Unprocessed: What Your Diet Is Doing to Your Brain
£9.00£10.40 (-13%)
We all know that as a nation our mental health is in crisis. But what most don’t know is that a critical ingredient in this debate, and a crucial part of the solution – what we eat – is being ignored.
Nutrition has more influence on what we feel, who we become and how we behave than we could ever have imagined. It affects everything from our decision-making to aggression and violence. Yet mental health disorders are overwhelmingly treated as ‘mind’ problems as if the physical brain – and how we feed it – is irrelevant. Someone suffering from depression is more likely to be asked about their relationship with their mother than their relationship with food.
In this eye-opening and impassioned book, psychologist Kimberley Wilson draws on startling new research – as well as her own work in prisons, schools and hospitals around the country – to reveal the role of food and nutrients in brain development and mental health: from how the food a woman eats during pregnancy influences the size of her baby’s brain, and hunger makes you mean; to how nutrient deficiencies change your personality.
We must also recognise poor nutrition as a social injustice, with the poorest and most vulnerable being systematically ignored. We need to talk about what our food is doing to our brains. And we need decisive action, not over rehearsed soundbites and empty promises, from those in power – because if we don’t, things can only get worse.
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by Louise Cooke
This is a very well written & well researched book. Basically eating well is good for your mental as well as physical health. What’s concerning it that no one is going to do anything to improve the nation’s diet, are they?
I urge you all to read this and follow the good advice therein. Especially the stuff about child health & development.
by Prucello
This reads like a textbook for medics. Do act on the information but I doubt most people will actually read all of it!
by Kindle Customer
It is an enjoyable book that provides detailed substantiating evidence on how we can pick better foods for ourselves and for generations to come. Only quibble I have is the repeated Boris-bashing becomes tiresome and I suspect in future editions will become dated as we move away from the memories of COVID lockdowns. Our eating poorly as a nation well pre-dates Boris being PM so updates will be necessary to reflect this long-time epidemic in the making.
by C. Coley
A good analysis of what the government could be doing to help improve our brain health. Has some good advice on reducing dementia risk. Has advice for pregnant women to strengthen a baby’s neurological health before birth.
by Matthew Jenkins
This book is amazing. Buy it. Buy copies for your friends, especially the young women who you hope will have children. Ms Wilson should be in the House of Lords. I don’t think I have ever devoured a book this attentively or re-read one so carefully, or recommended one to as many people. Stop reading this review and buy it now, goddammit!
by Amazon Customer
A great book pointing out issues in processed food. However from approximately chapter 8 or 9 (roughly halfway through the book) it starts to become a polemic about government policy. That’s a real shame as this will quickly date the book and hence will lose it’s usefulness. I think if the publisher did a second edition focusing only on the science and removed the politics this book has the chance to become a reference for this area.
by SARAH FOSTER
LOVED this book, read it in two days. Rigorous science in plain English, and a rallying cry for change. I’ve shared it with friends and family – everyone should read.
by anto
Fantastic book, well documented and evidence-based. Should be a must read for politicians and policymakers in the UK!
I have referenced the author in my thesis as I feel is inspiring how she is rising awareness on this topic.