Anxiety Through the Roof? Start With Your Gut.
Have you ever wondered why sweetcorn seems to come out looking remarkably similar to how it went in? I mean, you eat it, chew it, swallow it, and then a day or two later… There it is.
Looking suspiciously like it hasn’t been on much of a journey at all.
Which is impressive when you consider everything else your digestive system manages to dismantle along the way.
But here’s something you might not know.
Your body actually digests much of the inside of a sweetcorn kernel.
It’s the tough outer covering, made largely from cellulose, that your digestive system struggles to break down.
So what you’re seeing isn’t necessarily the entire piece of sweetcorn making a triumphant return.
It’s more like an empty suitcase arriving at baggage reclaim.
The contents have already been removed.
Now, that I have solved one of life’s little mysteries for you, here’s something where things start to get interesting.
Yesterday, I dusted off the slow cooker, and while preparing a chicken dinner, I wasn’t just following a recipe or throwing random food into a pot; I was putting it together based on looking at the whole digestive process differently.
Because I’d specifically added a vegetable that contains something else our bodies can’t digest.
Except this time, what happened to that undigested material was way more helpful than finding it staring back at you from the toilet bowl as you flush.
The vegetable I’m referring to is the Jerusalem artichoke.
Or, as they’re more affectionately known…
Fartichokes.
I’d just harvested the first of our winter crops from the new hügelkultur beds we put in earlier this year, and having never eaten one before, I decided to throw some into dinner.
Yep, things like this really do make sense to me…
Thankfully, they were pretty tasty.
Kinda like a cross between a potato and a swede, but not quite…
That nickname though?
Entirely justified by both mine and Matt’s next few hours and the science.
You see, Jerusalem artichokes contain a type of fibre called inulin.
And while your body doesn’t have the enzymes needed to digest it, something else living inside you does.
No, I’m not talking about you being infected with something from the 300th follow-on film to Alien.
I’m talking about your gut bacteria.
The bacteria in your gut ferment the inulin, producing compounds that can interact with your digestive system.
And yes, they also produce gas.
Hence the rather unfortunate nickname.
But here’s what got me thinking.
If something I can’t digest can still be useful to my body because something else inside me can eat it, what else have I been potentially overlooking about the food on my plate?
Because it turns out that feeding yourself isn’t quite as straightforward as you might imagine.
And when you start looking at the relationship between food, gut bacteria and your brain, things get even more interesting.
Especially when you discover that roughly 90% of your body’s serotonin is produced in your gut.
Serotonin.
The chemical messenger most people associate with happiness.
So does that mean looking after your gut could help reduce anxiety?
Well, there’s a rather important catch.
The serotonin produced in your gut doesn’t simply travel to your brain and make you happy.
Which raises an even more interesting question.
If that’s not how it works, why are scientists so interested in the relationship between our gut bacteria, what we eat and our mental health?
Here’s what you’ll learn in this week’s blog post
- Why sweetcorn can survive a trip through your digestive system looking remarkably intact, and what that reveals about digestion.
- Why roughly 90% of your body’s serotonin is produced in your gut, but doesn’t simply travel to your brain and make you happy.
- How nutrients from foods such as chicken and eggs help provide the building blocks your brain needs.
- What Jerusalem artichokes, farting and gut bacteria have to do with the gut–brain connection.
- How your gut and brain communicate, and what the research actually tells us about anxiety and the microbiome.
- Why cooking once and eating several times can support your mental health by reducing the time, energy and decisions involved in feeding yourself.
- Ten ordinary foods worth looking at differently, plus one simple way to start improving your meals without overhauling your life.
The serotonin story we’ve been getting wrong
If you’ve spent any time reading about mental health, you’ll almost certainly have come across serotonin.
Usually in a sentence suggesting that more serotonin equals more happiness.
It’s a wonderfully tidy explanation all wrapped up like a Christmas parcel, fancy velvet bow included.
Unfortunately, biology isn’t interested in being tidy.
Serotonin is a chemical messenger involved in several important processes, including digestion, sleep, pain, and aspects of mood and behaviour.
But here’s an important distinction that tends to get lost in the blogosphere.
The serotonin produced in your gut doesn’t simply travel up to your brain and make you feel happier.
Most of your body’s serotonin is produced by specialised cells in your gastrointestinal tract.
