How Food Shapes Your Brain: What a Psychologist Wants You To Know - with Kimberley Wilson

Can food really shape your brain? Chartered psychologist Kimberley Wilson on the science of nutrition, mood and mental health.

We treat the brain and the body as if they’re two different projects. A cardiologist for the heart, a gastroenterologist for the gut, a psychologist for the mind. But the brain is an organ, oxygenated by the same blood, fed by the same nutrients, and shaped by the same lifestyle as everything else.

As “brain health” becomes the next wellness buzzword and the internet is flooded with gut-brain axis claims, supplement pitches and mood-food promises, working out what’s actually supported by evidence has never been harder.

In this episode, Dr Frankie is joined by chartered psychologist and MSc-qualified nutritionist Kimberley Wilson, author of How to Build a Healthy Brain and Unprocessed, for a grounded, evidence-based conversation on what food, sleep, stress and movement actually do to your brain - and where the popular claims fall apart.

Drawing on more than a decade of clinical work, including seven years running the therapy service at Europe’s largest women’s prison, Kimberley explains where the science is strong, where it’s overstated, and why looking after your brain is about far more than doing a crossword.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Timestamps:

00:00 Why We Can’t Separate the Brain from the Body

01:42 What Working in a Women’s Prison Taught Her About Nutrition and Behaviour

04:30 The Ultra-Processed Food Problem: What It Does to Your Brain

06:51 Insulin Resistance, Type 3 Diabetes and Dementia Risk

10:41 Why Healthy Life Expectancy in the UK Is So Low