How Eating Habits Shape Your Mental Health
Food is more than just fuel. The way we nurture our bodies affects our brain chemistry, energy levels, sleep, and even emotional resilience.
Below, we’ll break down how food impacts mental health, and more importantly, how you can build nourishing habits that support your mood, focus, and overall well-being.
The Brain-Gut Connection
Our gut and brain are in constant communication through what's called the gut-brain axis. Your gut produces around 90% of your body’s serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, sleep, and appetite. When we feed our gut microbiome with fiber-rich, nutrient-dense foods — like leafy greens, whole grains, fermented foods — we’re actually helping our brain thrive, too!
Blood Sugar and Mood
Ever felt hangry? Eating consistent, balanced meals helps keep your blood sugar stable, a crucial step for emotional regulation. When we skip meals or over-rely on sugar and processed carbs, our energy spikes and crashes—and so can our mood. All in all, a well-fed brain is a resilient brain. It can be helpful to start the day with a nourishing meal, with high protein and fiber that will keep you energy up throughout the day, avoiding any mid-morning crashes that can leave you feeling frazzled.
Mindful Eating and Emotional Awareness
Eating isn’t just a physical act, it’s an emotional one, too! Practicing mindful eating can help you reconnect with your body’s cues and reduce stress eating. This means slowing down, checking in with your hunger, and eating without judgment. Before eating, try pausing and asking what you’re looking for.
Check in with your body: are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Are you lonely? Are you bored? How hungry do you feel? What is your body really in the mood for?
We often crave change and connection, and turn to food for this sense of relief. Using a body scan technique can help us be more mindful when making food choices. It can also help us learn to eat as much as we’re craving and able to handle, meaning we’re eating until we’re feeling satisfied, not staying hungry or overstuffing ourselves until we’re uncomfortable or even feel sick.
Small, Sustainable Changes
You don’t need to overhaul your entire diet overnight. In fact, all-or-nothing thinking around food can mirror perfectionism and even increase anxiety.
Start small, and think about the kind of changes you want to make.
Add a handful of spinach to your smoothie; swap soda for sparkling water; keep a nourishing snack on hand like carrots and hummus or nuts. There’s no such thing as a “perfect diet,” and nourishment can look completely different for everyone based on needs, culture, budget, and access to food.
There’s no guilt-tripping here! YOU are doing this for YOU!
Food Is Love — Not Just Fuel
Using nutrition to support your mental health isn’t about control—it’s about care. It’s a way of saying, “I matter! And my body and mind deserve support!”
If you’re struggling with your relationship to food or body image, know that support exists. Therapy and nutrition counseling can work hand-in-hand to help you feel stronger, not smaller, and the therapists at Herr-Era are ready to help you learn more about how to empower yourself and feel your best!
And today, you can choose one small change that feels doable to YOU. Healing takes time, and it’s not about being perfect! Notice how you feel when you love your body and nourish it, seeing food as a way to celebrate, fuel, and connect with it — not torture or restrict it.
You deserve this!