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Can What You Eat Affect Your Mental Health?
By Gisela Tells, The Washington Post; April 6, 2014 edition: The Grand Rapids Press, MI
Jodi Corbitt battled depression for decades and by 2010, resigned herself to taking antidepressant medication for the rest of her life. Then she decided to start a dietary experiment.
To lose weight, the 47-year old mother stopped eating gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains. Within a month, she had shed several pounds and her depression.
It was like a veil lifted and I could see life more clearly, she recalled.
Corbitt stumbled into an area scientists recently have begun to investigate: whether food can have as powerful an impact on the mind as it does the body.
Research exploring the link between diet and mental health is a very new field: the first papers only came out a few years ago, said Michael Berk, a professor of psychiatry at the Deakin University of Medicine in Australia. But the results are unusually consistent and they show a link between diet quality and mental health.
Diet Quality refers to the kinds of foods people eat, how often they eat them and how much they eat. In several studies, including a 2011 analysis of more than 5,000 Norwegians, Berk and his collaborators found lower rates of depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder among those who consumed a traditional diet of meat and vegetables, than among people who followed a modern Western diet, heavy with processed foods and fast foods, or even a health food diet of tofu and salads.
Traditional dietsthe kinds of foods your grandmother would have recognized, have been associated with a lower risk of mental health issues, Berk said.
The association between diet and mental well-being might start before birth. A 2013 study of more than 23,000 mothers and their children suggests a link between a mothers consumption of sweets and processed foods during pregnancy and behavioral and mental health issues in her child at age 5.
CAUSE AND EFFECT?
Its unclear how diet relates to mental health, said Rif-El-Mallakh, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. There appears to be a clear link, but its an association-it doesnt tell you cause and effect, he said.
It could be, that mood disorders change what people eat.
But an alternate theory is the relationship works the other way. Certain foods or their absence, might contribute to poor mental health. For example, studies in people and rats have linked have zinc deficiency to depression. Also, illnesses that cause deficiencies, including celiac disease, an autoimmune disease in which the body reacts to gluten, have shown associations with mood disorders.
Theres a two-way street between whats going on in the gut and whats going on in the brain, said Linda Lee, director of the John Hopkins Integrative Center.
Gut bacteria are known to make most of the bodys serotonin, one of several chemicals that regulate mood and the bugs might even have a hand in shaping behavior. A 2011 study in mice, showed swapping the gut bacteria of two strains of mice, one known for its daring behavior and the other for its fearfulness and shyness, could make the timid mice more willing to explore and the bold mice to be more anxious and hesitant.
Note: Ive taken 50 mg Zinc supplements in the past to control skin eruptions and in men at least; it increases the sex drive and is overall essential to the bodys immune system. The Zinc glucomate form is naturally extracted from wheat germ and inexpensive. I just began a daily regiment after dinner, to control my chronic/clinical depression, so wait and see
By Gisela Tells, The Washington Post; April 6, 2014 edition: The Grand Rapids Press, MI
Jodi Corbitt battled depression for decades and by 2010, resigned herself to taking antidepressant medication for the rest of her life. Then she decided to start a dietary experiment.
To lose weight, the 47-year old mother stopped eating gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains. Within a month, she had shed several pounds and her depression.
It was like a veil lifted and I could see life more clearly, she recalled.
Corbitt stumbled into an area scientists recently have begun to investigate: whether food can have as powerful an impact on the mind as it does the body.
Research exploring the link between diet and mental health is a very new field: the first papers only came out a few years ago, said Michael Berk, a professor of psychiatry at the Deakin University of Medicine in Australia. But the results are unusually consistent and they show a link between diet quality and mental health.
Diet Quality refers to the kinds of foods people eat, how often they eat them and how much they eat. In several studies, including a 2011 analysis of more than 5,000 Norwegians, Berk and his collaborators found lower rates of depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder among those who consumed a traditional diet of meat and vegetables, than among people who followed a modern Western diet, heavy with processed foods and fast foods, or even a health food diet of tofu and salads.
Traditional dietsthe kinds of foods your grandmother would have recognized, have been associated with a lower risk of mental health issues, Berk said.
The association between diet and mental well-being might start before birth. A 2013 study of more than 23,000 mothers and their children suggests a link between a mothers consumption of sweets and processed foods during pregnancy and behavioral and mental health issues in her child at age 5.
CAUSE AND EFFECT?
Its unclear how diet relates to mental health, said Rif-El-Mallakh, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. There appears to be a clear link, but its an association-it doesnt tell you cause and effect, he said.
It could be, that mood disorders change what people eat.
But an alternate theory is the relationship works the other way. Certain foods or their absence, might contribute to poor mental health. For example, studies in people and rats have linked have zinc deficiency to depression. Also, illnesses that cause deficiencies, including celiac disease, an autoimmune disease in which the body reacts to gluten, have shown associations with mood disorders.
Theres a two-way street between whats going on in the gut and whats going on in the brain, said Linda Lee, director of the John Hopkins Integrative Center.
Gut bacteria are known to make most of the bodys serotonin, one of several chemicals that regulate mood and the bugs might even have a hand in shaping behavior. A 2011 study in mice, showed swapping the gut bacteria of two strains of mice, one known for its daring behavior and the other for its fearfulness and shyness, could make the timid mice more willing to explore and the bold mice to be more anxious and hesitant.
Note: Ive taken 50 mg Zinc supplements in the past to control skin eruptions and in men at least; it increases the sex drive and is overall essential to the bodys immune system. The Zinc glucomate form is naturally extracted from wheat germ and inexpensive. I just began a daily regiment after dinner, to control my chronic/clinical depression, so wait and see
TheLonelyOne17
I've heard a lot about gluten, and how it can make depression and anxiety, a lot worse. I don't know much about zinc, but I've also heard that having a magnesium deficiency can cause depression.
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