希波克拉底的格言“让食物成为你的良药”是否适用于心理健康护理？卡尔加里大学教授邦妮·卡普兰博士认为绝对适用。卡普兰博士是饮食和营养在脑健康研究领域复兴的先驱。她表示，在经历了半个多世纪主要依赖处方药缓解症状之后，医学界和精神病学界正在重新发现食物与精神疾病之间的诸多联系。
“大约从1950年左右开始，药物研究出现了爆发式增长，”她说。“大型制药公司接管了精神疾病的治疗，我们因此失去了几个世纪以来积累的知识。”
在此之前，我们对这个问题有更深刻的认识。卡普兰指出，1855年版的《人民家庭图书馆》 ——19世纪末20世纪初北美各地拓荒者书架上的必备书籍——就证明了这一点。书中，作者T·J·里特将大多数精神疾病的根源诊断为“营养不良”。里特断言，对大多数人来说，改善饮食有助于改善心理健康。
卡普兰说，但 20 世纪的精神健康护理提供者常常忽略了里特（以及在他之前的希波克拉底）所提出的观点，即一次只给精神病患者补充一种营养素或矿物质。
“他们得到的结果好坏参半，因为这太荒谬了，”她说。“我们需要所有营养素以适当的比例混合在一起。”
我们或许很快就会看到精神科医生开出蔬果而非百忧解，这要归功于近期一系列学术研究，这些研究表明食物对心理健康有着显著的影响。卡普兰一直是该领域的领军人物，她发表了多项研究，将营养摄入与成人和儿童情绪障碍的改善联系起来。在2012年与同事、注册营养师凯伦·M·戴维森博士合作发表于《加拿大精神病学杂志》的一项研究中，作者招募了97名被诊断患有情绪障碍的成年人，记录他们三天内的饮食和情绪（即他们每天的感受）。研究结束时，卡普兰和戴维森发现，参与者的维生素和营养摄入量与更好的情绪和心理健康状况“持续且可靠地”相关。
其他研究也得出了类似的结果，甚至指出了一些与大脑健康相关的特定饮食。例如，流行病学研究表明，以蔬菜、水果、坚果和大量橄榄油为主的地中海饮食与更好的大脑功能相关。但有益心理健康的饮食并非仅限于这些“兔子饲料”。 2011年，澳大利亚迪肯大学医学院精神病学教授迈克尔·伯克及其合作者对5000多名挪威人进行了一项分析，发现与那些遵循以加工食品和快餐为主的现代饮食（甚至包括豆腐和沙拉等健康食品）的人相比，那些食用以肉类和蔬菜为主的传统饮食的人患抑郁症、焦虑症和双相情感障碍的比例更低。
伯克告诉《华盛顿邮报》 ：“传统饮食——你祖母会认出的那种食物——与较低的心理健康问题风险有关。”
但说实话，心理健康护理需要采取整体方法，有些时候，患有各种疾病的人确实需要服用一些药物（甚至三片），同时摄入一些天然食物。但卡普兰梦想着，在大量新研究的支持下，甚至在一个新成立的国际研究协会的帮助下，我们终有一天能够恢复药物治疗和营养治疗在心理健康护理之间的适当平衡——这或许是希波克拉底更容易理解的。
“在我理想的世界里，饮食和营养才是主要的治疗方法，”她说。“药物只是作为辅助手段。”
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I think the 'rabbit food' phrase was poorly chosen but was trying to suggest that vegetarianism is not necessarily always an appropriate move. It depends on each individual's personal needs.
Your body is meant to eat the foods that grow or live near you in season. It is all about balance. Native medicine practitioners strive to ease the body back into balance.
Finally people are remembering that food is what makes your body right or wrong! I was offered anti depressants and anti histamines when I was really suffering from hypo thyroid, adrenal exhaustion and a totally whacked our hormone balance (ALL estrogen all the time!). It took an MD/ND/Endocrinologist to properly diagnose me, prescribe Armour Thyroid (which I am now gradually reducing in dose because my thyroid is recovering), help me deal with the adrenal exhaustion (six months in bed- yuck!- but it worked along with magnesium baths and supplements) and prescribing bio-identical progesterone to re-balance my hormones. BUT! But she also carefully examined my diet, made just a couple of tweaks (I eat mostly "paleo" in style) and said I was a lot healthier because of my diet than I otherwise would have been. Without this diet I'd be diabetic by now, clinically depressed, probably still hypo thyroid (I tested as "low normal"), suffering from chronic fatigue and with no light at the end of that tunnel.
[Hide Full Comment]Thank you for validating what Native Americans and other traditional peoples have known for centuries (not that we need anyone's validation): plants have healing qualities. Long before anyone knew about science or doctor's, my ancestors could go into fields and/or forests and find exactly what they needed for any given ailment, mental or physical. It was common knowledge passed down by the elders to the rest of family and tribe. For example, willow bark was/is commonly used to relieve pain. It was the basis for aspirin being invented. Go to University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health's website and type "willow bark" in the search box and read more about science validating what many have known for centuries.
A big problem in health care today is that the people are so disconnected from what the earth can provide. This is due in large part to the pharmaceutical and big ag industries. They've kidnapped our ancestors' knowledge and get paid an abundant ransom by all of us on an installment basis. Want to pay less for health care? Learn the medicinal value of plants.
[Hide Full Comment]Rabbit food? Really? Come on, guy! Seem more educated than that.
Hippocrates was vegetarian. His quote need to be used when you advocate vegetarian food. He didn't advocate meat. secondly, 'people is what he eats'. Meat can never be reason for mental health. we will never be happy by harming other living beings. This is not a 'daily good' for anyone.
Referring to a plant-based diet as "rabbit food" is not helpful. Plant-based diets can be hearty, extremely nutritious, and are one of the most important changes you can make as a individual to reduce the suffering of animals, humans (the workers that must slaughter and process the animals), and the planet. Your implicit suggestion that a diet of meat is "traditional" is problematic as well - traditional for whom? For which culture? Some cultures consume high amounts of meat, and others don't - as you had just stated in the sentence about the Mediterranean diet.
This makes a lot of sense to me! I recently got diagnosed with "bipolar disorder." Though I wasn't convinced that this was a correct diagnosis, what was true is that I was experiencing a lot of emotional turmoil for several months and my body felt exhausted as a result. Taking the bipolar medications that the doctor prescribed just didn't feel like the right thing to do. Rather, it felt right to change my diet and look into vitamin and mineral supplements. It also felt right to exercise more and work with a psychotherapist weekly.
I started a candida diet about a week ago (no dairy, no sugars--not even fruits!, no wheat, no processed foods, and many other "not allowed" foods), and I've been taking supplements that the naturopathic physician suggested. As I look back on the past week, I realize I haven't cried! Before starting the diet, I was crying a lot (almost every day, and sometimes for long periods). This past week, I've felt less sad and more balanced. I've done this diet in the past, and it's always worked very well for me. I am still looking into minerals and vitamins to further support my health. But so far, so good!
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