Food and Mental Health

Book excerpt: Written by an experienced psychotherapist, this book provides professionals in the fields of health and wellbeing with a guide to human relationships with food, and their impact on mental health.Acknowledging how food choices profoundly effect a person's experience in the world, Gerrie Hughes offers knowledge and support around how to understand and negotiate the relationship between food and mind. Chapters offers facts, information and theories on key topics such as self-image, 'good' nutrition, sustainability and rituals. Each chapter uses vignettes, case studies and reflective activities to stimulate thought about the reader's own assumptions and experience and offer approaches to how they might use their expertise with the people with whom they work.Providing an accessible and easy to read guide into the role food plays in our lives, this book will be of interest to a range of healthcare practitioners, including mental health nurses, occupational therapists, psychotherapists, and counsellors.