Can You Really Improve Your Mood With Food?

Imagine if food could truly alter your mind.

Well, it may not be as far fetched as you might think with more and more research suggesting that certain foods may have a positive impact on our mental health.

For example, here in Australia we have the Food And Mood Centre, whose sole focus is to conduct research and provide education into the effects foods can have on our mental health. And from their latest news, they suggest diet is a modifiable factor in the treatment and even prevention of mental illness.

And the Mediterranean diet has again proven credible not only for our overall health, but also having a positive impact on our mental health. A recent systematic literature review of 27 articles across Spain, USA, Italy and Australia which represented 16,584 participants and ranged in duration from 2 years to 5 years. Whilst the study showed there were many benefits of following a Mediterranean diet such as improvements in patients with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and an overall improvement in health, the most fascinating is the improvements made to patients mental health at 6 months post intervention. The reduction in depressive symptoms was directly correlated to adherence to the diet. So what does the Mediterranean diet look like? To many it is more a pattern of eating than a diet you simply pop down to the shops and buy the latest cook book to follow, although they exist.

Rather, the Mediterranean diet in the context of improved mental health includes daily food sources such as vegetables at all meals of the day, nuts, extra virgin olive oil, fish, fruits and reductions in sugar and minimal red meat and animal fat.

And the role of fruits and vegetables is showing up in more and more papers indicating a diet rich in these food groups just might be a strong foundation to supporting people with depressive or other mental health issues.

Another systematic review into studies on patients with mental health issues who consumed a daily diet high in fruits and vegetables indicated higher levels of optimism and self-efficacy, reduced psychological distress, ambiguity and depressive symptoms.

In particular, berries, citrus and green leafy vegetables where some of the most widely recommended foods to aid in managing various depressive symptoms.

And yet, this journal makes it quite clear that such a diet is not a cure-all and should be seen within the context of total care from medical professionals and other medications to treat the specific illness.

So where does this leave us? My view is that the context of mental health goes well beyond one treatment for all. It is an inherently complex field to manage with individual circumstances having a significant influence. Yet, it would appear apparent and possibly even obvious that a healthy diet, one rich in fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts, seeds, olive oils is beneficial not only to those suffering from mental health issues but for the general population.

The trend away from heavily refined, nutritional poor foods to more wholefoods can only serve us all some good.

Get back to health living. The Healthy Bloke.

Sources:

Glabska, D., Guzek, D., Groel, B and Gutkowska, K. (2020). Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Mental Health in Adults: A systematic review. Nutients. www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu12010115

Ventriglio, A., Sancassiani, F., Contu, M.P., Latorre, M., Slavatore, M.D., Fornaro, M. and Bhugra, D. (2020) Mediterranean Diet and It's Benefits on Health and Mental Health: A literature review. Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health. doi:10.2174/1745017902016010156