Metabolism, Food & Mental Health: How does food reshape your brain?

Everywhere we turn, food is touted as a powerful tool for improving mental health – from the Mediterranean diet to probiotics to dark chocolate. But how much of this is backed by science and how much is just hype?

Cambridge neuroscientist Professor Camilla Nord will explore how food affects the complex and dynamic communication system between body and brain. Signals from your stomach, gut bacteria, blood sugar – and even your morning cup of tea – all reach your brain and can influence how you feel, think, and behave. Over time, the foods you eat reshape your brain – shifting the way it interprets internal signals and altering your experience of your body. These predictions can become distorted in mental health disorders, causing a disconnect between body and brain.

Understanding these connections could help answer some of today’s most pressing mental health: Why do depression and diabetes often go hand-in-hand? Can exercise or weight-loss injections change your mood? And what does this mean for the future of mental health care?

Join us for a fascinating journey into the brain’s hidden dialogue with the body – and discover why what you eat might matter more than you think, though perhaps not in the way you expect.

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Speaker bio:

Professor Camilla Nord directs the Mental Health Neuroscience Lab at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, where she is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience. Professor Nord is a world expert in the neuroscience of mental health disorders, in particular the role of body-brain interactions, and her research has been recognised by various awards, including the Association for Psychological Science’s Rising Star, and the European Society of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, as well as international media coverage including BBC, the Times, the Guardian, and The New Yorker. Camilla is also an established science communicator, including her recent book The Balanced Brain: The Science of Mental Health (Penguin, 2023), a Sunday Times and Financial Times Book of the Year.

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