0:00

The thing you have to keep in mind before you give up is that if you give up,

0:05

the guarantee is it will never happen.

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Scared, alone, unsure of what's to come.

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This podcast is for our brothers and sisters who struggle with homelessness.

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Join us on this journey to improve

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our mental health, to challenge what's possible, to become who we are.

0:33

Let's ignite hope one spark at a time and set our dreams on fire.

0:43

Welcome back to everybody in our Street Strong family.

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We have a wonderful episode ahead of you today called Feeding the Mind,

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How Ultra-Processed Foods Impact Our Mental Health in the Homeless Population.

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It's going to be a real doozy, I promise you.

1:05

And please know that any content shared here is for informational and educational purposes only.

1:14

It is not intended to serve as medical advice.

1:17

For personalized medical concerns, please consult a professional healthcare provider.

1:23

And with that, let's get in to our episode.

1:28

So this episode is going to really dive into a critical issue affecting the

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most vulnerable Vulnerable in our communities, the link between nutrition and mental health,

1:42

specifically ultra-processed foods and their impact on depression and anxiety among the homeless.

1:49

You know, Hippocrates in Greece, thousands of years ago, I don't remember the

1:55

exact date, it was probably a Wednesday, said, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.

2:02

And we're going to talk today about how grocery stores can actually be seen

2:08

as pharmacies and include building blocks for mental wellness and resilience.

2:15

We're going to talk about practical tips about how to fight mental illness with better nutrition.

2:21

And Lord knows we need all the help that we can get because when you're homeless

2:26

and you don't have access to doctors and you don't have access to fancy treatments

2:31

and medications and talk therapy, you need all the help and resources that you can get.

2:36

Thankfully, my friends on the street, they have food stamps.

2:41

They have general relief. Some of them have SSI.

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They're able to buy healthy foods.

2:49

Now, it's much harder for them to buy healthy foods. And I learned that the

2:54

hard way. I've recognized that in Skid Row.

2:57

It's very hard, but it's still possible. I have patients that literally walk

3:02

the extra mile to access stores that have healthier foods because they recognize

3:09

this link and they get really involved in making new recipes and avoiding really bad foods.

3:16

So my patients are out there doing this and God bless them. It's wonderful.

3:22

They're tough. They sometimes have to really brave the conditions.

3:26

There's violent neighborhoods and dark alleys and they're weaving through and

3:31

through alleys and getting on one bus to get on the next bus.

3:35

Us and sometimes they get kicked off the bus because they have grocery carts,

3:40

but they really just need the carts to bring their groceries back.

3:43

It's a mess. It can be really wild out there.

3:47

And so we've got to talk about nutrition and the grocery store and what foods

3:54

to avoid and how ultra processed foods could really be making our mental health super,

4:00

super awful. I have a friend in Skid Row.

4:05

I just shared with him about the link between mental illness and nutrition and

4:11

foods, and he was blown away. He got out his pen. He started writing things down. He couldn't believe the

4:17

fact that for all these years struggling with depression, that there was actually

4:21

a link between food and depression or food and anxiety.

4:27

And if he could change the way he eats, he could change the way he feels.

4:31

He was blown away by that. But you know what?

4:35

I was blown away by that several years ago. I've been working in the mental

4:39

health field for 13 years or so,

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and I was blown away just a couple years ago learning that food is a building

4:49

block to how we actually feel.

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It's really amazing, actually, because food is a foundation for any kind of

4:58

building block in our bodies. All of our organs, our bones, our muscles, our cells depend on food to be broken down.

5:09

And food is used as information to build up our bodies on a daily basis.

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It literally leads to the creation of proteins which power our muscles,

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which make happy chemicals in our brains that allow us to feel less anxious,

5:28

to allow us to feel more focused.

5:30

It's amazing. And it's happening on a daily basis. We are changing on a daily basis.

5:37

You are not who you were yesterday. You might think you are who you are yesterday,

5:42

who you were yesterday, so much for my grammar.

5:46

You might think you might think you is who you was yesterday, but you're not.

5:51

We are changing. We have trillions of cells that are turning over all of the

5:56

time, and food is such a major factor in what we are ultimately building and who we become. come.

