last decade, Julia and her team have been running clinical trials investigating the role of broad-spectrum micronutrients in the expression of mental illness, specifically ADHD, mood disorders, anxiety and stress associated with the mini传媒 earthquakes. Julia has over 100 peer reviewed publications and book chapters, has been frequently featured in the media, and has given invited talks all over the world on her work on nutrition and mental health. She was named in the top 100 Most Influential Women in New Zealand in 2015 and received a Braveheart award in 2018 for her contribution to making Christchurch a better place to live. Her聽聽has been viewed over 1.5 million times.
Learn more about Julia:聽Research profile
Molly Magid
Molly Magid聽is an MSc student at UC. A recent graduate of Brown University, Molly is working on research in conservation genomics with Associate Professor Tammy Steeves from the School of Biological Sciences. Molly is passionate about finding ways to communicate science to the public in a clear, novel, and engaging ways. Most recently, Molly worked as the lead student producer on the podcast聽,听which answers listener's questions about sustainability using relevant science research.
