'A fascinating book of great importance for human health and wellbeing.'

Dr John Marks, former Director of Medical Studies, Girton College, Cambridge University

'This excellent book gives us a powerful weapon in our fight against mental disease.'

Dr Abram Hoffer

Optimum nutrition is a revolution in healthcare. In his new book, leading nutrition expert and psychologist Patrick Holford reveals what good nutrition can do for the mind. He explains how what you eat DOES affect your mind, and can transform how you think and feel. Find out how you can use optimum nutrition to:

Beat depression

Boost your memory and sharpen your mind - whatever your age

Conquer stress and anxiety and get a good night's sleep

Prevent and arrest dementia, alzheimer's and parkinson's disease

Help children with autism and down's syndrome

Reverse learning difficulties, dyslexia and hyperactivity

Speed up recovery from schizophrenia

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Guide to Abbreviations and Measures

A Note on Notes, Recommended Reading and Resources

Part 1 - Food for thought

You think what you eat

The five essential brain booster foods - check yourself out

Complex carbohydrates - the best brain food

Smart fats - the architects of higher intelligence

Phospholipids - your memory's best friends

Amino acids - the alphabet of mind and mood

Intelligent nutrients - the brain's master tuners

Part 2 - Protecting your brain

The brain agers - oxidants, alcohol and stress

Sugar and stimulants make you stupid

Avoiding brain pollution

Brain allergies

Part 3 - Improving your IQ, memory and mood

How to boost your intelligence

Enhancing your memory

Beating the blues

Balancing out hormonal mood swings

Unwinding anxiety with natural relaxants

Solving sleeping problems

Part 4 - What is mental illness?

Understanding mental illness

Getting the right diagnosis

What's your problem?

The dangers of drugs and how to get off them

Part 5 - Solving depression, manic depression and schizophrenia

Overcoming depression

Mood swings and manic depression

Demystifying schizophrenia

Schizophrenia can be cured

Part 6 - Mental health in the young

Learning difficulties, dyslexia and dyspraxia

The attention deficit disaster

Answers for autism

The way up from down's syndrome

Diet, crime and delinquency

Beating addictions

Overcoming eating disorders

Fits, convulsions and epilepsy

Part 7 - Mental health in old age

Putting the brakes on parkinson's disease

Preventing age-related memory decline

Say no to alzheimer's

Smart drugs and hormones

Part 8 - Action plan for mental health

Finding help

The brain-friendly diet in a nutshell

Brain-friendly supplements

Last Word

References and resources

References

Recommended reading

Useful addresses

Product and supplement directory

Index

• About the author Patrick Holford is one of the world's leading authorities on new approaches to health and nutrition. In 1984 he founded the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, now one of the most highly respected training colleges for clinical nutritionists. He directs the UK Mental Health Project, and has written twenty health books, many of them bestsellers, including The Optimum Nutrition Bible, which has sold over a million copies worldwide.