It helps regulate things such as intestinal movement and signalling within the digestive system.
Your brain also produces serotonin.
But serotonin itself doesn’t readily cross the blood–brain barrier.
Your blood-brain barrier is the official term for the protective boundary that helps regulate which substances can enter your brain from your bloodstream.
Which is kinda like a super efficient bouncer at a nightclub letting no one in without their names being on ‘the list.’
Which means the serotonin in your gut and the serotonin in your brain are largely separate populations doing different jobs.
So when somebody tells you that eating a particular food will boost your gut serotonin and therefore cure your anxiety…
They’re skipping over a tiny little thing called human biology.
It’s a bit like saying that because you’ve got a fridge full of ingredients, you’ve automatically got a three-course meal.
You’ve got some of the necessary components.
But somebody still needs to do the cooking.
And that brings us back to my chicken.
What does chicken have to do with serotonin?
One of the raw materials your body uses to produce serotonin is an amino acid called tryptophan.
An amino acid is one of the building blocks of protein.
And tryptophan is an essential amino acid, meaning your body can’t manufacture it from scratch.
You need to obtain it through food.
Chicken contains tryptophan.
So do eggs, fish, dairy products, soy foods, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds.
Once you’ve eaten a protein-containing meal, your digestive system breaks the protein down into amino acids.
Some of that tryptophan can enter your bloodstream and, under the right conditions, cross into your brain.
There, your body can use it to manufacture serotonin through a series of chemical reactions.
One of those reactions requires vitamin B6 in its active form.
So yes, what you eat matters.
But here’s where I’d like to prevent a predictable misunderstanding.
Eating more tryptophan doesn’t automatically mean your brain will produce more serotonin, and producing more serotonin doesn’t automatically mean you’ll feel less anxious.
Tryptophan competes with other amino acids for transport into the brain. Its availability also depends on digestion, metabolism and the wider physiological conditions inside your body.
And serotonin itself isn’t a simple happiness switch.
Mood and anxiety involve multiple neurotransmitters, hormones, brain networks, learned responses and environmental influences.
If it were as simple as eating chicken and waiting for happiness to arrive, I’d have been out of business years ago.
Although the poultry industry would have exploded, and just thinking about all the possible ads for chickens beating anxiety gave me a little chuckle… or should I say cluckle…
I’m sorry. Please forgive me and just pretend that very poor attempt at humour didn’t happen.
Anyway… back to where we were…
The useful lesson isn’t that chicken is an anti-anxiety medication in disguise.
It’s that your brain needs a reliable supply of nutrients to carry out the ordinary biological processes that support its functioning.
And that makes food way more interesting than something we shovel into our mouths between meetings, Netflix and doing the laundry.
Meanwhile, back in the fartichoke department…
Remember those Jerusalem artichokes?
The ones that survived the slow cooker and made their way onto our dinner plates?
Their inulin gives us a slightly different part of the story.
Unlike tryptophan, inulin isn’t a protein building block.
It’s a type of fermentable dietary fibre.
More specifically, it’s often described as a prebiotic.
Now, probiotics and prebiotics sound suspiciously similar, but they aren’t the same thing.
Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when provided in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit.
Prebiotics are substances that certain microorganisms can use, producing a health benefit for the host.
Think of probiotics as introducing your bestie to the guests at a party.
Prebiotics are more like making sure there’s something suitable for them to eat.
And Jerusalem artichokes happen to provide a particularly generous buffet.
When certain gut bacteria ferment inulin, they produce compounds including short-chain fatty acids.
These substances can help support the cells lining your large intestine and are involved in metabolic and immune processes.
Researchers are also investigating how these microbial activities may influence communication between the gut and the brain.
But before we get too excited, I should point something out.
Not every gut bacterium is automatically good, and not every prebiotic food suits every person.
Some people tolerate Jerusalem artichokes beautifully.
Others discover exactly why the nickname exists.
And if you have irritable bowel syndrome or sensitivity to fermentable carbohydrates, inulin can make bloating, discomfort and wind significantly worse.
So please don’t interpret this article as an instruction to consume half a field of Jerusalem artichokes.
Start with a small portion if they’re new to you.
Your digestive system, and potentially everyone sharing your house, will appreciate the courtesy.
Your gut and brain are having a conversation. You’re just not invited to all of it.
