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Mar 11

The Connection Between Diet and Mental Health – Thrive Global

Diet Comments Off on The Connection Between Diet and Mental Health – Thrive Global

Heres a saying youve heard a thousand times:

You arewhat you eat.

Youve heard it a thousand times because it makesperfect logical sense. If you want a healthy body, it stands to reason you needto consume healthy food. No one disputes that. Decadesof research confirm it, as well.

A consistent diet thats easy on the sugar andfat, high in fruits and vegetables, and includes lean protein choices such aschicken, fish or plant-derived protein for vegetarians or vegans canimprove physical wellbeing across almost every major measure of health we have.

From cardiovascular health to muscle strength to bonedensity to endocrine function to immune response, a healthy diet helps ensurethat your body functions at its best in the present and helps prevent the onsetof chronic disease and common illness in the future.

Thats one reason theres a multibillion-dollardiet and weight loss industry worth seventy-two billion in 2019, accordingthe AssociatedPress (AP) in the U.S.

Another reason is the increase in obesity rates in the generalpopulation over the past 30 years but thats a different topic for adifferent article.

The diet industry exists because people know theyneed to eat well to be healthy: thats true whether people are thin,overweight, or, like most of us, somewhere in between.

Heres another saying you may or may not befamiliar with:

Foodaffects mood.

That one sounds right, too because we allunderstand what it means through experience. Im not talking big picture, rightnow, though. Im saying we all know this because we have experiences likefeeling great after a huge, delicious meal. We also all have experiences feeling well, yucky an hour after eating a drive-thru combo meal (it happens to thebest of us), or feeling edgy after consuming too much caffeine.

That much is obvious.

But it leads us to an important question:

If foodaffects mood in the short-term then does diet

have an impact on overall mental health?

Spoiler alert: the research says yes, itabsolutely does.

New Study Links Sugar Intake and Depression

Before I talk about the most recent research onthe relationship between diet and mental health, I need to take a moment totalk about the research thats been out there for a few years already. Itsimportant to know the new data didnt materialize out of thin air. Its builton the hard work of scientists going back years, but I wont go back too far tomake my point.

Ill take you on a little time-travel survey ofthe best available data on the subject since 2010.

Ready?

Here we go.

Study 1: The Mediterranean Diet (2013)

First, lets look at research on The MediterraneanDiet, which received a lot of attention in the national media about five yearsago, and for good reason. In the paper Mediterranean Diet, Stroke,Cognitive Impairment, and Depression: A Meta-analysis researchers foundthat people who adhere to a Mediterranean-style diet showed reduced risk of:

Thats important data because it draws a clear line not onlyfrom a specific diet to positive physical health outcomes, but also from aspecific diet to positive mental health outcomes. However, that meta-analysisfocused mostly on older individuals.

Study 2: Health Eating and Mental Health in Children andAdolescents (2014)

Now to do our due diligence, and triangulate our data, asit were lets take a look at the research on the relationship between dietand mental health in younger individuals. This paper The RelationshipBetween Diet and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review confirms the positive impact of diet on mental health.

In their review of the available literature, researchersfound that children and adolescents with poor dietary habits showed:

In addition, researchers found that children and adolescentswith good dietary habits showed the opposite:

Ill get to that new study on sugar and depression, Ipromise: were almost done with our little research time-travel excursion.

Study 3: Fish, Fruits, Vegetables, and Whole Grains vs. RedMeat, Processed Foods, High-Fat Foods, and Sweets (2017)

Next up is a study conducted in China DietaryPatterns and Depression Risk: A Meta-analysis that compared the impact of two types of dieton mental health. Heres what they found:

That evidence needs no real interpretation: a healthy dietmay decrease risk of depression, while an unhealthy diet may increase risk ofdepression.

Study 4: Diet Intervention and Depressive Symptoms (2019)

Okay. Im done with the time traveling, and ready to landwith you in the here and now: what does the most up-to-date research tell usabout the relationship between diet and mental health?

