A Healthy Meal a Day Keeps Depression at Bay?
The last thing any student wants is to get home after a long day of classes and spend hours standing next to the stove to prepare some hearty meal. Student life seems to just get in the way and prevent us from taking care of our bodies. Much like myself, I’m sure there are people who plan on eating well at the beginning of the semester but somehow end up finding themselves being sucked into the sinkhole of living off anything BUT healthy food. Turns out, there’s actually a correlation between the food we eat and the quality of our mental health.
I came across an interesting study aimed towards unpacking the relationship between food and mental health. A correlational study was carried out where 72 young (18 - 25 years) male participants were randomly assigned a diet and the researchers measured their level of depression. Participants recruited for the study had been previously diagnosed with clinical depression. Assessment of depression levels was done using the Beck Depression Inventory scale-version II; which is a standardized method in Psychology,of assessing depression.The results of the study showed a negative correlation between clinical depression and the Mediterranean diet implying that nutrition is an important component of mental health (Bayes et al., 2022).
The Mediterranean diet in this context, consisted of fruits, vegetables, olive oil and cereals. In scientific literature, it’s mostly considered to be the epitome of a good diet.The typical Mediterranean diet is exalted so much because it is high in monounsaturated fatty acids, low in carbohydrates and high in both roughage and antioxidants (Preedy et al., 2015). Diets with these characteristics have been associated with lower cardiovascular disease.In relation to the study by Bayes et. al, good nutrition was associated with higher levels of self-reported mood by males diagnosed with clinical depression.Nonetheless, the study does not establish a causal relationship that explicitly states that eating healthy food will cause a good mental state. Mental health is a complex topic that cannot be addressed by just a single factor; however, this correlation does imply that eating well increases your chances of improving your mental state to a larger extent.
Am I suggesting that we should all suddenly line up at restaurants for Mediterranean food? Absolutely not (unless you want to). What I am saying though is that it's important to watch what we eat for the sake of our mental health. Living off noodles and pizza might be convenient but it will likely contribute toward driving our mental health off a cliff (from personal experience!). Going grocery shopping is often the annoying part of eating well,but fortunately at UTSC we have the SCSU Food Centre that allows students to sign up for free grocery pick-up every Friday. The great part is: there’s lots of fresh produce!
Let’s travel this road together to optimize our eating habits for our mental health!
Sources:
Bayes, J., Schloss, J., & Sibbritt, D. (2022). The effect of a Mediterranean diet on the symptoms of depression in young males (the "AMMEND: A Mediterranean Diet in MEN with Depression" study): a randomized controlled trial. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 116(2), 572. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqac106
Preedy, V., Preedy, V. R., & Watson, R. R. (. R. (2015). The Mediterranean diet : an evidence-based approach (1st ed.). Elsevier.
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