Dr Julia Rucklidge- Nutrition

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so what i want to talk about today is
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going to be about the power of nutrition
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and nutrients in mental health and
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before i start though i just need to let
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you know
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that i don't make any money out of the
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sale of any of the products that we've
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been studying in my research lab over
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the last decade
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but i also want to make this general
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note that
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nutrition while important and i think
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that we need to have be really really
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thinking about our food environment
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if we could eliminate poverty or racism
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or the effects of colonization
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or trauma with our children then we
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would go a long way towards reducing the
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incidence of mental health in new
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zealand
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but what is the scale of the problem
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here we are on the south island and the
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south island has about a fifth of the
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population it's about a million people
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and that's the number of people who are
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struggling with a mental health problem
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in any one given year so it's enormous
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and the sad thing is is that despite
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enormous amount of money that has been
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put into mental health over the last
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well you know years but particularly
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over the last five years we haven't made
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a dent and in fact more and more people
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are presenting with mental health
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problems and to be honest the problems
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that we're seeing i am seeing as a
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clinical psychologist are becoming more
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and more severe and more complex
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so we have at this stage at this point
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an epidemic proportion of problems in
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terms of the increasing number of people
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who
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are being identified with a mental
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health problem and conventional
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treatments are sadly
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not helping enough people or else the
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number of people would be going down
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over time and that's kind of sobering to
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let that sink in
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and it's not that medications and the
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psychotherapy don't help people of
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course they do and they save lives but
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not enough people get well and i suspect
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that right here in fact there would be
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people who would identify with that you
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know maybe if i could just do a hands up
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how many people here know of someone who
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struggles with a mental health issue
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friend or family member okay and then
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put your hand up about whether or not
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that person you're thinking of has had
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their problems resolved with current
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conventional treatments
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there you go so
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and that's
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no one no one put their hand up um and
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i've done that i've asked that question
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of
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large audiences with thousands of people
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and we get you know a handful
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and that is it's it is sobering and i
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wish sometimes that the minister of
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health could be in this kind of room and
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see that
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that we're not we're not if we just keep
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doing the same thing
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we're not going to go um get much
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further so what are we going to do
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let's talk about the brain
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so the brain i call the brain the
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hungriest organ and that's because it
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punches above its weight it's two
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percent of body weight and yet it
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consumes between 20 to 40 percent
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of the nutrients that you eat
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so when you eat
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you might be surprised to learn that you
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are predominantly feeding your brain now
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you've probably been told that it's
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about muscles and bones and growth but
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in fact those nutrients are going to
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your brain and that's what you need in
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order to be able to concentrate or
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regulate your mood or regulate your
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anxiety
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you need those nutrients to help serve
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your brain
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so we have one of the biggest social
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experiments happening right now
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and that is this
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we have changed our food environment so
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dramatically
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in a very short period of time that we
