An Oft-Neglected Key Nutrient

Are you getting enough?

I want to share with you an idea that's been bouncing around in my head for awhile. But first a little background...

We're all familiar with the concept of a food diary. Food diaries are a way of gaining a deeper understanding of what we're putting into our bodies each day.

We can use it to ensure we're getting enough key nutrients. And we can use it to get a better handle on the number of toxins we consume.

But, in addition to feeding our bodies with food, each and every day we're also feeding our mind with information. Information about the world is taken in through our 5 senses, which our brain then packages and displays as the movie inside our heads.

In fact, while we only spend maybe an hour or so actually eating each day, we are feeding our minds every single waking second.

And we know without a doubt that what we feed our mind matters, profoundly impacting both mental and physical health.

We also know that, for the average person, what we feed our minds each day has changed radically in recent years.

In fact, I think you could make a strong case that the increasing polarization and breakdown in our public discourse can be traced back to how social media has altered our mental diet.

Furthermore, the pace of change here has far surpassed our changes in food consumption. It is no doubt another important environmental mismatch (just consider how different the "mental diet" of a hunter-gatherer human would've been).

As with food, the first step in mitigating its influence is awareness. Awareness that what we consume impacts how we feel, both in the short and long term.

Cultivating that awareness is one of the benefits of a food diary. It helps us make connections that may have previously escaped us.

So back to the idea - what about keeping a diary of our mental diet? A record of what we feed our minds each day?

Our goals would be similar - to help assess whether we're getting enough key nutrients and whether we're consuming more "toxins" than we can handle.

In some sense, any daily diary or journal accomplishes this, to a degree. Cataloging the activities over the course of our day gives us an idea about where we've focused our attention.

But the idea here would be to think more deeply about those activities through the lens of a mental diet.

And to ask questions like: Did I get essential nutrients? Did I consume too many toxins?

As you can see, doing this sort of thing forces us to evaluate and assess the quality of our mental inputs. And to recognize that, if we're undernourished, we're probably going to feel lousy!

Just as with food, the point is to become more intentional about how we feed our minds.

So, what do you think? Do you like the idea of a food diary for the mind?

What do you consider your mind's essential nutrients? What are the toxins?

Do you feel like you're getting not enough of one or too much of the other?

Do you think "fasting" could be beneficial? What might that look like?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to share your ideas in the comments.

Dr. T

p.s. - we’re going to make this the focus in on our next Migrai-Neverland member challenge. Details to follow soon!