Your Mood Is a Menu Problem episode artwork

EPISODE · Apr 20, 2026 · 11 MIN

Your Mood Is a Menu Problem

from Pay the Farmer, Not the Pharmacy · host Meera & Ashok Vasudevan

Share your thoughtsYour Mood Is a Menu ProblemYou wake up feeling flat. Or anxious. Or foggy in a way that no amount of sleep seems to fix. And the conventional answer — the one most of us eventually reach for — is a pill that adjusts the chemistry in your brain. Which may well be the right answer for some. But here is the question very few doctors have the answer to: what influences the brain chemistry?The answer, increasingly, is the gut. Around 90 to 95 percent of the body's serotonin — the neurotransmitter most associated with mood, and emotional stability — is produced not in the brain, but in the gut wall. By your gut bacteria. From the food you eat.In Episode 2 of our Gut Health series, Ashok and Meera go deep on the gut-brain axis — the two-way communication highway between your microbiome and your mind. They unpack the vagus nerve, the role of short-chain fatty acids in brain health, and what the latest research tells us about the connection between gut dysbiosis and depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline.And then — practically — they break down fibre. Not as a vague health concept, but as the single most powerful dietary tool for feeding the bacteria that make your brain chemistry work. Soluble fibre, insoluble fibre, resistant starch — what each one does, where to find it, and how much you actually need.Your mood is not just a brain problem. It is, in significant part, a menu problem. And that is good news — because your menu is something you can change. Thanks for tuning in to "Pay the Farmer, Not the Pharmacy"!Hosted by Meera & Ashok VasudevanStay Connected#PayTheFarmerNotThePharmacy#PlantBasedWellness#NaturalFood#AffordableWellness#GutHealth#ImmunityBoost#NutritionTips#CSAW (Centre for the Spread of Affordable Wellness)#Meeravasudevan#Ashokvasudevanhttps://umaglobalfoods.com/https://csaw.cohttps://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/pay-the-farmer-not-the-pharmacy/id1512934794https://open.spotify.com/show/34nzNQQ62O8tygMaut2h8V

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Apr 20, 2026

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Share your thoughts Your Mood Is a Menu Problem You wake up feeling flat. Or anxious. Or foggy in a way that no amount of sleep seems to fix. And the conventional answer — the one most of us eventually reach for — is a pill that adjusts the chemistry in your brain. Which may well be the right answer for some. But here is the question very few doctors have the answer to: what influences the brain chemistry? The answer, increasingly, is the gut. Around 90 to 95 percent of the body's serotonin —...

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Your Mood Is a Menu Problem

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This episode was published on April 20, 2026.

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