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have not evolved to be able to digest
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and utilize these foods nor do i think
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we ever will
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and the simple reason being is that
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these foods are devoid and low in
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micronutrients and i'm going to explain
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why that's so important to us
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so we've changed from
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a diet that was mostly whole foods to a
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diet that is ultra processed products
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processing foods i do need to make sure
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you understand is that some forms of
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processing are absolutely fine
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freezing canning pasteurization heating
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things that's all forms of
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processing and that is okay
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it's when we get into the ultra
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processed
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foods and those are the foods that
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you'll know when you turn them around
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and they've got a lot of ingredients and
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they've got numbers and they've got
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ingredients that you don't understand or
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can pronounce
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that's your a clue that that food is
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going to be ultra processed
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so to give you a sample
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of
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thinking about the nutrient content of
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ultra-processed foods versus
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real whole foods what i've done is i've
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just put together these graphs
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these graphs are showing you
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how much of the
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the
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american public sorry it's hard to get
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this kind of data in new zealand but how
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much of the american public is eating
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these ultra-processed foods and so what
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we see here is that over 50 percent
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of the foods that people are eating in
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north america are coming from ultra
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processed products
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in contrast less than 15
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of the american population is eating
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fruits and vegetables and meeting the
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daily quota
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so
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are we any different in new zealand 69
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of the foods that are sold in new
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zealand supermarkets are ultra processed
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so
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when i think about the work that i've
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been doing which is around giving people
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extra nutrients and a pill form
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and i think why does it work why is it
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that we've seen so many benefits from
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giving people extra vitamins and
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minerals in this pill form and the
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reason for that is that we're probably
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supplementing
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the lack of nutrients that people are
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getting out of their foods even if they
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think that they're eating well and i'll
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explain why
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so what do we know now about the
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relationship between this
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ultra-processed environment and we call
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this this either you call the sad diet
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which is the standard american diet or
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you can call the western diet
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um what do we know about the
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relationship between this dietary
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pattern and mental health so the
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exciting thing is is that over the last
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two decades there have been dozens of
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really large studies we call them
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epidemiological studies they're done on
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populations and what they've shown us is
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the same thing which is the more you eat
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a diet that is consistent with a
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mediterranean-style diet
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which is
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high in your fish
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your healthy fats
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your fruits and vegetables
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then the lower the likelihood of having
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a mental health problem
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and the more your diet is consistent
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with the western style diet
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the greater the likelihood you're going
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to have a mental health issue
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so those studies kind of you you think
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well yeah they're associational they're
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not causal so it might be that when i'm
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sad i feel like i want to eat those
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types of foods but in fact there are now
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studies that have followed people over
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long periods of time and looked at their
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diet at say time one to see whether or
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not it predicts your mental health down
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the road five years eight years later
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and indeed it does
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so can either be protective in terms of
