Dr. Uma Naidoo on How Food Shapes Mood and Behavior | Nutritional Psychiatry Explained

I could trace my love of food and love cooking and all of that back to my childhood. But I think it really imprinted on my consciousness when I was. When I went through an experience which really cemented the work for me. I had been. I had launched my clinical work and was busy seeing patients in nutritional, lifestyle, metabolic, psychiatry. But it was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer. And I like to say to people, because I was blessed with really having excellent medical care. I went from lump to lying in seven days. So my emotions hadn't caught up. My body was going through the motions, and my emotions hadn't caught up. And I found myself on the first day of treatment for chemotherapy, really anxious, and this was not usual for me. And I was trying to think about what I could do to ground myself. And I realized in that moment, you know, I'd been so preoccupied with all the testing that I hadn't been leaning into the thing I do and know and I share with my patients all the time, which is improve my nutrition, think about my hydration, really lean into that. And it was almost as though something switched in my head. I made a conscious decision that even that morning to make myself a calming tea, to have a small but. But nutritious breakfast. And, you know, it really shaped the way that I was impacted by chemotherapy. My doctors would ask me every week, what are you bringing in your lunch bag? What are you eating? What are you doing? Because we are so glad you're tolerating these side effects so well. And so unexpectedly, I became the blueprint of my own work, really trialing how to calm my mind, how to eat health healthfully, even more during that time. And I realized how powerful it was, not just mind, mindset, but what I was doing nutritionally that helped me through treatment. And so it became very powerful tool for me to share with others.