Nutrition Essentials for Mental Health: A Complete Guide to the Food-Mood Connection

A therapist’s key to the vital link between nutrition and mental wellness.

Diet is a crucial component of a client’s clinical profile. Few therapists, however, have any nutritional training, and many don’t know where to begin. This practical guide untangles the complex relationship between what we eat and the way we think, feel, and interact with the world.

Nutrition Essentials for Mental Health offers the principles and practices necessary to provide your clients with nutritional counseling for improved mood and mental health. Professionals are given tools like nutritional assessment templates for every client’s unique needs and history, as well as diet and supplement recommendations based on diagnosis, psychotropic deprescribing timelines, and more.

In this thoroughly updated second edition, readers will find new nutrient-dense recipes, the therapeutic benefits of psychobiotics, the influence of nutrition on mitochondrial functions, and updated research on the role of nutrition for mood disorders, anxiety, dementia, and other mental health concerns. The book’s phase-based steps will allow clinicians to implement nutritional therapies into any kind of clinical practice, providing your clients with more effective, integrative treatment.

73 black-and-white tables; 3 black-and-white illustrations

Leslie Korn, PhD, MPH, LMHC, is a traumatologist specializing in integrative medicine. Author of ten books, she trains and supervises clinicians in mental health nutrition and has worked with Indigenous communities in Mexico for 50 years.

James Lake, MD, is on the clinical faculty at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. He practices in Central California.