Can Changing Your Diet Calm Your Mind?
In recent years, a growing number of clinicians and researchers have started exploring how nutrition affects mental health. One of the most compelling voices in this space is psychiatrist and nutritional specialist Dr. Georgia Ede, author of Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind. In her book, Ede explores how dietary patterns influence brain chemistry, metabolic health, and—most crucially—mood and anxiety levels. Her work puts forward a bold premise: that targeted changes to what we eat may not only support, but dramatically improve, our mental wellbeing.
As someone who specialises in both anxiety and complex relationships with food and weight, I know how tricky this area can be. Even well-meaning advice—like “cut out sugar” or “stop drinking fizzy drinks”—can sometimes do more harm than good. For some people, food is just fuel. They can remove things that aren’t serving them without much resistance. But for others, food and drink—like coffee, cola, chocolate, or crisps—are tied into long-standing coping mechanisms, small rituals that help preserve a sense of emotional balance. When you take those away too suddenly, without building something else in their place, it can feel destabilising or even triggering.
That’s why I take a gentle, individualised approach with clients. We look at what’s going on, what the current research says, and whether it might apply to the person sitting in front of me. Say someone suspects that coffee might be affecting their sleep—which then fuels their anxiety. We might agree to try switching to decaf for a week. But we also need to think about what coffee represents. Will a glass of water offer the same comfort, the same ritual, the same little pause in the day? Probably not. Change only works when it’s sustainable, and that means understanding both the physical and emotional needs a habit is serving.
The same goes for food patterns. Sometimes, the goal isn’t to remove a food completely, but to experiment with changing the context. Maybe crisps can still be enjoyed, but only outside the home, or not on the sofa. Maybe chocolate can be eaten during a relaxed walk, instead of during a moment of stress. These aren’t strict rules, but gentle adjustments—ones that help reduce guilt and increase awareness, without falling into the trap of restriction or control.
Dr. Ede’s work adds another layer to this. She argues that mental health is closely connected to metabolic function. The brain is an energy-hungry organ—it uses around 20% of the body’s energy at rest—and it’s very sensitive to blood sugar fluctuations and inflammation. Diets high in refined carbohydrates, sugar, and processed foods cause frequent spikes in insulin, followed by sudden drops in blood sugar. These “crashes” can trigger symptoms that look and feel a lot like anxiety: racing heart, irritability, poor concentration, physical restlessness.
Over time, this cycle can destabilise mood and make it harder for the nervous system to regulate itself. What we think of as anxiety might actually be, at least in part, a biochemical response to blood sugar imbalance.
Ede’s conclusion is a powerful one: for some people, anxiety is not just psychological—it’s metabolic. The foods we eat can either fan the flames or calm the storm. When our blood sugar and insulin levels are on a constant rollercoaster, our brain is trying to function under stress. So food becomes more than nourishment—it becomes a way of helping the brain feel safe and steady again.
And yet, even if nutrition plays a role, the way we approach it still matters deeply. Sudden restriction, black-and-white thinking, or harsh self-monitoring can all backfire—especially for those who have struggled with emotional eating, dieting, or body image in the past.
That’s why I encourage a mindset of curiosity, not control. Gentle experimentation. Small, sustainable shifts. Support that holds both the body and the mind in consideration.
