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I was going to start this by saying: today i am going to go a bit off reservation... But upon closer inspection, mental well-being is everything to do with connection and relating. So here goes.

A while back, one of our members reviewed a book by Georgia Ede, which explored the nutritional link to mental well being. For myself, on the same topic, i have Chris Palmer's book on my pile. Today i watched a pair of his talks, and felt strongly enough about them to inspire this post.

By mental health we aren't just talking about autism or bipolar disorder, but just as much your everyday common garden social anxiety or low level depression that can just as easily get in the way of attempting to build a communication practice.

The question being raised here is: if we are struggling with brain fog, how can we realistically ever kick start a positive spiral of confident and uplifting relating? The short answer is probably, we cant.

Palmer talks about how the conventional bio-psycho-social model of mental health isn't serving us. Typically, mental ill-health is thought to be caused by some mixture of genetics, trauma, and stress. His research is driving a closer look at metabolic health as an additional factor. A factor that he says the industry is overlooking.

Here is a quick refresher of the bio-psycho-social model. First genetics. If our mother had say a viral infection during pregnancy, then this might result in us having an increased genetic predisposition to say OCD, ADHD, ASD, or anxiety disorder.

Second, trauma. The ACE study really brought to our awareness the prevalence and impact of adverse experiences during childhood. Gabor Mate's book the Myth of Normal, explores rather poetically how our own trauma is typically unconscious, and that actually today we are pretty much all wandering around with the handbrake on, not really realising the impact of being left to cry ourselves to sleep as a baby. Third, stress. Financial stress, job loss, accidents etc etc. Isolation, (reducing household size, the rise of partnerlessness, telework etc) lack of exercise (time saving machines, sedentary occupations).

Ok, thats the model. It says that our mental health is the sum of all three parts, and depending on your unique genetics, some of those will play a bigger role, and some you might be completely immune to. But Palmer's research is into a relatively new arena, that of metabolic health. Various sources are now reporting that fully 80% of americans either have some form of insulin resistance pre-diabetes non symptomatic fatty liver etc. Even in those with normal body weight. And that this phenomenon, put simply, is just a product of our diets that are far too high in carbohydrates.

Palmer's book is very science heavy, and not the easiest to read, but he does this to pave a way to a better medical understanding of the role of low carb diets in improving our metabolic health. He cites tons of recent studies all showing improved mental health outcomes with the use of ketogenic diets. Even very promising studies on MS, dementia, epilepsy and schizophrenia. In fact ketogenic diets were the original prescription for epilepsy prior the advent of anti-seizure medication.

If these diets are effective for more advanced mental conditions, then anecdotally it also seems to improve mood for those of us with more common garden relational worries and brain fog. I have made a couple of short trials of these higher fat diets recently myself, and both times noticed a lift in my overall mood that makes life a nice bit more manageable.

Some are calling this the missing link. And, now I think I do too.

One of the other interesting things to come out of these experiments, is that i can now notice my blood sugar level. When not fat adapted, and my energy level runs low, i would usually get grumpy, and reflexively reach for a carb top up. When fat adapted, i'm like wow my blood sugar feels really low right now. Conversely when friends ply me with desert, i can literally feel the sugar rush as a electric buzz in my whole system. This enhanced interoceptive awareness, one aim of AR, seems quite remarkable.

I had what i thought was a healthy diet, but getting off the insulin roller coaster, feels like its making more space in my world to get on and do the things i want to do, like helping to build this project.