Healthy diet and mental health

Women who suffer from depression and anxiety may want to take a look at their diet as possible contributors to these conditions.

Researchers assessed diet and psychical evaluations gathered over 10 years from 1,046 women (20 to 93 years old) in Australia. A total of 925 women were free of mood disorders, whereas 121 had depressive and/or anxiety disorders. When they assessed how diet might relate to mood disorders, they found that a western diet - eating primarily hamburgers, white bread, pizza, chips, flavoured milk drinks, beer, and sugar-laden foods - was associated with more than a 50 percent greater likelihood for depressive disorders. In contrast, both depression and anxiety disorders appeared about 30 percent less likely among women eating a more traditional Australian diet - mostly of vegetables, fruit, beef, lamb, fish, and whole-grain foods.

Mood disorders were common among women who ate primarily processed, refined, high-fat foods. These associations remained when the researchers allowed for a variety of factors including age, body weight, social and economic status, education, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol drinking habits. But similar adjusted analyses in women mainly consuming fruits, salads, fish, tofu, beans, nuts, yogurt, and red wine showed no similar associations.

There's no magic diet but eating a diet mainly of vegetables, fruit, whole grain foods, low fat dairy products, and lean meat, and reserving processed and sweet treats to 'sometimes foods', aids physical health and may also support mental well-being.

Taken together, the findings highlight the need for additional research to determine whether unhealthy eating leads to declining mental health or vice versa. Given that diet is modifiable, finding evidence of a causal tie between diet and mental health seems worthy of pursuit.