It's no secret that what we eat can influence or brain health directly. The brain requires many essential nutrients just to function properly which sadly the American diet severely lacks. Fast food, fried foods, and sadly a few comfort foods kill us slowly if that's the primary source of nutrition. Nutrition can even be used to might chronic disease that plagues our society. The paper I will be talking about addresses how changes in diet have helped those with both undiagnosed and diagnosed depression and ADHD.
The Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest in the world as it's full of fish, leafy greens, and nuts. These are essential in providing your body and brain the nutrients it needs to live a healthy life. In a study of people with undiagnosed depression, 45% of those on a Mediterranean diet along with fish oil supplements saw improvement in depressive symptoms. That is compared to another group treated with social interaction and relationship building who only saw a 26.8% improvement in depressive symptoms. Along the same lines, a group of 33 individuals with major depressive symptoms were given expert guidance from qualified dietitians and saw a 32.3% of participants reporting no depressive symptoms. That is compared to 34 individuals in the same study given a strong social connection who had only 8% report no depressive symptoms.
Diet also helps improves those with ADHD. One study showed 32% of children given a dietary supplement had improvement in symptoms such as inattention while the placebo group reported 9% of participants showing improvement. In addition, with the new supplement the group showed to be advancing better in categories such as height which shows with proper diet a child will develop better than those who are lacking in key essential nutrients. Alternatively, this study did not show improvement in the children's hyperactivity as reported from parents and teachers.
These studies show the importance of your diet. Eating well can have the ability of improving major mental diseases such as depression which is so rampant within our country. If you improve what you eat you will most likely improve your life both physically and mentally. I strongly urge any readers to evaluate their nutrition and research further into how different foods can benefit them. Stay away from the shit big corporations are selling you! Be mindful in how you treat your body because you only got one!
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Thank you for sharing this blog post, the three pillars of mental health start with diet, sleep, and exercise. I often overlook ways to improve my diet and often just eat whatever is fast and cheap. I wonder if the fish oil supplements and the Mediterranean diet play a role in inflammation. This article I was reading on PubMed was also talking about omega-3 fatty acids and how they have anti-inflammatory affects (Simopoulos, 2002). Specifically the fish oils in the form of EPA and DHA (Simopoulos, 2002). Just like how we learned in physiology, our stomach has it's own brain and I definitely believe that if we take care of our stomach's brain, we will be doing our brain a huge favor as well.
ReplyDeleteSimopoulos, A. P. (2002). Omega-3 fatty acids in inflammation and autoimmune diseases. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 21(6), 495–505. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2002.10719248
This blog is super informative and after a calorie excessive time like post Thanksgiving a Mediterranean diet does have its benefits! I also found that the Mediterranean diet has the fundamental elements of a cardio protective diet. This study found that even high risk cardiovascular disease subjects, when following a Mediterranean diet had a reduced risk of acute myocardial infarction aka heart attack, stroke, or mortality from CVD. Whole grains in particular have been shown to decrease risk of mortality from not just CVD but cancer as well. It is wonderful to see how both the body and mind can benefit from something as essential as diet!
ReplyDeleteCapurso, C. (2025, July 25). Whole-Grain Intake in the Mediterranean Diet and a Low Protein to Carbohydrates Ratio Can Help to Reduce Mortality from Cardiovascular Disease, Slow Down the Progression of Aging, and to Improve Lifespan: A Review. MDPI. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/8/2540