While searching the literature regarding the history of the thinking about relationships of the gut to mood states such as anxiety, I came across this delightful article.
It is a report and commentary about attitudes about the relationship between gut health and psychology, emotion, and behavior in the 18th and 19th Century Great Britain. It strongly refutes the idea that linking gastrointestinal health to emotions is new for the “Western” world.
For instance, (in the 18th and 19th centuries) “Organs had traditionally been attributed emotional qualities: the heart and love, for instance. However, the gut seemed particularly menacing as doctors associated the region with negative or ‘morbid’ emotions which needed to be carefully suppressed.”
In addition to linking of diet with mental health for individuals, Dr. Miller highlights the ways in which views regarding how personal gut health and eating habits became associated with societal health in the 19th century as well.
“However, in contrast to the eighteenth century, gastric distress now seemed to be affecting all sections of society, partly due to changing food consumption patterns in the new urban areas. The gut was a useful metaphorical resource for expressing concern about the physical and emotional well-being of the nation”.
Great Britain was undergoing rapid industrialization at the time, which disrupted society. Physicians were reporting that stomach problems were becoming alarmingly common. It strikes me that our society seems to undergoing analogous changes, while gut problems seem nearly ubiquitous.
There is also an interesting section on the dangers of “excessive tea drinking”, especially for women… Hmmm. Overall I found this to be an entertaining historical account of ideas about gut and behavior.