Nutritional Psychology: Understanding the Relationship Between Food and Mental Health

Nutritional Psychology: Understanding the Relationship Between Food and Mental Health provides a broad look at the intersection between food and mental health and offers a comprehensive approach to effectively prioritize nutrition as a powerful component to maintaining overall wellbeing. Each of the 16 chapters deeply informs about a broad range of nutritional factors including those that promote stable blood sugar levels, optimize brain functioning, and contribute to the microbiome and hormone levels so important to the brain-gut connection. There are useful insights into the dynamics of food selection, eating disorders, obesity, body image, and nutrition quality that can stabilize or destabilize mental and emotional disorders. Additionally, environmental influences that shape eating behaviors are fully explored.

Nutritional Psychology: Understanding the Relationship Between Food and Mental Health combines psychology, nutrition, and medicine to form a framework for optimizing the relationship between diet and mental wellbeing. This textbook is designed for undergraduate and graduate psychology and nutrition college courses for students pursuing careers as psychologists, dietitians, nurses, social workers, and a variety of health professionals who want to incorporate nutrition and eating behavior into their discussions with patients.

Dr. Cook and Dr. Champion are both clinicians who work directly with clients with psychological and physical health issues and utilize a blend of nutritional and psychological interventions in their work, providing useful clinical applications for nutritional psychology.