It confirms all the previous data, then takes it one stepfurther. Up to this point, the studies Ive discussed have not studied causeand effect theyve identified associations and correlations. Thats why Iused and the study authors wrote phrases like increased risk of andhigher instances of rather than phrases like caused an increase or resultedin a decrease.

This study ABrief Diet Intervention Can Reduce Symptoms of Depression in Young Adults: ARandomized Control Trial is different. The goals of the study were toinvestigate:

Can you see the difference?

The step further means this study does attempt todetermine cause and effect: does improved diet result in decreased depression?Diet is the cause under observation, while a reduction in depressive symptomsis the effect theyre looking for.

To achieve their goals, researchers recruited 101 peoplewith depressive symptoms and gave them all questionnaires designed to assesstheir current levels of depression and anxiety. They then divided theparticipants into two groups the diet intervention group and the habitualdiet control group. The habitual diet control group received no specialinstruction with regards to diet: they were simply told to eat as usual andcome back after three weeks to repeat the depression/anxiety assessments.

The diet intervention group, however, was given specificinstruction on what to eat for three weeks. Their diet which was basicallymodeled on the Mediterranean Diet mentioned above consisted of:

They were also instructed to decrease their intake of:

To ensure likelihood of adherence to the food plan, researchersgave participants in the diet-change group a hamper of food containing itemsthey may not have been able to afford: olive oil, natural nut butter, nuts andseeds, and the spices (turmeric and cinnamon).

After the three-week trial, they found that, compared to thecontrol group, participants in the diet group showed significant reductions in primarydepressive symptoms such as:

They also found that, compared to the control group,participants in the diet group showed significant reductions in secondarysymptoms of depression and anxiety, such as:

There you have it: three weeks of healthy eating can improvesymptoms of depression. Its also worth mentioning they confirmed that itspossible for a group of young adults to follow a three-week dietaryintervention designed to assess its impact on depression.

Diet and Mental Health: The Takeaways

Ill reiterate what the data tells us: the food you eat a.k.a. your diet most definitely has an impact on your mental health. And bydiet, I mean what you eat regularly. Im not talking about dieting or faddiets or going on a diet. Im talking about what you choose to eat everyday, starting with breakfast and continuing right on through your midnightsnack. Yes, you can have a midnight snack but if you listen to what thescientists are telling us, that snack should not be high in sugar, nor shouldit be a processed meat or grain: think of things like fruits or nuts instead ofcookies or candy bars.

Keep in mind that this advice, and this knowledge, is bothgeneral and specific.

The general: whats commonly known as The Mediterranean Dietis good for both your body and your mind. Its good for you heart, yourmuscles, your bones, your mood, your overall sense of wellbeing in fact, itshard to find something that doesnt benefit from this type of diet.

The specific: the same diet can significantly reducesymptoms of depression and anxiety in as little as three weeks. Thats huge.Its huge for people diagnosed with clinical depression, and its huge forpeople who may simply feel down and want to do something about it.

Its also huge for the patients we work with every day at Pinnacle Treatment Centers. Ourpatients live with substance use disorders that are often accompanied bydepressed mood or a dualdiagnosis of substance use disorder and major depressive disorder. This latestresearch tells me and them that changing their diet from one high in sugar,processed carbohydrates, and fatty meats to a low-sugar diet that emphasizeswhole grains, vegetables, fruit, fish, and lean meatcan reduce depressedmood and symptoms of major depressive disorder.

That is definitely huge.

In a nutshell (pun intended), science says a healthy,balanced diet can make my patients happier or at least reduce theirdepressive symptoms. In my experience, a happier person or someone whos notdealing with depressive symptoms all day every day is more likely to proactivelyengage in treatment, therapy, and counseling. And when my patients can fullycommit to and engage in treatment, they have a higher chance of achieving asuccessful, sustained recovery.

In my line of work, thats the entire goal.

Read the rest here:
The Connection Between Diet and Mental Health - Thrive Global

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