Here's How You Can Eat Your Way To Better Mental Health
Nutritional psychiatry tells us that some foods can improve our mental health
If you really are what you eat, what would you be? A walking croissant? The occasional vegetable on a pizza? If, like most of us, you try to eat healthily but often fall off the wagon, there's now another compelling reason to avoid junk food. Nutritional psychiatry is a new branch of research that focuses on preventing and treating mental disorders such as depression and anxiety through diet. In a nutshell: it tells you that some foods can boost your mental health.
Dr Tetyana Rocks, a post-doctoral research fellow, and accredited practising dietician at the Food and Mood Centre at Deakin University in Melbourne, is an expert in this area. Here's what she wants you to know:
Just eat how your mum told you to.
"Studies show that women who consume more traditional or prudent diets based on less processed food is associated with the low risk for major depression and anxiety disorders," Dr Rocks says.
"Go for a high consumption of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, with the addition of good quality proteins. And a minimal consumption of highly processed foods."
Meals shared with your parents, housemates or kids are good for your mental health.
"Family meals provide opportunity to communicate, and connect, but eating together reaches beyond the immediate appreciation of food and time spent with each other; eating alone is a strong factor associated with depressive symptoms," she says.
"You need to spend 100 hours and, in some states, up to two years teaching your children how to drive. We're not spending anywhere [near] the same amount of time and effort into teaching our children how to eat well; where to find food. When they become independent as teenagers, they start looking for food, and it's [a] very important period in life because [the] majority of mental health issues are also set up during the teenage years."
Text: Bauer Syndication