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you're eating a diet consistent with a
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mediterranean-style diet or it can
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increase your risk if you're eating
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foods that are consistent with a
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western-style diet low in fruits and
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vegetables high in your sugary drinks
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high in your takeaway then the greater
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the likelihood that you're going to have
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a mental health problem down the road so
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this is a really modifiable risk factor
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and that's the good news is that you can
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change your diet and improve your mental
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health in doing so
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there's also a lot of studies out there
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now where they've taken people
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and they've manipulated their diet in
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terms of they've taken people who are
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struggling with eating well
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and they're struggling with their mental
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health and then they randomize them to
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receive either some counseling on how to
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eat well so meeting up with a
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nutritionist or a dietitian versus
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getting some you know a control group
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that might consist of a befriending or
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some social support group and there's
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greater likelihood that you'll go in
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into remission and your depression if
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you were randomized to the group that
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received the dietary counseling so
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there's really robust data out there
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that suggests that what we really need
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to do is tell everyone to eat better
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and that is absolutely the starting
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point but i'm going to explain why that
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might not be sufficient but i think one
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of them is that the food messaging that
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we have
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is confusing
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it leads us to eat more ultra processed
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products
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and i don't think it's been helping us
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in the big picture
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so when you think about diet and what
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you should eat and what's good for you
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and i'm guessing that people here would
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like to eat
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foods that are going to be good for your
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brain
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you know what what is out there to help
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you
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so
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one thing might be that you have
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nutritional fats have you seen these
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they're on every package
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and so i've spent a lot of time in
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supermarkets reading these and what i
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found was that
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you it ends up telling you about
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calories which is an outdated concept a
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calorie and is not a calorie out
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so that's a problem right from the start
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and the focus though is on what we call
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macronutrients which is on your fats and
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your proteins and your carbs and it's
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not to say that fats proteins and carbs
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aren't good for you of course they are
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we need them they're building blocks of
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the brain
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but it overshadows the importance of the
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micronutrients which are often down here
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they usually say there's not a lot in
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them like zero percent or one percent or
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five percent of rda of recommended
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dietary allowance
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and the bottom line is that they don't
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list the entire 30 essential minerals
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and vitamins that you should be eating
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every day
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why not
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how did that happen how is it why is it
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that they're not required on food labels
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and i can only surmise is that they're
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not in the food
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and that it would be to the detriment of
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the food industry in order to have to
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label whether or not it had molybdenum
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in there
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or if it had copper in there that those
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would be zero definitely i think we
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focus on the carbs the fats and the
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proteins
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and then the focus though on that means
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that when you compare a big mac with a
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falafel salad
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what you find is well they're equivalent
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well if you were somebody who was going
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okay well
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all calories are the same if you're sort
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of working on that principle
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then you might go for the big mac
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because it looks pretty equivalent but
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hopefully you intuitively all know
