Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind: A Powerful Plan to Improve Mood, Overcome Anxiety, and Protect Memory for a Lifetime of Optimal Mental Health

Psychiatrist Ede debuts with a stimulating examination of how eating better can boost brain health. Exploring how various foods affect the mind, she explains that refined sugars and flours are unnaturally rich in carbohydrates that cause glucose and insulin spikes in the bloodstream, impeding communication between neurons in the brain and making “concentrating, remembering, and processing information” difficult. To reduce carb intake, she recommends following a modified paleo diet that “allows meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, fruits, and vegetables and excludes grains, legumes, dairy, refined carbohydrates, alcohol, vegetable oils, and ultraprocessed foods.” If the paleo diet doesn’t yield improvements after six weeks, she suggests switching to the narrower ketogenic diet, noting studies that have shown it “cools inflammation,” “bolsters antioxidant defenses,” and keeps glucose levels in check. The science is rigorous yet accessible (cytokines in the brain respond to molecules formed from excess sugar by crossing “into the bloodstream to alert the rest of the body that the brain is under attack and instruct[ing] your whole body to temporarily adopt a new set of priorities to deal with the emergency”), and the dietary advice is easy to follow. It’s a solid guide to eating better. Agent: Alex Glass, Glass Literary. (Jan.)