Interview with Kimberley Wilson, author of Unprocessed: How the Food We Eat Is Fuelling Our Mental Health Crisis
Kimberley Wilson, author of Unprocessed: How the Food We Eat Is Fuelling Our Mental Health Crisis recommends a superb set of books!! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Kimberley's book:
Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Unprocessed: How the Food We Eat Is Fuelling Our Mental Health Crisis
We all know that as a nation our mental health is in crisis. But what most don't know is that a critical ingredient in this debate, and a crucial part of the solution - what we eat - is being ignored.
Nutrition has more influence on what we feel, who we become and how we behave than we could ever have imagined. It affects everything from our decision-making to aggression and violence. Yet mental health disorders are overwhelmingly treated as 'mind' problems as if the physical brain - and how we feed it - is irrelevant. Someone suffering from depression is more likely to be asked about their relationship with their mother than their relationship with food.
In this eye-opening and impassioned book, psychologist Kimberley Wilson draws on startling new research - as well as her own work in prisons, schools and hospitals around the country - to reveal the role of food and nutrients in brain development and mental health: from how the food a woman eats during pregnancy influences the size of her baby's brain, and hunger makes you mean; to how nutrient deficiencies change your personality.
We must also recognise poor nutrition as a social injustice, with the poorest and most vulnerable being systematically ignored. We need to talk about what our food is doing to our brains. And we need decisive action, not over rehearsed soundbites and empty promises, from those in power - because if we don't, things can only get worse.
Buy On:
Easons €24.64
Bookshop.org UK £10.44
Bookshop.org US $18.59
Blackwells £10.40
Waterstones £9.49
Wordery $14.09
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The last one I read that had the most significant impact on me was How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Prof. Lisa Feldman Barrett. As a practitioner psychologist, emotions are my clinical daily bread, but my personal practice also considers the contribution of the body to brain health and mental wellbeing. This new perspective on the subject was refreshing, challenging and ultimately offers new opportunities for clinical intervention and support with mood disorders.
How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain
When you feel anxious, angry, happy, or surprised, what's really going on inside of you?
Many scientists believe that emotions come from a specific part of the brain, triggered by the world around us. The thrill of seeing an old friend, the fear of losing someone we love – each of these sensations seems to arise automatically and uncontrollably from within us, finding expression on our faces and in our behaviour, carrying us away with the experience.
This understanding of emotion has been around since Plato. But what if it is wrong? In How Emotions Are Made, pioneering psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett draws on the latest scientific evidence to reveal that our common-sense ideas about emotions are dramatically, even dangerously, out of date – and that we have been paying the price. Emotions aren't universally pre-programmed in our brains and bodies; rather they are psychological experiences that each of us constructs based on our unique personal history, physiology and environment.
This new view of emotions has serious implications: when judges issue lesser sentences for crimes of passion, when police officers fire at threatening suspects, or when doctors choose between one diagnosis and another, they're all, in some way, relying on the ancient assumption that emotions are hardwired into our brains and bodies. Revising that conception of emotion isn't just good science, Barrett shows; it's vital to our well-being and the health of society itself.
Buy On:
Easons €15.39
Bookshop.org UK £10.44
Bookshop.org US $17.66
Blackwells £9.61
Waterstones £21.99
Wordery $14.09
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker. Description from Blackwells: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
I recently read The Dorito Effect by Mark Schatzker. I found the language to be a bit sensationalist in places, and I felt that the final chapter detracted from the main body of the book but I enjoyed the exploration of how the shift towards farming for yield and appearance has diluted the flavour of foods, how this has created a market for artificial flavourings and what this might mean for our health.
The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor
A lively argument from award-winning journalist proving the key to reversing health crisis lies in the overlooked link between nutrition and flavour.
We are in the grip of a food crisis. Obesity has become a leading cause of preventable death, after only smoking. For nearly half a century we've been trying to pin the blame somewhere, fat, carbs, sugar, wheat, high-fructose corn syrup. But that search has been in vain, because the food problem that's killing us is not a nutrient problem. It's a behavioural problem, and it's caused by the changing flavour of the food we eat.
Ever since the 1940s, with the rise of industrialized food production, we have been gradually leeching the taste out of what we grow. Simultaneously, we have taken great leaps forward in technology, creating a flavour industry, worth billions annually; in an attempt to put back the tastes we've engineered out of our food. The result is a cuisine that increasingly resembles the paragon of flavour manipulation: Doritos. As food becomes increasingly bland, we dress it up with calories and flavour chemicals to make it delicious again. We have rewired our palates and our brains, and the results are making us sick and killing us.
With in-depth historical and scientific research, The Dorito Effect casts the food crisis in a fascinating new light, weaving an enthralling tale of how we got to this point and where we are headed.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org US $17.99
Blackwells £10.99
Waterstones £10.99
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar. What can I say? I can relate.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a perennial favourite with children and adults alike. Its imaginative illustration and clever cut-out detail charts the progress of a very hungry caterpillar as he eats his way through the week.
Buy On:
Easons €7.69
Bookshop.org UK £7.59
Bookshop.org US $10.22
Blackwells $7.99
Waterstones £9.99
Wordery $10.24
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
It depends on the genre. For non-fiction I’ll choose an audiobook and listen at 1.5 speed on my walk to the office. For novels, paper. Kindle for holidays to save on space in my hand luggage!
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Many thanks to Kimberley for recommending a superb set of books!! Please don't forget to check out Unprocessed: How the Food We Eat Is Fuelling Our Mental Health Crisis.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Ebury Publishing (Unprocessed: How the Food We Eat Is Fuelling Our Mental Health Crisis), Pan Macmillan (How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain), Simon & Schuster (The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor), Penguin Random House Children's UK (The Very Hungry Caterpillar).
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