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that they're not the same and that
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you're going to get more nutrition and a
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richer experience in terms of
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nutritional value from your falafel
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salad
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the star ratings have you seen these on
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on packages they're on a lot of
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ultra-processed products
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so
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i you know as somebody who's not a
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dietitian who's not a nutritionist who
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just comes to this incredibly naively
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and just starts to look and go
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wow what are these what do these star
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ratings tell us
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and so i was surprised to learn
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that they are about what's not in your
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food rather than what is in your food
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so they're about low in calories low in
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saturated fats low in salt
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low in sugar that's four stars and
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fortified with one nutrient like iron
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will get you five stars
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well a cardboard box would hit four
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that doesn't mean that you have to eat
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it
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so
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we have a star system
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where inanimate objects would achieve a
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high rating
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do you think that's necessarily going to
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be good for your brain there is nothing
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in there really other than that one
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possible nutrient fortification one
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nutrient not the full 30 that's going to
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be able to help you
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so it's not to say that a five-star
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rating food is necessarily bad
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but it also means that a 1.5 star rating
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is not necessary it could very well be
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good for you 1.5 could be your high fat
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yogurt it could be
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coconut milk which i was using the other
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day wow it's only 1.5 star ratings and
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yet that's a that's a product that's a
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food that is incredibly nourishing and
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rich in nutrients
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so i've come to the conclusion that our
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food industry and the pa the way we
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package our food and the messages that
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are out there are not really helping us
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in terms of ensuring that you're
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adequately feeding your brain with
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micronutrients and that is your vitamins
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and minerals so why should we care about
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those
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are required for everything that's
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happening in the manufacture of the
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neurotransmitters you need to make
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serotonin you've probably heard of that
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that's a mood regulating
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neurotransmitter or dopamine
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or enzymes
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hormones
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they all require the presence of the
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full array of vitamins and minerals
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there is no special one vitamin and
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mineral you always hear about that in
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the hi the hype in the media you know
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just take vitamin d or take zinc or
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magnesium or whatever it is that that
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special nutrient is at the nutrient of
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the day
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i can assure you
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that
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just focusing on one nutrient is
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unlikely to solve complex mental health
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issues that we need the full array in
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order to be able to make those
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neurotransmitters that are so important
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for brain signaling brain messaging so
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why do we need them we need them for the
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signaling in our brain
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we need them to support the mitochondria
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they're in every single one of your
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cells and they make a really special
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molecule called atp that is important
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for energy production
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and it is entirely reliant on the full
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array of vitamins and minerals
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inflammation to combat inflammation you
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need to make things like glutathione
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that are going to be able to help you in
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combating and reducing inflammation
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glute the production of glutathione is
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entirely dependent presence of vitamins
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and minerals turning your genes on and
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off requires the presence of vitamins
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and minerals
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they assist in the process of making
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something that's called a methyl group
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and it attaches itself to the dna it
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allows the gene to be red or not to be
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read so it up regulates or down