6:04

So if you're sitting there feeling guilty about who you are and the past things

6:10

you've done and you're all up in your head and feeling depressed,

6:14

just remember that your depression can shift and change based on the kinds of

6:22

foods you decide to put in your body and the kinds of foods you decide to avoid.

6:28

And literally your body, your being will change by virtue of which food you

6:35

decide to put in your body. It's pretty amazing.

6:39

It's mind-blowing, not just from

6:41

a scientific perspective, that it's like spiritual in a way, you know?

6:46

Because again, you know, I felt kind of depressed in the past.

6:49

I've known so many people who were depressed and they feel feel like they're just doomed, right?

6:56

They just feel like they're this person that disgusts them and they feel guilty

7:02

and sad about themselves. But isn't it just nice? Doesn't it make you feel more free and more relaxed

7:09

to know that you aren't who you were yesterday and who you can be tomorrow can be so much different.

7:17

There can be so much change. There's so much opportunity. There's so So much.

7:22

It's just beautiful. And food is that portal to change the game in how we eat.

7:30

And it's interesting because if you don't feel like food is such a major factor

7:37

in your mental health, if you don't feel that, maybe you trust what I'm saying,

7:42

but you don't really feel it in your bones. I want you to reflect on something. thing.

7:47

I want you to reflect about the last time you ate a Big Mac or a Cinnabon or

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three Cinnabons, right? And how did you feel, right?

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How would you feel if tomorrow morning you ate three Cinnabons and a Big Mac

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before 10 in the morning? How would you feel, right? If you're like me, you might love the Big Macs.

8:10

You might love the Cinnabons. It would be wonderful.

8:15

Your mouth is watering as you think about it you want to vomit there's some

8:19

people who actually detest Big Macs but here's my point if you had two Big Macs

8:27

and three Cinnabons tomorrow okay.

8:31

I know I would be really cranky after I ate those things.

8:35

I would feel disgusting. I would feel bloated. I would not feel good about myself.

8:41

I would not feel confident. I know I would look at myself in a really harsh way. I would feel fat.

8:50

I would feel ugly. My mood would go down. I would be cranky with the people around me.

8:57

I would probably have no energy. I would crash. you know, you all have ever

9:01

had a lot of carbs at once.

9:03

You just want to take a nap. So you have no energy. You have no motivation to do anything.

9:08

You just feel terrible and you don't feel accomplished. You don't feel good about yourself.

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Well, hey, knock, knock.

9:16

That's a lot like depression, isn't it?

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Isn't that so much like depression? All of those symptoms after eating three

9:23

Cinnabons are disturbingly close to how we feel when we are just flat out depressed.

9:31

Now imagine if you ate a couple scrambled eggs and an oatmeal with peanut butter mixed in.

9:41

Much leaner, much more simple.

9:44

Right now, you're going to have energy and you're going to have energy for hours.

9:49

You're going to go out there and you're going to go for a little walk,

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sit on a park bench, smile. You're not going to crash. You might feel a little better about yourself.

9:59

You're going to be able to focus more. You're going to be able to feel a little better.

10:03

And that's because what you just ate has really good building blocks for your

10:08

mind and body, proteins that actually build those happy chemicals in your brain

10:14

to focus, to feel motivated. And you avoid those crazy sugar crashes that take all your energy away when

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you need that energy to survive on the street.

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So you get where I'm going with this. Just one meal, you and I can appreciate

10:30

how much this can affect our mental health.

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It doesn't mean that you have one Big Mac and you're depressed.

10:37

It should give you an appreciation for the fact that what you eat absolutely

10:41

does affect your mood and how you look at yourselves and maybe even how irritable

10:48

you are or how you sleep at night.

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If you eat a big meal right before you sleep, you're probably going to be really jerky at night.

10:56

You might have indigestion. You might kind of toss and turn and just not get a good quality sleep.

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And then you're going to wake up the next day feeling terrible, right? Right.

11:06

So that's another obvious consequence of eating and our moods and our overall behaviors.

11:13

And we didn't even talk about if you don't eat anything. Right.

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And that happens all the time with my friends on the street.

11:19

They don't always have a regular meal. So their blood sugar drops. They get kind of irritable. They get cranky.

11:25

They're short with other people. They're weak.

11:29

Right. They can feel kind of anxious. Their palms are sweaty.

11:32

Right. Your blood sugar is low. You you might get nauseous.

