Book review: "Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind"

Reflections on Dr. Georgia Ede's new book about the all-important connections between food and mood

Mar 21, 2024

Dr. Georgia Ede is one of the early pioneers in nutrition science, brain metabolism, and metabolic psychiatry, and we’ve been following her no-nonsense advice about food and mood since the launch of her blog, Diagnosis:Diet, in 2012. She has held roles as psychiatrist and nutrition consultant at both Harvard University and Smith College, giving her a real-world perspective for how young adults eat and cope with the stresses of college life.

Dr. Ede co-authored the recent study, The Ketogenic Diet for Refractory Mental Illness: A Retrospective Analysis of 31 Inpatient, and she created the first medically accredited course in ketogenic diets for mental health practitioners.

Intrigued to hear of a timely new resource from a respected thought leader in our world, we jumped at the opportunity to read her January 2024 book, Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind: A Powerful Plan to Improve Mood, Overcome Anxiety, and Protect Memory for a Lifetime of Optimal Mental Health.

And to anyone out there who feels like they’ve tried everything already: Please don’t give up. If you’re willing to try one more thing, hope is on the menu.

On connecting nutrition and mental health

We’ve been fed the wrong information about nutrition for generations, which means that, if you’re like most of us, you’ve been feeding your brain improperly all your life.

Opening with a personal testimony, Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind is much more than another handbook that tells you how to eat. It explains for a general audience why we are seeing a surge in mental health conditions, identifies the root causes of these alarming trends, and explains the biological mechanisms behind them.

While the overarching theme of the book revolves around optimizing brain health through dietary interventions, this work underscores the intrinsic connection between brain chemistry and physical well-being. It turns out, pursuing an optimal diet for brain function coincides with achieving overall physiological balance. Right from the start, we wanted to learn more.

Part 1: Rethinking Brain Food

To set the stage for the practical recommendations that come later in the book, Dr. Ede begins with some background on the causes of mental health issues, the latest scientific findings in this area, and a critical look at the problems with most nutrition guidelines. Get ready for a guided tour of the human brain and a quick lesson in brain metabolism before moving on to Part 2.

Part 2: Our Descent into Dietary Madness

Next, Dr. Ede explores the dangers of consuming highly processed foods and the impact these foods have on our hormones, contributing to insulin resistance and “metabolic mayhem.” We found the chapter on “The Promise of Ketogenic Diets for Mental Health” especially informative, as it introduces the work of Albert Danan, Iain Campbell, Eric Westman, and others in the emerging field of metabolic psychiatry, summarizing the evidence for considering well-formulated ketogenic diets in treatment plans for mental health conditions, such as bipolar disorder, major depression, schizophrenia, autism, binge eating, and food addiction.

Get Senza’s Five Days to Keto e-book for a quick start to the ketogenic diet:

Part 3: The Whole Truth about Whole Foods

“Meat is good for you,” Dr. Ede writes in the opening to Part 3. “These five words represent a simple statement of biological fact.” Read this section to gain an understanding of the human body’s macro and micro nutritional needs, as well as a thoughtful and logical take-down of the arguments against animal-based eating and myths populated by mainstream media.

We appreciated the nuanced discussion of eggs and dairy, with important considerations for anyone experiencing GI distress and inflammatory conditions, as well as the chapter urging caution when considering grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds as part of a brain-healthy diet. By the end of this section, you’ll know which vegetables and fruits are best to eat, and you’ll be well equipped to debunk common myths about supplements and antioxidants.

Part 4: Hope Is on the Menu

If you feel overwhelmed by the time you arrive at Part 4, don’t despair. You’ve reached the place where Dr. Ede brings it all together in the form of three practical ways of eating that “quiet” the body’s metabolism by minimizing irritation to the gut, thyroid, immune system, nervous system, and mitochondria. Her goal with these modified diets is to nourish, protect, and energize the brain. If you’re already familiar with the paleo, keto, and carnivore ways of eating, the main takeaway is that certain foods typically included in these diets are problematic and should be avoided if the goal is to go beyond weight loss and address or prevent mental health conditions to optimize brain chemistry.

We were delighted to discover that this section includes an original set of meal plans and recipes developed by Patricia Daly, an internationally recognized nutrition therapist who has collaborated with Senza since we first launched our keto-specific food tracking app in 2017. The recipes for Quiet Palo, Quiet Keto, and Quiet Carnivore emphasize whole foods and simple preparations, and each meal plan is presented in a modular way that allows for mixing and matching.

Pro Tip: Senza app users can enter any of these recipes as a private item under My Food to log and track the nutrition intakes. You can also adjust your macro settings to follow the specific recommendations in the book, using the built-in macro calculator under your profile.

Why read Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind?

Dr. Ede has written a uniquely appealing book from a psychiatrist’s point of view. Although she credits a long list of intellectual heroes, clinician-researcher heroes, metabolic psychiatry heroes, and nutrition professional heroes - the experience she’s gained from 25 years of working with patients comes forth, and you’ll appreciate her transparency around how psychiatrists are trained as well as her passion for helping more people identify and address the root causes of mental illness.

Dr. Ede wrote Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind for readers who want to prevent cognitive impairment in the short or long term; however, it is a useful guide for any health-seeker who wants to learn more about our current understanding of both mental and physical health.

If your health goals are related to optimal brain and memory function, high nutrient content for peak physical function, and/or longevity, you’ll gain practical insights to plan the next steps of your journey. Although the book is grounded in medical context and scientific evidence, it is approachable even if you have no prior knowledge of these particular health topics.

Coming away from this read, we are more motivated than ever to evolve the Senza platform into the most helpful tool and community it can be for those who are struggling with mental illness, treating patients, and working on the frontlines of studying metabolic psychiatry.

You can find links to purchase Dr. Ede’s book on her professional website, Diagnosis:Diet. It is available through every major bookseller, but we recommend visiting your local independent bookstore first. You can also listen to the book on Audible, narrated by the author herself. The audio version comes with a PDF of charts, recipes, and other visual resources.

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