So far, we’ve established two things.
Your brain uses nutrients from food to carry out important chemical processes.
And the bacteria living in your digestive system can use parts of your food that you can’t digest yourself.
But how does any of that relate to anxiety?
This is where we meet the gut–brain axis.
Which sounds rather technical, but simply describes the two-way communication between your digestive system and your brain.
And it’s not just one conversation.
It’s several happening simultaneously.
Your gut and brain communicate through nervous-system pathways, including the vagus nerve.
They also communicate through hormones, immune signalling, metabolic products and other chemical messengers.
And the gut microbiome, the community of microorganisms living in your digestive tract, can influence some of those processes.
Now, here’s something you might already have experienced without knowing the science behind it.
Have you ever felt sick before an important conversation?
Needed the toilet before a job interview?
Lost your appetite after an argument?
Or found yourself eating everything in sight during a particularly stressful week?
That’s not your digestive system randomly deciding to join in the drama.
Your brain and gut are connected.
When your body responds to stress, changes in nervous-system activity and stress hormones can influence digestion, gut movement, sensitivity and appetite.
And signals from your digestive system can, in turn, influence how you feel.
It’s a two-way street.
Which raises another interesting question.
If psychological stress can affect the gut, could changes in the gut also influence psychological wellbeing?
And that is exactly what researchers have been investigating.
Can changing your gut bacteria reduce anxiety?
Here’s where I need to disappoint anyone hoping for a miraculous yoghurt-based cure.
The evidence is interesting.
But it isn’t that simple.
Studies have found relationships between gut microbial communities and mental-health outcomes.
Researchers have also investigated whether dietary changes, fermented foods, prebiotics and specific probiotic strains might influence anxiety, stress or depressive symptoms.
Some findings are encouraging.
Others are mixed.
And there’s a substantial difference between identifying an association and proving that changing one thing will reliably cause an improvement in another.
For example, if people with anxiety have different gut microbial patterns from people without anxiety, that doesn’t automatically tell us which came first.
Did the microbial differences contribute to anxiety?
Did anxiety alter eating habits, digestion and the gut environment?
Or are both being influenced by other factors, such as sleep, medication, illness, stress or lifestyle?
Potentially, several of those things could be happening together.
This is why I get rather frustrated when complicated science is turned into a three-second social media promise.
“Eat this and fix your mental health!”
Lovely.
Except that’s not what the research establishes.
What we can say is that diet is one of the modifiable factors that contributes to the biological environment in which your brain, gut and nervous system function.
And a varied, nutritionally adequate eating pattern is a sensible foundation for health.
Which brings me to something I’ve noticed repeatedly in my work.
People can spend an enormous amount of time trying to change how they think, while barely considering the physical conditions under which they’re asking their brains to operate.
They’re exhausted.
They’re skipping meals.
They’re sleeping badly.
They’re living on caffeine and whatever happens to be within reach.
And then they’re wondering why their ability to cope with stress isn’t particularly impressive.
Now, none of those things automatically explains somebody’s anxiety.
And improving them won’t resolve every psychological difficulty.
But if we’re trying to help the brain function as well as it reasonably can, surely it makes sense to look at what we’re giving it to work with?
Biology before psychology.
Not because biology explains everything.
But because ignoring it seems like a very unhelpful place to start.
The other mental-health benefit of cooking that nobody talks about
Let’s return to my slow cooker.
Because the Jerusalem artichokes weren’t actually the only interesting thing about that chicken dinner.
After we’d eaten, the cooking liquid became gravy.
The leftover carcass, meanwhile, went into a fresh batch of water to make broth.
That broth is destined for chicken and vegetable soup, using chicken thighs, which we’ll eat and then freeze in portions for another day.
So one chicken dinner has helped set up several future meals.
And that matters for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with serotonin.
Because eating well isn’t simply a question of knowing which foods contain useful nutrients.
It’s also a question of having the time, energy, money and mental capacity to prepare them.
And those things aren’t unlimited.
Get Katie Woodland’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Especially when you’re already struggling.
If you’re anxious, overwhelmed, exhausted or simply juggling seventeen different responsibilities, the prospect of preparing a nutritious meal from scratch every evening can feel like yet another job.
You finish work.
You’re tired.
You open the fridge.
You stare into it.
And suddenly you’re expected to make approximately twelve decisions about ingredients, cooking methods, timing and washing-up.