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regulates essential in terms of that
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regulation of your genes
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and eliminating toxins our environment
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is full of toxins plastics pollution
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we have detoxification pathways that are
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amazing
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and they're entirely reliant on the
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presence of vitamins and minerals so
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hopefully you're kind of going wow i
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really should be eating these so where
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am i going to get them from
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so
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i want if you can take one thing away it
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would be this it's just thinking about
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simple brain metabolism when you go from
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chemical this is happening all the time
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making your your serotonin requires you
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going from tryptophan to serotonin you
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can eat tryptophan you can't eat
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serotonin
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so tryptophan needs to be converted and
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in order to do that you need presence of
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an enzyme and you need presence of these
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cofactors that are minerals and vitamins
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they support the enzyme they allow the
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enzyme to do its job
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so if you don't have those present then
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you can imagine what's going to happen
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is that your chemical reactions are
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going to be slow metabolic reactions are
15:27
going to be slow and sluggish
15:29
and so you're not going to be able to
15:31
fully achieve what you want to achieve
15:33
because you don't have the presence of
15:35
those supporting workers there to um to
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make those those very very important
15:42
transmitters for example so here i'm
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showing you the the pathways that are
15:47
involved in the manufacturer's serotonin
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and this is just a small portion of it
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but what i want to bring to your
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attention is all of those nutrients and
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you know them you've heard of them iron
15:58
calcium vitamin b6 zinc
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phosphorus molybdenum
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riboflavin those are some of the b
16:05
vitamins vitamin c they're all required
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so i ask you this
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will you get an adequate supply of the
16:13
vitamins and minerals from the western
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diet
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will our children
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be able to get an adequate amount of
16:21
those foods from the foods that are are
16:24
provided to them in schools
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depends on the school doesn't it will
16:28
they get it from the dairy highly
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unlikely
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so where do we get them from
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these vitamins and minerals
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simple
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the minerals are in your soil we need to
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care about being good stewards of the
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soil because that's a huge problem not
16:44
just in new zealand but all over the
16:46
world
16:47
and
16:48
the minerals are in the soil the plant
16:51
takes them up through the root system
16:52
and then uses those minerals to make
16:55
vitamins
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we can manufacture a few vitamins in our
16:59
gut our bacteria can make some of the b
17:01
vitamins and you can make vitamin d of
17:03
course from going out in the sun
17:05
but for the most part the place where
17:07
you get your vitamins and minerals from
17:09
is from the food that you eat and that's
17:11
what we call them essential because you
17:12
can't make it
17:14
so you either need to eat the plants
17:17
that have the vitamins and minerals or
17:19
eat an animal that has eaten the plant
17:22
and that is how you're going to get them
17:25
and so here are some of the great
17:27
sources of getting these
17:29
vitamins and minerals your fish your
17:31
legumes
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your
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your chickpeas your fruits and your
17:36
vegetables your nuts
17:38
your grass-fed meats
17:42
so this graph which i thought i was
17:44
showing you earlier
17:45
is um showing you the percentage
17:49
of
17:50
relative to recommended dietary
17:52
allowance the rda of different types of
17:55
foods either
17:56
ultra processed foods or your whole real
17:59
foods and what i've done here is i've
18:01
listed vitamins and minerals here and
18:04
then over here is relative to the
18:06
recommended dietary allowance now i'm
18:08
not a huge fan of the rda because it
18:10
really tells you the minimum amount in
18:13
order to prevent a frank nutritional
18:15
deficiency like scurvy but it is not
18:18
telling us what is optimal for brain
18:20
health and more research more recently
18:23
is identifying that the rda recommended
18:26
dietary allowance for your brain
18:28
is probably higher than the rda levels
18:31
so when you're eating you're thinking i
18:32
just need to get 100 rda
18:35
you're probably
18:36
letting your brain down
18:39
so here we'll start with a
18:40
doughnut your hot dog
18:44
your spice spam or spiced ham
18:47
french fries your slice of white bread
18:51
tablespoon of margarine
18:54
soft drink nothing there
18:57
no zero it's called coke zero for a
18:59
really good reason
19:02
five crackers okay
19:04
so they're not getting anywhere actually
19:06
anywhere close to even twenty percent
19:09
let's go through some whole real foods
19:11
your kiwi fruit
19:13
a cup of kale
19:15
half a fillet salmon cup of lentils
19:19
a banana 100 grams of steak an egg six
19:22
brazil nuts
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so which diet
19:26
would you want to eat
19:29
it's obvious isn't it completely and one
19:32
hundred percent obvious which foods we
19:34
should be eating if we want to make sure
19:36
that our brain has an adequate supply
19:39
so this means that the nutrient density
19:41
and variety of food is essential
19:44
but
19:45
this is the big problem
19:48
even if we were to get the entire
19:50
population to start eating this way
19:52
there are some reasons why some people
19:54
may need more and i just want to talk a
19:56
little bit about those
19:58
one of them is that we are selecting our
20:00
foods to be pretty
20:03
to
20:04
store well
20:05
to transport well
20:08
and we're not we are not selecting them
20:10
for their nutritional value
20:12
so they're ending up we're actually
20:14
selecting fruits and vegetables that are
20:16
sweeter because that's what our palate
20:18
is asking for
20:20
and the sweeter they are the less they
20:23
are going to be nutritious
20:26
we are not adequately managing our soil
20:30
so i talk about here just about
20:32
replenishing that at the moment we we
20:34
might put in three nutrients and back
20:36
into the soil as fertilizer
20:39
but
20:40
