Miranda Meyer: Your Gut Brain Guide

Your brain reacts to certain foods long after you've eaten them...

Some of the most common foods in our diet can impact brain fog, mood swings, and anxiety 🫣 And reactions to these foods can be sneaky. They can happen almost immediately, or they can take 48-72 hours to appear!

The top offenders I see in practice:

✔️ Gluten can cause an inflammatory response in the gut of sensitive individuals. This inflammation breaches both the gut and blood-brain barriers, irritating the brain and showing up as fog, mood shifts, and anxiety. We also see higher rates of anxiety and depression in Celiac disease, the more severe autoimmune response to gluten.

✔️ Dairy contains casein, which breaks down into casomorphins, or opioid-like peptides. For some, that "I can't quit cheese" feeling isn't only about taste. It's a biologically addictive food that lights up morphine receptors and pleasure centers in the brain.

✔️ Sugar hits the same dopamine and reward circuitry as other compulsive habits (like ni****ne and alcohol), resulting in a temporary high. Then it drops you into irritability and cravings.

✔️ Artificial dyes and sweeteners. These chemicals are excitotoxins, and can overstimulate certain areas of the brain, resulting in hyperactivity (physical or mental) and behavioral changes.

You don't have to fear food. The point is being an informed consumer, so you can choose what you include and what you avoid based on how it makes you FEEL.

Brain health doesn't start in the brain: it starts with what you eat 🤯

That saying "you are what you eat?" Turns out, it was right on the mark.

Mainstream medicine treats brain fog, depression, and anxiety as problems that live in the head. But these issues don't start in the brain, they start in the body: mainly, the gut.

Gut bacteria produce about 90% of your serotonin. Your gut also makes around 50% of your dopamine, the driver of focus, motivation, and attention.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘤𝘰 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮.

The standard American diet (or SAD - isn't that ironic?!) is low in nutrition and high in ultra processed foods. When the food you eat is poor quality, healthy bacteria don't get the fiber and nutrients they need to thrive. The raw materials your brain literally needs to manage mood, focus, and steady energy are missing.

What I consistently see in the women I work with, is that the foods they choose each day set the tone for how their brain performs.

Quality food ➡️ Calmer gut ➡️ Clearer head. In that order. You don't need a perfect diet to feel the difference. You simply need food your body actually recognizes 💛