Welcome back, everyone, to the Feed Your Mental Health Seven Week Challenge. We have been exploring some of the best foods for your brain health. I’m Dr. Drew Ramsey. I’m a Nutritional Psychiatrist and I’m interested in how you feed your mental health. We’ve talked about lentils, one of our absolute favorites when it comes to great sources of protein, folate, fiber. We’ve talked about pumpkin seeds. Wow, the just absolute dreaminess of that food for our mental health.
This week we’re going to be talking about a leafy green that you may have never purchased before, and kind of that’s the point. Week number three, our Feed Your Mental Health brain food challenge food is watercress. Now, watercress, you’ve probably walked by. As I said, a lot of people have never purchased it, and this is exactly why we’re picking it because this week is about our next lesson when it comes to eating for better mental health and Nutritional Psychiatry, which is increasing the diversity of the foods that you eat within a food category. Leafy greens is one of our favorite food categories when it comes to nutrient density, and that’s why we’re talking about watercress this week.
Because eating can get really repetitive. We get stuck in ruts. We’re just with the salmon and the broccoli. And while those are great foods, to keep it up, to keep consistent and to really enjoy our food, we’ve got to have more diversity in the types of foods that we eat. So it’s not just one leafy green. Let’s talk about a whole bunch of different ones. And let’s talk about one of the most nutrient dense. It’s at the top of the Antidepressant Food Scale. That’s why we’re talking about watercress.
Why watercress? Nutrient density, but first history. Hippocrates wanted to place his hospital next to a stream where there’s watercress, so Roman leaders would eat more watercress and make bold decisions with their incredible mental health. In all seriousness, we’ve always known watercress was really healthy. Today we know the nutrient facts about it. A cup of watercress, only four calories. And with those four calories, you get more than 100% of vitamin K. Remember, vitamin K is one of the fat-soluble essential vitamins. There’s only four of those. And we care about those because fat-soluble vitamins help us protect brain fat. Vitamin K in the brain is actually still a mystery that’s unfolding, but very, very cool vitamin. We also have vitamin C, about 24%, vitamin A, 22%. So incredible nutrient density when you think about what you’re getting per calorie.
In addition to the traditional minerals and vitamins that are in watercress we also have 40 unique phytochemicals, phytonutrients that are flavonoids. These are molecules, phytonutrients that are in plants that are very good for our health. Watercress is a cruciferous vegetable, so it’s in that same family as broccoli and kale. And so it’s bringing a lot of interesting compounds and a lot of nutrient density to the table. That’s why we love watercress.
The other thing that watercress brings in are nitrates. Nitrates help our vessels expand and our blood pressure drop. So one of these very interesting compounds that you get is you eat more plants and you eat more plants like watercress.
In 2018, Laura LaChance and I published the Antidepressant Food Scale, which is a nutrient profiling system that focuses on depression. We asked the scientific literature what are the nutrients that make the biggest difference for depression, both preventing it and treating it. And when you look at these nutrients and you look at all the plants, the number one is watercress.
Part of that is watercress has so few calories and it has a number of these very important antidepressant nutrients like vitamin K, vitamin A, and vitamin C. Often when we talk about improving our diet, we talk about what to eliminate. Nutritional Psychiatry really helps us with that problem because Nutritional Psychiatry is focused on what we want to add. We want more watercress in your diet because we want more leafy greens because of nutrient density. We want more diversity because the different types of plants you eat bring different nutrients, different minerals and vitamins, but also different phytonutrients, which are really important to our health. And as long as you’re eating a diverse set of plants, you’re getting a lot of different sources of fiber, which we know is great for the microbiome.
All to say, so often we’re in a framework of eat less of this or avoid that. Nutritional Psychiatry helps us think about gosh, what would you like to eat? What are you curious about? What could you have a little bit more of? Watercress is a good place to start because it’s a little unfamiliar, it’s a little spicy, and it’s really easy to use. The simplest way to use watercress that I love is just a very easy salad with some lemon juice and some olive oil, a little salt sprinkled on there. Another great way to use watercress is just to add it on to as a topping, really to any salad, any soup, sprinkle it on your omelet. It adds a great fresh, spicy, green, vegetable flavor, really anything. And it’s a wonderful, wonderful way to add lots and lots of nutrients and lots of phytonutrients to any meal.
Okay and here’s the important thing about this week’s challenge. If you can’t find watercress or you’ve tried it and you don’t like it, you’re still in. This week, I want everyone to try a new leafy green or new vegetable. Let’s just call it a new plant. This week’s about adding something new to our diet, finding something that excites us. So for you, it might be a new leafy green like watercress, but maybe you’re really dialed in with your leafy greens. And so for you, it’s maybe a new type of bean or lentil, or maybe you want to try a new fermented food, or perhaps you’re wanting to try a new varietal of sweet potato. Whatever it is, try something new this week. That’s your challenge. It’s great if it’s a plant because you get all the minerals, vitamins, fiber, and phytonutrients. But I’m curious for you to add something that excites you, that’s great for your brain health to your dietary pattern this week. That’s your week three, feed your mental health challenge.
So this week, buy something new, prepare it in a simple way, taste it, And then simple questions for our challenge. Did you try it? Did you like it? Would you eat it again? You’ll add something new this week. I hope it’s watercress. It’s spicy, it’s peppery, it’s really easy, and a lot of us have never used it before. Watercress is the number one plant on the Antidepressant Food Scale.
Everybody, it’s another week ahead of us to Feed Your Mental Health. Please feel our encouragement. Join our community. Eat along with us as we do our best to give our mental health and our brains all the nutrients they need. Please sign up for the challenge. If you’re not already getting our emails, you can get all the information that we’re sharing. We also have Friday Feels and Mental Fitness Monday. It’s a great way to improve your mental health a little bit each week. Everybody, I’m Dr. Drew Ramsey. I’ll see you in the next video. Thanks so much.
