Can what we eat have a drastic effect on our mental health? Is it possible to heal our brains and be able to rewire years of conditioning through things like changing our diet? We are bringing a favorite on the show Dr. Selena Barlett, back for her third appearance to discuss the implications our diet has on our mental health.Dr. Barlett is a neuroscientist, with a background as a pharmacist and has an intimate story about how she and her family were deeply affected by mental illness. Make sure you check out episode seven and episode seventeen where we dig into Selena’s story as well as a deep dive into the topic of neuroplasticity.In today’s episode we address how food, specifically sugar, not only affects our mood but also has addictive components comparable to alcohol and drugs. Selena shares with us again about rethinking how we view “mental health” and understanding how “brain health” or “brain fitness”  is really what we are after.Selena teaches us about the link between stress and food consumption and how we are self medicating through sugar and how we can actively retrain our brains to handle stress in a healthier way. As she advises, stress will not “go away” so we have to learn how to handle it in a different way.We want to encourage you that none of us were trained on how to properly take care of our brains, and our culture reinforced addictive eating behaviors. However, there IS hope! Selena says that she believes neuroplacility is our “greatest hope” and that it is never too late to develop new habits and rewire our brains, which will help us not only to cope with things like depression and anxiety, but possibly even eliminate it.We would love to be your support in your mental health journey! Please connect with us in our private Facebook group, Hope to Recharge, because as always, together is better!Support the Shining Mind podcast at Patreon- please help us keep the podcast advertisement free.https://www.patreon.com/join/selenabConnect with Selena Bartlett:Website: http://selenab.com/ Books and Resources: https://www.amazon.com/Selena-Bartlett/e/B076HT6YPC%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_shareSupport the showLearn more at www.profselenabartlett.com