The food, nutrition and grace your mental health needs

The food, nutrition and grace your mental health needs

March 7, 2023 Podcast, Podcast: Mental Health, Podcast: Nutrition Comments (0)

In today’s episode I’m talking with counselor Ruth Opiyo on the relationship between our mental health, the food we eat, and our faith. Ruth brings such gentleness and balance to this conversation, so please know this is not a list of rules, do’s or don’ts. She is an integrative medicine practitioner, so she combines her counseling expertise with nutritional food science.

If you are in Texas, Florida or California and would like to explore counseling with Ruth, you can connect with her at https://innerpeacecounselingandcoaching.com.

Ruth is originally from Kenya which we talk about her differing experiences growing up in Kenya vs coming to America. She’s been married for 26 years, and has 3 young adult children. She is a Jesus follower as well, which added another rich element to this discussion. She has been licensed as a therapist in Texas for over 20 years and is also licensed in Florida. She is also a member of American Association of Christian Counselors, is certified as a trauma professional and is EMDR trained.

We discuss

The family’s influence in our relationship with food
Reconciling the American version of “healthy” in the late 90s vs. Ruth’s experience growing up in Kenya
Learning to live outside the extremes with food
How micronutrients such as Omega 3s, selenium, magnesium, vitamin D play a role in our mental health
Establishing a balanced mindset about eating foods that we know fuel us well but not idolizing it and how that plays into our mental health
Learning to give ourselves grace in the absence of perfection
The Biblical examples of enjoying food with others and using it to love others
Foods Ruth recommends to support our mental health
The benefit of taking the time of making our own food
The science of why we emotionally eat
Foods to avoid when we are struggling with our mental health