Episode 197: Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind with Dr. Georgia Ede

Protecting Your NEST with Dr. Tony Hampton

Welcome to Protecting Your Nest with Dr. Tony Hampton. Dr. Georgia Ede, MD, is a Harvard-trained, board-certified psychiatrist based in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. Her interest in nutrition arose after discovering a new way of eating that reversed several bewildering health problems she had developed in her early 40s, including fibromyalgia, migraines, chronic fatigue syndrome, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Dr. Ede acquired her bachelor’s in biology from Carleton College in Minnesota. Then, for seven years, she worked as a research assistant in the fields of biochemistry, diabetes, and wound healing. She earned her MD from the University of Vermont and completed her residency in general adult psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital in 2002.

After five years in general practice, she joined Harvard University Health Services from 2007 to 2013 as a staff psychopharmacologist and was the first psychiatrist there to offer nutrition consultation as an option to students, faculty, and staff with mental health concerns.

From 2013 to 2018, she was the psychiatrist for Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she provided nutrition consultation as well as medication and psychotherapy services to Smith students.

Now, Dr. Ede devotes all of her time to nutritional psychiatry and directs her efforts on studying, writing, and speaking about the strong scientific connection between food and brain health.

Dr. Ede writes frequently for Psychology Today and has her own website at Diagnosis: Diet. In 2018, she independently published a paper in the Journal of Evolution and Health.

In this discussion, Drs. Tony and Georgia talk about:

• (05:23) How Georgia, a conventionally trained psychologist, came to realize the centrality of diet for mental/general health
• (11:45) Why the field of Psychology at large has not yet figured out that diet is a key factor in mental health
• (17:32) When/how Georgia started implementing nutrition into her practice
• (21:37) What ketosis is and how it improves mental health
• (23:48) The connection between mental health and metabolic health
• (28:48) How long it takes for the keto diet to kick in with noticeable results
• (30:32) Whether people with Autism or ADHD can improve their conditions with the keto diet
• (39:57) An example of a person suffering from cognitive decline who improved their mental state with the keto diet
• (45:37) Whether a person can optimize brain health on a plant-based diet
• (50:11) How to determine the number of grams of carbohydrates you can eat per day
• (56:32) Getting sufficient electrolytes on a carnivore/keto diet
• (59:50) Exogenous Ketones

Thank you for listening to Protecting Your Nest. For additional resources and information, please see the links below.

Links:

Dr. Georgia Ede:

• diagnosis:Diet
• Twitter
• Blog
• Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind (New Book!)
• Dr. Georgia’s Previous Appearance on the PYN Podcast

Dr. Tony Hampton:

• Linktree
• Instagram Account
• LinkedIn Account
• Ritmos Negros Podcast
• Q Med
• Symposium for Metabolic Health Lectures
• How Waking Up Every Day at 4:30 Can Change Your Life