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Those are all really intense mental symptoms when you're not eating enough.

11:41

So I hope everything's going ding, ding, ding, ding up in our brains and we're

11:46

going, oh yeah, of course food is huge when it comes to mental health, right?

11:55

If you eat an orange, you're going to feel a hell of a lot better than if you eat a bag of Funyuns.

12:00

The Funyuns might be fun, but the orange is going to just be so much more rejuvenating for your day.

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Now, I am not going to beat the dead horse any longer. I want to specifically

12:16

talk about ultra-processed foods.

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Now, these are also called junk foods. These are also called frankenfoods.

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We're going to talk about what that is. We're going to talk about how it impacts mental health.

12:31

But to understand ultra processed foods, it really helps to understand what

12:37

the four groups of foods are.

12:41

Okay. Now there's a classification system out there called NOVA.

12:46

You don't have to memorize it. I'll put a link in the show notes,

12:49

but there's a system out there that classifies foods into four groups.

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And I won't go into too much detail about those four groups,

12:57

but what I will say is is that it does help us understand what are ultra-processed foods.

13:02

And so group one are the kinds of foods that are the healthiest. They're not processed.

13:08

They're unprocessed, minimally processed foods.

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We're talking pistachios, sunflower seeds, fresh apples, green beans, avocados, right?

13:21

Those are the kinds of things that your great-grandmother would offer you when

13:26

you visit her for breakfast. fist, okay?

13:29

She's not going out there and yanking out a Twinkie or a Ho-Ho, okay?

13:35

She's going to hand you sunflower seeds or oatmeal or beans, right?

13:42

Those are minimally processed or unprocessed things you can pluck off a tree and eat, okay?

13:50

That is the healthiest stuff you can find.

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And in the vegetable or fruit aisle, that's the best stuff.

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There's one ingredient in those things. You know what you're looking at.

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You grab it, you bite it, bam. That is exactly what your body's looking for, right?

14:09

It's pure information, okay? Because food is information.

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Food gets digested and broken down and all of our cells are kind of looking

14:21

at that food and the properties of that food to figure out how to build your

14:27

body and make it better and optimize it, right?

14:30

And so food is best when it's simple and it gives your body that simple,

14:36

quick information that it needs to understand what it's looking at.

14:40

If you eat a zebra cake, your body's not going to know what the hell that is.

14:44

And it's going to just make it impossible to figure out what the heck it needs

14:48

to even do with this stuff. And that's why you probably have chest pain and you're short of breath.

14:55

And now if you have chest pain or you're short of breath, that's serious.

14:59

Go to the ER. Okay, that's.

15:02

That might be a heart attack. So we don't, again, this is why you got to consult

15:07

a healthcare provider and, and not just listen to this podcast.

15:13

It's informational only. Okay.

15:15

Group one, unprocessed or minimally, minimally processed foods.

15:20

Now group two, it's they're, they're processed to some extent.

15:25

We're talking about like oils, like olive oils and sugars, right?

15:30

It takes some crushing, pulverizing, mashing. I won't go into too many details,

15:36

but group two is slightly different than group one.

15:41

Instead of apples, we're talking maybe applesauce.

15:45

It's mashed. It's mixed up. Group three is more processed.

15:52

We're talking about now the applesauce has cinnamon in it and sugar,

15:57

sugar and it's got other kinds of things in there that wasn't originally on

16:03

the apple tree, right? It's getting kind of more bizarre.

16:06

And then group four are like your apple Froot Loops, if that's even a brand

16:11

out there. I'm not sure it is. I really don't know if it is, but apple Froot Loops, right?

16:16

Junk foods, frankenfoods, foods that you could not pick off of a tree,

16:21

foods that were never in your great grandmother's cabinet.

16:25

Those are processed foods. And we're talking about a lot of things that you find in a box.

16:31

These are things that are made in labs synthetically. I don't know about you,

16:37

but as much as I love frozen pizza, and I do, I absolutely love frozen pizza.

16:43

I might even have one this Friday, but guess what?

16:46

It's a Franken food. It's a junk food. It was made in a lab.

16:50

You can't pick it off a tree. Your great-grandmother definitely didn't bake you a DiGiorno's when you visited her. Thank you.