At which point a packet of biscuits starts looking suspiciously like a perfectly reasonable dinner.
Look, there’s nothing morally wrong with convenience food.
And I’m certainly not suggesting that everyone should spend Sunday afternoon making broth from chicken bones.
But I do think we need to change how we talk about healthy eating.
Because advice that demands more time, more effort and more decisions isn’t necessarily helpful to somebody whose capacity is already stretched.
Sometimes the most useful thing you can do for tomorrow’s mental health is make tomorrow’s dinner easier today.
That might mean using a slow cooker.
Cooking double portions.
Freezing leftovers.
Buying frozen vegetables.
Keeping tins of beans in the cupboard.
Or turning the remains of one meal into the beginnings of another.
The point isn’t to become a domestic goddess.
It’s to reduce the number of obstacles standing between you and a decent meal.
And here’s the best part.
You can improve the nutritional quality of your meals while simultaneously reducing the effort required to feed yourself across the week.
Not by making every meal elaborate.
But by making ordinary ingredients work a little harder.
Which brings us to the practical bit.
Ten foods worth looking at differently if you’re anxious, stressed or overwhelmed
Before we start, a quick clarification.
This isn’t a ranking of the ten most powerful anti-anxiety foods.
Such a ranking would imply a level of scientific certainty we simply don’t have.
Instead, these are ten accessible foods or food groups that contribute useful nutrients, support dietary variety or provide fermentable material for gut microorganisms.
And I’ve deliberately chosen things you can find in an ordinary UK supermarket.
Because the last thing anyone needs is another shopping list involving powders harvested under a full moon.
1. Chicken — the serotonin building-block connection
Chicken provides protein, including the essential amino acid tryptophan.
Your body uses tryptophan for several purposes, including serotonin synthesis.
Chicken is also versatile.
Roast it, slow-cook it, add it to soup or use leftovers in another meal.
Look at it differently: You’re not just putting protein on your plate. You’re providing amino acids your body needs for normal functioning.
And if one cooking session helps produce several meals, that’s a practical win too.
2. Jerusalem artichokes — feeding your microbial dinner guests
Jerusalem artichokes contain inulin, a prebiotic fibre that certain gut bacteria can ferment.
They can contribute to dietary fibre variety, although they aren’t suitable for everyone.
Look at them differently: Some parts of your meal aren’t primarily feeding you directly. They’re providing material that microbes in your gut can use.
Just remember that more isn’t necessarily better.
Especially if you value peaceful evenings.
3. Eggs — a rather useful little nutritional package
Eggs provide protein and contain tryptophan, vitamin B12 and choline.
Choline is important for normal cell function and is used to produce acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in processes including memory and muscle signalling.
And eggs have the considerable advantage of being quick.
Boiled, scrambled, poached or made into an omelette, they can become a meal without requiring an entire afternoon.
Look at them differently: They’re a convenient source of several nutrients involved in normal nervous-system function.
4. Oats — more than something to keep you full until lunch
Oats provide dietary fibre, including beta-glucan.
Fibre contributes to digestive health, and different types of fibre can influence the gut environment in different ways.
Oats are also inexpensive, easy to store and quick to prepare.
Porridge, overnight oats or simply adding them to other dishes can be practical ways to increase fibre intake.
Look at them differently: Breakfast can be an opportunity to feed your gut as well as yourself, without adding much work.
5. Kefir or live yoghurt — an introduction to fermented foods
Kefir and certain live yoghurts contain living microorganisms.
But there’s an important distinction here.
Not every fermented food or live-culture product has demonstrated probiotic benefits, and the effects of specific microorganisms depend on the strains and amounts involved.
So don’t assume that anything with “gut health” printed on the packaging is automatically doing something extraordinary.
Look at them differently: Fermented foods can be one way of adding variety to your diet.
And if you enjoy them, they’re often easy to incorporate without cooking anything.
6. Sardines or salmon — the omega-3 connection
Oily fish such as sardines and salmon provide long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, including EPA and DHA.
DHA is an important structural component of brain-cell membranes, while omega-3 fats are involved in several physiological processes.
Researchers have studied omega-3 intake in relation to mood and mental health, although the findings don’t justify treating oily fish as a stand-alone anxiety treatment.
