Custom diets are essential to mental health, new research shows

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/bu-cda022521.php

 

News Release 3-Mar-2021
Binghamton University

 

Customized diets and lifestyle changes could be key to optimizing mental health, according to new research including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

"There is increasing evidence that diet plays a major role in improving mental health, but everyone is talking about a healthy diet," said Begdache, an assistant professor of health and wellness studies at Binghamton University and co-author of a new paper in Nutrients.


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Key findings of this study:

    Significant dietary and lifestyle approaches to improve mental well-being among young women include daily breakfast consumption, moderate-to-high exercise frequency, low caffeine intake and abstinence from fast food.

    Dietary and lifestyle approaches to improve mental well-being among mature women include daily exercise and breakfast consumption, as well as high intake of fruits with limited caffeine ingestion.

    To improve mental well-being of young men, dietary and lifestyle approaches include frequent exercise, moderate dairy consumption, high meat intake, as well as low consumption of caffeine and abstinence from fast food.

    Dietary approaches to improve mental well-being among mature men include moderate intake of nuts.

Begdache and her team split the respondents into two age groups because human brain development continues into the late 20s. For young adults of both genders, quality of diet appears to have an impact on the developing brain.

"Young adults are still forming new connections between brain cells as well as building structures; therefore, they need more energy and nutrients to do that," Begdache said.

As a result, young adults who consume a poor-quality diet and experience nutritional deficiencies may suffer from a higher degree of mental distress.

Age is also the reason high caffeine consumption was associated with mental distress in both young men and young women.

"Caffeine is metabolized by the same enzyme that metabolizes the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen, and young adults have high levels of these hormones," Begdache said. "When young men and women consume high levels of caffeine, it stays in their system for a long time and keeps stimulating the nervous system, which increases stress and eventually leads to anxiety."

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