Lifestyle Medicine, Nutrition & Mood: How to Improve Quality of Life With Dr. Alyssa Vela, PhD

Episode 48. I'm super excited about this conversation today! One of my goals on this podcast is to bring on a variety of viewpoints, not just the exact same anti-diet message. I think it's essential we have conversations about what to do, versus just what not to do (not having diet mentality for example!). I also think we need to keep having productive conversations across a variety of disciplines and we talk about some really cool ones in this episode! I'm really grateful to Alyssa for coming on and sharing her expertise with us this week. Let's dive in! Dr. Vela is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Psychiatry at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Vela earned a PhD in Health Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she studied culturally-adapted lifestyle interventions for women with disordered eating and diabetes. She completed her internship/residency in Health Psychology at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, and a fellowship in Clinical Health Psychology with an emphasis in medical education with the Michigan Center for Advanced Psychology Training in affiliation with Michigan State College of Human Medicine. She completed her board certification in lifestyle medicine in 2020. Alyssa’s main area of research and clinical interest is lifestyle interventions for cardiometabolic health and she has a strong passion for helping people change their lifestyles and health behaviors so they can live their best lives. She is also passionate about addressing health disparities, and providing culturally-sensitive care to all patients, and is actively involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion work and education at Northwestern. In this interview, we cover: What is health psychology/behavioral medicine?What is lifestyle medicine?What is nutritional psychiatry? What do we know about the impact of nutrition and it's impact on mental and emotional well-being? What the pros and cons are of thinking about food as medicine?What do we need to know about how rese