that is prob that's probably an
20:42
inadequate way of dealing with it is to
20:43
just put lots of fertilizer on there
20:45
with a full array of nutrients we need
20:47
to think about how we're utilizing our
20:49
soil and whether or not the intensive
20:51
agriculture that we're currently sort of
20:54
enmeshed with is going to help us
20:56
sustain ourselves ourselves long term
20:59
or whether or not we should start
21:00
embracing new ventures such as say for
21:03
example regenerative agriculture
21:06
we are spraying our fields and our crops
21:09
with herbicides like glyphosate
21:12
so what is glyphosate originally
21:15
patented to do it's a mineral chelator
21:18
and what that means is that it pulls the
21:20
minerals out of the plant
21:22
and that means there's less available in
21:23
that plant and there's research that's
21:25
shown that this is the case over time
21:28
but the other worrying thing is is that
21:30
we use glyphosate as a desiccant and so
21:33
it's put on the crops right at the end
21:36
of the you know when we're just about to
21:38
harvest
21:39
and so what that does means is that it
21:41
ends up in the soil and if it then rains
21:44
and that the the glyphosate has attached
21:47
itself to the minerals in the soil where
21:49
is it what's going to happen when it
21:50
rains
21:52
it's going to wash away
21:54
so we're depleting the minerals in our
21:56
soil and this is something that is
21:57
incredibly urgent that we need to
22:00
address
22:01
because even if you eat well if the
22:03
minerals are not in the soil your your
22:06
your plants are going to be depleted and
22:08
there is research that has shown that
22:11
the peach that my grandmother would have
22:13
eaten is no longer as nourishing as it
22:16
was for her
22:18
and the effects of climate change on
22:21
agriculture is that your you your plants
22:24
can grow more quickly but as a
22:26
consequence of that you can't pull those
22:29
minerals out of the soil as well because
22:32
there's less time available to do that
22:34
and so again the consequences of that is
22:36
reduction of the nutrient value of your
22:38
food
22:40
then there's on top of that there's some
22:42
individual variables and factors that
22:45
can influence whether or not you can
22:47
adequately use nutrients even if you're
22:49
eating good foods
22:51
things like your genetic makeup some of
22:54
us have what's called an inborn era of
22:56
metabolism and all that means is that
22:58
when i showed you a to b
23:01
that that enzyme might there might be a
23:03
defect in it and it doesn't work as well
23:05
and it just slows down that process and
23:08
it might make it more sluggish and slow
23:11
and therefore you may not make as much
23:13
of a say for example serotonin or
23:15
dopamine or adrenaline etc
23:18
as we age sadly
23:21
we cannot use the nutrients as
23:23
adequately that are coming into us we're
23:25
just not as good at taking them out of
23:27
the food and so that's an unfortunate
23:29
prop one of the unfortunate problems of
23:31
aging
23:32
we're using a lot of medications that
23:33
have transformed lives but one of the
23:35
downside of using these medications is
23:37
they can they can
23:39
lead to nutritional deficiencies some
23:41
examples of medications that can do that
23:43
are things like statins antidepressants
23:45
aspirins contraceptive you can look
23:48
those up and find out what specific
23:49
nutrient deficiencies are caused by
23:51
those medications
23:53
i've mentioned inflammation already
23:55
stages of life either pregnancy or some
23:58
i think about teenagers a lot i have two
24:00
of them and i think about their brains
24:02
as being under reconstruction because
24:04
that's pretty much what happens during
24:05
those teenage years so you're basically
24:07
having to rebuild the frontal lobes of
24:09
the brain
24:10
do you think that would require vitamins
24:12
and minerals
24:14
absolutely
24:16
i've talked about the toxins in our
24:17
environment and we are
24:19
we are increasingly exposed to toxins so
24:22
that means those detoxification pathways
24:24
are working overtime they're reliant on
24:26
vitamins and minerals that means there's
24:27
fewer vitamins and minerals available
24:29
for things like regulation of your mood
24:31
or anxiety
24:33
people's gut health is influencing your
24:35
ability to absorb nutrients
24:37
um food addictions
24:40
so that's a that's a huge challenge of
24:42
getting people even if they want to
24:44
being able to shift away from the
24:46
western style diet can be really really
24:48
difficult and i want to acknowledge that
24:51
and then finally stress
24:53
stress is all around us we've all
24:55
experienced stress over the last couple
24:56
of years but as somebody who lives in
24:58
christchurch we've experienced the
24:59
earthquakes we've experienced floods
25:01
we've experienced the mosque shooting so
25:03
there's enormous number of things that
25:05
we've been under
25:06
and one of the things about the stress
25:07
response is that it triggers the fight
25:10
flight response and you're probably
25:11
really familiar with that the fight
25:13
flight response is going to it always
25:15
predominates it trumps every other
25:17
function your body because it's about
25:19
survival and the fight flight response
25:21
is entirely dependent on vitamins and
25:24
minerals so if you're under chronic
25:26
stress then you're depleting yourself
25:27
with those vitamins and minerals so we
25:29
need to replenish those so all of these
25:31
factors could result in fewer nutrients
25:34
available for brain health
25:35
so one solution then is supplementation
25:38
and that's the work that i've been doing
25:40
over the last
25:41
decade
25:42
and i don't want to i'll just spend just
25:44
a little bit of time on this but i just
25:46
want you to be aware that there's been
25:47
studies now
25:49
randomized controlled trials that are
25:50
showing that you can reduce aggression
25:52
in prisoners you can slow cognitive
25:55
decline in the elderly you can help
25:57
people with reducing depression anxiety
26:00
stress and adhd
26:03
and i mentioned some of the stressors in
26:05
our city the earthquakes this was a
26:09
flood in june 2013 where we did a study
26:11
looking to see if supplementing people
26:13
following a stressor could be helpful
26:16
and then in the mosque after the mass
26:17
shooting we gave people who had been
26:20
either in the in the um
26:22
the the mosque or that they knew people
26:25
who had been there we gave them some new
26:27
extra nutrients and we found real huge
26:30
benefits in terms of their resilience
26:32
and ability to recover
26:35
so i it has led me to wonder whether or
26:37
not our resilience is lower due to our
26:40
poor nutrient intake
26:42
so what can you do what are the steps
26:44
for you to start to stay at the top of
26:46
your game
26:48
change your diet
26:50
make sure you exercise we engage our
26:53
children in learning how to cook
26:55
we meditate we stay socially connected
26:59
and consider supplementation of those
27:00
things don't work nutrition is the
27:03
foundation of our mental health
27:05
it's based on the correlational studies
27:07
longitudinal studies the treatment
27:09
studies and the supplementation studies
27:12
people are fed by a food industry which
27:14
pays no attention to health and are
27:16
treated
27:17
to a by a health industry which pays no
27:20
attention to food
27:24
so i'm going to finish with this in the
27:26
1600s randomized trials showed that
27:28
putting limes aboard ships headed out
27:30
for long voyages completely eliminated
27:32
the 40 percent mortality from scurvy
27:35
but it took 264 years for the british
27:38
government to mandate that all ships
27:40
must carry citrus for the sailors
27:42
so how long is it going to take our
27:44
society to recognize that sub-optimal
27:46
nutrition is contributing to the current
27:48
epidemic of mental health distress
27:52
so
27:54
thank you very much for listening
27:56
and i have two re resources if you want
27:59
to know more there's the better brain
28:02
and there is a online
28:05
mental it's called the mental health and
28:06
food or mental health and nutrition on
28:08
edx platform that's completely free and
28:11
it's a six week course if you want to
28:12
learn more about nutrition
28:15
so people often say what have you been
28:17
studying and i'm not here to sell
28:19
products but if you want to know more
28:20
you can either go to those two resources
28:22
it's all written in the better brain or
28:24
you can email my lab
28:26
and if you want to keep up with our
28:27
research then here's some of our you
28:29
know different links and things like
28:31
that
28:32
so i think that's it