Anxiety? It Might Be What You're Eating, Says Harvard Psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 17, 2025 · 45 MIN

Anxiety? It Might Be What You're Eating, Says Harvard Psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo

from Power & Impact

On today's Power & Impact, I sit down with Dr. Uma Naidoo, Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist, professional chef, and author of This Is Your Brain on Food and Calm Your Mind with Food, to talk about how what we eat profoundly shapes how we feel. From growing up in South Africa with a garden-tending grandmother to founding the first hospital-based nutritional psychiatry clinic at Harvard, Dr. Uma shares her journey and the science behind why food truly is medicine. We break down the gut-brain connection, explore the rise of anxiety and what foods help soothe it, and examine how ultra-processed diets are silently sabotaging our mental health. Dr. Uma reveals what it really means to "eat whole, be whole," why sugar-laced foods are marketed as healthy, and how something as simple as drinking water can shift your emotional state. Plus, hear how one reader overcame lifelong anxiety using her protocol, what foods she would order at dinner, and why gut testing might soon become a routine part of your check-up. If you have ever wondered how to eat for better focus, calmer moods, or fewer prescriptions, this is the conversation for you.

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Anxiety? It Might Be What You're Eating, Says Harvard Psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo

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