16:57

Right? It's a junk food. And the problem is when these foods are engineered

17:03

to be really tasty, they're engineered to hook you, they're engineered to make you hungrier.

17:09

And the worst part is studies show that they are associated with significantly

17:16

more mental health issues. I've actually posted some research studies in the show notes for you guys to look at.

17:23

But if you're homeless and you already can't focus and you already feel anxious

17:27

and you already don't have the motivation to fill out forms for housing or to

17:33

seek shelter because you're bone tired and you need all the energy you can,

17:38

then getting these ultra processed foods like Funyuns or Doritos or gas station

17:43

foods, it's going to make your life a hell of a lot harder.

17:46

And your life is already too hard right now.

17:49

You need all the help that you can get.

17:51

And studies show that these foods, they get into our system,

17:57

our system gets super confused, and it just kind of inflames our body.

18:04

And we know when our body's inflamed and our mind is inflamed,

18:07

all those happy chemicals get destroyed.

18:10

We also know that when you're eating Funyuns and Blue Bunny ice cream and DiGiorno's

18:16

pizza, that not only are you damaging what you've already got,

18:20

but you're missing out on what you could be getting instead.

18:24

Instead, we did a great episode on canned fish, okay?

18:28

And we talked a lot about how there are very good, affordable foods out there

18:36

that can boost your mental health. But remember, when the stakes are so high, when we're homeless,

18:41

we can't afford to eat out of a box and out of a bag and all this stuff that

18:47

just makes us feel worse. And these studies absolutely show that depression and anxiety rates go up the

18:55

more ultra-processed foods that you eat. People think slower.

19:00

They become more foggy. It gets a lot harder to solve problems.

19:05

These foods impact our gut.

19:09

And now they're saying that the gut is a second brain, right?

19:13

90% of your serotonin. We have a great episode on serotonin.

19:18

90% of your serotonin, that's the chemical that allows you to feel happier and less anxious.

19:24

90% of that is actually made in your stomach, in your gut, right?

19:29

And so when you're eating a bag of Doritos or Frosted Flakes and your gut just

19:36

gets attacked by this stuff, and then boom, you can't create the beautiful serotonin

19:42

that you need, or you can't create enough of it.

19:44

Because in order to make serotonin, you need good whole foods that are not processed.

19:51

Things in your grandmother's cupboard, right?

19:53

That's what you need to make dopamine, serotonin, all those happy chemicals

19:58

that give you the motivation to get out there and accomplish your dreams,

20:02

that'll let you feel less anxious, that'll allow you to sleep,

20:06

that'll allow you to feel good about yourself and not guilty and not sad, right?

20:12

Now, there was a study with over 10 million people that also showed ultra-processed

20:18

foods were associated with an increased risk of 32 adverse health outcomes.

20:24

We're not just talking We're talking about mental health disorders,

20:27

although that's the focus of this podcast, but we're even talking about cardiovascular

20:31

disease-related deaths.

20:35

Type 2 diabetes risks that went through the roof.

20:38

A lot of you, some of you may be homeless out there listening to this. You are on medications.

20:44

And again, please consult your healthcare providers for anything related to this stuff.

20:51

But a lot of you have type 2 diabetes and heart issues.

20:56

And so eating these kinds of foods is only going to make that stuff more serious.

21:02

And it increases all-cause mortality by 21% in that group of 10 million people who were studied.

21:10

22% increase in depression.

21:13

Just wild, wild information, wild studies. They show sleep problems from this stuff.

21:20

Lord knows it's already really hard to sleep if you're homeless.

21:25

Now, these statistics are not not just numbers.

21:28

This is a wake-up call. It speaks to the real consequences of dietary choices

21:33

we make every day, and they beacon us to make informed, healthier decisions,

21:38

not just for our bodies, but for our minds as well.

21:43

Now, a lot of you out there on the street are in food deserts.

21:47

It's very hard to find good quality foods.

21:50

A lot of you can't order on Instacart because your groceries get stolen when

21:55

you do order it to be at a specific place at a specific time.

21:59

But I can't emphasize how important it is if you can kind of stalk your local

22:04

grocery store, find one that's near you that makes sense for you,

22:08

and get those whole unprocessed foods, the ones we talked about.

22:14

They're just so darn important. I have links in the show notes to help guide

22:18

you. Please Google. Go to your homeless shelter. Use their computer.

