Unprocessed: How the Food We Eat Is Fuelling Our Mental Health Crisis

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Wilson’s message is simple at its core: improve short-term dietary behaviours and change (read “improve”) our long-term future health and well-being. However, for all the simplicity of this message, Wilson recognises that there are a range of systemic barriers which interfere with the ability of many people to make more positive healthy nutritional choices. Main course: What’s that in my food?!

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) make up 55% of the UK adult diet, the highest in Europe. UPFs are foods that are sold ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat and produced using ingredients or processes for which there is no domestic equivalent. To improve palatability and shelf-life, these foods tend to be higher in added sugar, fat and salt, and contain less fibre than their homemade equivalents. So how might having a large proportion of these foods in our diets be affecting our brains? Crisps, cakes and fizzy drinks are UPFs, but so are supermarket loaves of bread, breakfast cereals and flavoured yoghurts. Her book includes examples of how this affects brain health throughout life: “If a mother doesn’t eat enough of the right fats during pregnancy, her baby’s brain is smaller and less well connected.” In adulthood: “Just a few days on a diet of high-sugar, high-fat, ultra-processed foods leads to measurable impairment in learning, memory and appetite control.” Ultra-processed food (UPF) is to blame I suspect that the things that make me love a book have less to do with the book and more to do with where and who I am at the time that I encounter it. Which book changed the way you think? The second villain is the UK government, who Wilson excoriates for failing to regulate the content of produced food and thereby protect public health. Wilson has very clear and critical opinions regarding the legacy of the austerity policy initiated in 2011 and the conduct of the government throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Although this political polemicising may not be to everyone’s taste, readers are left in no doubt to Wilson’s views about potential shortcomings of government over the last decade.

Explores the profound link between the food we eat and the way we think and feel' Radio 4 Start the Week I am not sure I could choose a single favourite. The books I love tend to have served different purposes over time. In the running would be Like Water for Chocolate, Don Quixote, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Man’s Search for Meaning and On the Shortness of Life. What do you think are the key ingredients of a good book? A powerful book that breaks down the dangerous beliefs that food is just fuel and delivers an important message we can all get behind... the evidence Kimberley presents in this book will change lives and hopefully policy' - Professor Tim Spector Eat more beans. Believe me, they’re the answer to most of your, and the planet’s, most pressing problems. You can’t have good mental health without a well-functioning brain, and you can’t have a well-functioning brain without good nutrition. For readers who may be more politically engaged, ‘Unprocessed’ also throws down a challenge to hold those in power accountable for their role in safeguarding public health in an area of life that is frequently overlooked. Wilson clearly wants her readers to take action in response to her arguments. The question is: will you? 6am Book Club discussion questions:

Elsewhere, Wilson considers whether there is a relationship between poor nutrition and school exclusion and then lays out the evidence for this hypothesis. The topic of behaviour in schools has featured quite prominently in both the news and social media of late. Regrettably, the topic has become polarised within the latter online environment. However, Wilson’s arguments around the correlation between diet and behaviour are compelling and present a challenge to those with ‘behaviourist’ views of discipline to consider a more complex and nuanced perspective of behaviour in schools. Coffee: Take action. When your gut microbes ferment fibre, they produce short-chain fatty acids. And one of the key functions [of these] is to support the integrity of your blood brain barrier, which is a very selective barrier that prevents neurotoxic compounds from the bloodstream from crossing into the brain,” says Wilson. Think Mediterranean: lots of vegetables (especially of the leafy green variety) and fruit, protein, fibre, healthy fats from oily fish and olive oil, plus plenty of nuts and seeds. Limit processed foods, added sugar and alcohol (which Wilson says is a “neurotoxin” that kills and damages brain cells). If you’re on the go, Wilson suggests opting for something that is as close to what you could make at home. How Emotions are Made by Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett. As professionals who proclaim to help people understand their emotional worlds it is incumbent upon us to have up-to-date knowledge, even if it challenges our personal beliefs and training… Which work of fiction amazed you with its psychological insight?

One of the more challenging yet important aspects of Wilson’s book is her long-term perspective around health. This is challenging due to our tendency to default to short-term perspectives around behaviours that can affect our health (such as “go on, then, just one more…” when offered another biscuit) which can distract us from and obscure the long-term implications of such behaviours. She speculates that this short-term approach is particularly relevant to diet since food is so ordinary and every day for many of us. 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. In conclusion, ‘Unprocessed’ is a thought provoking book with both personal and professional implications. I’ve certainly found myself thinking more about what I eat as a result of reading it, and it has helped expand the horizons of my psychology practice too.