Look at it differently: You’re providing fats that contribute to normal biological functions, including those relevant to the brain.
And tinned sardines have the added advantage of requiring almost no preparation.
7. Lentils and beans — the budget-friendly multitaskers
Lentils and beans provide plant protein, fibre and nutrients such as folate.
They can also provide fermentable carbohydrates for gut microorganisms.
And they’re superbly practical.
A tin of beans can go into soup, a stew, a curry or a jacket potato.
Lentils can help turn a small amount of meat into a larger meal.
Look at them differently: They’re not just cheap ingredients for bulking out dinner. They contribute nutrients and fibre while making meals more economical.
8. Leafy greens — the folate connection
Spinach, kale and other leafy greens provide folate, alongside other vitamins and minerals.
Folate is involved in normal cellular processes, including those required for the synthesis and metabolism of various compounds.
Low folate status can have health consequences, but that doesn’t mean eating spinach will directly correct anxiety.
Look at them differently: A handful of greens is an easy way to increase the nutritional variety of a meal.
Frozen spinach counts, by the way.
The vegetables don’t become morally inferior because they live in your freezer.
9. Pumpkin seeds — small ingredients, useful nutrients
Pumpkin seeds provide magnesium, zinc, protein and some tryptophan.
Magnesium participates in numerous biological reactions, including those relevant to nerve and muscle function.
But while magnesium deficiency can cause problems, that doesn’t mean eating extra magnesium will necessarily improve anxiety if you’re already getting enough.
Look at them differently: A small addition to porridge, yoghurt or a salad can contribute several nutrients without requiring another meal to be cooked.
10. Berries — fibre, polyphenols and a bit of variety
Berries provide fibre and plant compounds called polyphenols.
Researchers are investigating how polyphenols interact with the gut microbiome and influence various physiological processes.
Again, this is not proof that blueberries can treat anxiety.
But berries can contribute to a varied eating pattern.
Look at them differently: They’re another way to provide your body with different nutrients and plant compounds.
And frozen berries are absolutely fine.
You don’t need to spend a fortune on a tiny punnet of fresh raspberries that will go furry before Thursday.
Here’s what I actually want you to do with this information
If you’ve reached this point and you’re already mentally reorganising your entire kitchen, stop.
That’s not the point of this post.
I don’t want you to go shopping for ten new foods, throw away everything in your cupboards and spend the next fortnight preparing meals that look like they’ve escaped from a wellness influencer’s Instagram account.
I want you to do something much smaller.
Look at one meal you already eat and ask three questions.
1. What is this meal giving my body?
Does it contain a useful source of protein?
Some fibre?
A mixture of plant foods?
Anything that contributes to the nutrients your brain and body need?
You don’t need to calculate every vitamin and mineral.
Just start noticing the components.
2. What could I add without making it complicated?
Could you throw a handful of frozen spinach into dinner?
Add beans to a soup?
Have some yoghurt with breakfast?
Swap one snack for something that adds a little nutritional variety?
Notice that I’m talking about adding something useful, not immediately banning half your diet.
3. Could I make tomorrow easier while I’m here?
Could you cook enough for leftovers?
Freeze an extra portion?
Prepare something that can become another meal?
Or keep a few easy ingredients available for the days when cooking feels like climbing a mountain?
Because the best nutritional advice in the world isn’t particularly useful if following it requires more capacity than you’ve actually got.
And there’s no prize for making everything from scratch.
Why this matters for anxiety
I want to be very clear about something.
Anxiety isn’t simply the result of eating the wrong foods.
People experience anxiety for all sorts of reasons, including their circumstances, experiences, physical health, learned responses and biological vulnerabilities.
Some people eat beautifully and still struggle with anxiety.
Others eat fairly poorly and don’t experience significant anxiety at all.
And none of that makes the relationship between nutrition and mental health irrelevant.
It simply means we need to stop looking for one magic explanation.
Your brain doesn’t operate independently of the rest of your body.
It depends on energy, nutrients, sleep, circulation, hormones, nervous-system activity and countless other processes.
And it has to do all of that while responding to whatever life happens to throw at you.
So when I talk about putting biology before psychology, I’m not saying that a decent breakfast will solve your childhood experiences.
I’m saying that if you’re trying to change how you think, feel and respond to the world, it’s worth considering the physical conditions under which you’re attempting to do it.