22:22

Google what are processed foods?

22:24

What are ultra-processed foods? What are some examples of foods I can eat, meals I can make that are not processed,

22:31

that are whole foods, that are good foods for me?

22:34

Because remember, when we're eating the junk foods like zebra cakes and apple

22:38

jacks and DiGiorno's and Funyun's, we're going to feel worse.

22:42

And when we feel worse, we may even start craving drugs because we're so foggy

22:48

and we can't think and we have no motivation and we feel sluggish.

22:52

So we reach for methamphetamine, right?

22:56

This is how things get worse. And we can feel so good when we replenish our

23:01

bodies with the good stuff.

23:04

Now, here are some, we're going to close off with some practical tips,

23:07

practical advice about what you can do today to avoid these unprocessed foods

23:13

and to get good foods, whole foods in your body to reclaim your mental health.

23:19

First thing that is super useful for me, I love this tip to kind of understand

23:26

if your food is processed or not. Look at how many ingredients it has on the back.

23:31

If there are 90 different ingredients that you can't pronounce and that don't

23:36

exist in your great-grandmother's cupboard, it's probably processed.

23:41

Gums and emulsifiers and all this random coloring and just 90 letters and laboratory

23:48

jargon, it's probably processed.

23:51

Last I checked, there wasn't a food label on a banana. It's just a freaking banana, okay?

23:58

It doesn't say made with bananas.

24:01

It is a banana, right? So the more ingredients, the more likely the thing is processed, okay?

24:07

The next time you hold something in your hand and you wonder,

24:11

is this what Tommy's talking about? Is this an ultra-processed food? Ask yourself this question.

24:17

In my hand, is what I have in my hand more like an apple or more like a zebra

24:22

cake? and you can, with your gut decision, you decide if that's going to empower

24:27

your mental health or not. Again, ask yourself, would my great grandmother prepare this for me?

24:33

With the ingredients that I see on the back of this label.

24:37

Are these ingredients in my great-grandmother's refrigerator?

24:41

Probably not. I doubt your great-grandmother.

24:46

Thank you for listening to Street Strong. Please don't forget to like,

24:50

subscribe, and share this podcast

24:52

with every single person you know who is struggling with homelessness.

24:56

And remember that famous line from Mr.

24:59

Rogers, when the day turns into night and you're way beyond my sight, I'll think of you.

25:11

Donations when you ask for donations try

25:15

and put out memos community newsletters organize

25:18

your folks and ask for less processed foods ask for foods that are more fresh

25:23

that are healthier that can really specifically empower our mental health that's

25:29

a great idea too when you do go to the grocery store whether you're a volunteer

25:34

looking for foods for your shelter whether you're, you know, community outreach.

25:38

Street volunteer, whether you live on the street, work on the street,

25:43

set a timer when you're in the grocery store and spend 80% of your time.

25:48

If you're there for 10 minutes, spend eight minutes in the vegetable aisle.

25:53

The rest, you can do whatever you want. Go sprint over and grab a Twizzlers if you need to.

25:58

But 80% of the time in the vegetable aisle, you know, in the canned fish aisle,

26:04

whatever you've And remember, thinking of the grocery store more like a pharmacy and not just a place to indulge,

26:12

but a place to grow and heal and thrive and challenge your mental health for

26:17

the better and reclaim your life and get off the street.

26:21

You can do it. I know you can do it. We're all in this together with each other.

26:25

Please email me streetstrongpodcast at

26:29

gmail.com again streetstrongpodcast at

26:32

gmail.com with your ideas your thoughts

26:35

recommendations we're a community

26:38

we need to act together we need to share our great ideas together i would love

26:43

to hear where you're at right now if you're listening to this i'm deeply curious

26:48

to hear you know is is this podcast beneficial to you in some corner of the

26:53

world. I see that we're in all kinds of countries now.

26:56

We're in many states, if not most states by now. I really want to hear your story.

27:01

Is this helping your shelter? What could we do more of on this podcast?

27:04

That's what we need to see in here. Please email.

27:08

I care about emails way more than I give a crap about ratings.

27:13

I just want to hear from you and how you're doing out there.

27:16

Best of luck to all of you. Stay safe. And of course, stay strong,

27:21

stay street strong. Bye-bye.