Because you can spend hours examining your thoughts.
But if you’re exhausted, underfed, living on caffeine and struggling to find the energy to prepare dinner, there’s a fairly obvious part of the picture that deserves some attention.
Not blame.
Not judgement.
Just attention.
And perhaps a slightly different way of looking at what’s on your plate.
The next time you make dinner…
Remember my slow-cooked chicken and fartichoke journey.
Nothing revolutionary.
No expensive supplements.
No complicated food rules.
Just ordinary ingredients, used in a way that provides useful nutrients while making future meals easier.
And that’s the point I want you to take away.
Food isn’t just about what happens after you swallow it.
It’s about the biological systems it helps support.
The gut microorganisms that make use of parts of it.
The nutrients your brain and body need to function.
And the time, energy and decisions you can save by making food preparation work around your life rather than the other way around.
So if anxiety is through the roof, your gut isn’t necessarily the cause.
And changing your diet isn’t guaranteed to make it disappear.
But your food is one part of the wider picture, which is easily controllable, which makes it extremely worth investigating.
You don’t need to overhaul everything.
Start with one meal.
Add something useful.
Make tomorrow a little easier.
And remember that feeding yourself well doesn’t have to mean spending your entire life in the kitchen.
But if that’s what takes your fancy and you’re also growing Jerusalem artichokes, you might want to keep the windows open.
Just in case.
TL;DR
- Most of your body’s serotonin is produced in your gut, but that serotonin doesn’t simply travel to your brain and make you happy. Brain serotonin is produced separately.
- Your brain uses nutrients from food, including tryptophan from protein-containing foods, to support normal biological processes. Eating more tryptophan isn’t a guaranteed way to reduce anxiety.
- Your gut bacteria eat too. Prebiotic fibres such as the inulin in Jerusalem artichokes can be fermented by certain gut microorganisms, producing compounds involved in gut and metabolic health.
- Your gut and brain communicate in both directions. Nervous-system, hormonal, immune and metabolic pathways all play a role. Research into the microbiome and mental health is promising, but it doesn’t establish a simple gut-based cure for anxiety.
- Healthy eating has a practical mental-health dimension. Cooking once for several meals, freezing leftovers and using convenient ingredients can reduce the effort and decision-making involved in feeding yourself.
- You don’t need ten new food rules. Look at one meal, identify what it provides, add something useful and see whether you can make tomorrow’s meal easier.
The bottom line: Don’t just eat for the brain you have. Cook for the energy and capacity you’ll have tomorrow.
Want to understand what your system needs first?
There’s a reason I don’t believe in handing everyone the same mental-health checklist.
What helps one person might not be the most useful starting point for somebody else.
If you’re trying to work out where to begin, my Happiness Archetype Test can help you explore how you’re currently responding to life’s demands and identify practical next steps across the different areas that influence your wellbeing.
It’s not about putting you in a box or giving you another label.
It’s about helping you stop guessing and start making changes in an order that makes sense.
Take the Happiness Archetype Test: https://www.happinesshackslab.com/happiness-archetypes-test
Less Om. More Outcome.
xoxo Katie 😘
Research references
Gershon, M. D., & Tack, J. (2007). The serotonin signaling system: From basic understanding to drug development for functional GI disorders. Gastroenterology, 132(1), 397–414. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2006.11.002
O’Mahony, S. M., Clarke, G., Borre, Y. E., Dinan, T. G., & Cryan, J. F. (2015). Serotonin, tryptophan metabolism and the brain–gut–microbiome axis. Behavioural Brain Research, 277, 32–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.07.027
Gibson, G. R., et al. (2017). Expert consensus document: The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics consensus statement on the definition and scope of prebiotics. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 14, 491–502. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2017.75
Cryan, J. F., et al. (2019). The microbiota–gut–brain axis. Physiological Reviews, 99(4), 1877–2013. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00018.2018
Wastyk, H. C., et al. (2021). Gut-microbiota-targeted diets modulate human immune status. Cell, 184(16), 4137–4153.e14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.019
Jacka, F. N., et al. (2017). A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the SMILES trial). BMC Medicine, 15, Article 23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-017-0791-y
NHS. The Eatwell Guide. https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-guidelines-and-food-labels/the-eatwell-guide/
NHS. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/irritable-bowel-syndrome-ibs/
