Having a bag of potato chips or large bowl of ice cream to help us cope with stress may not be as beneficial as we often think. For many people when they feel depressed or anxious out by life events they often turn to comfort foods such as candy, potato chips or other junk foods. These foods may give an impression of comfort initially, but new research is showing that they are actually leading to more mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
Felice Jacka, PhD and colleagues from Deakin University and the University of Melbourne in Australia found that better diet quality is associated with better mental health. Those individuals with better diet associated with better mental health in those that they studied. Also when following them over a two year period they noticed that those that improved their diet also saw improvements in their mental health, while those whose diet worsened saw their mental health get worse as well.
This better diet as recognized by this study included 2 or more servings of fruits and 4 or more servings of vegetables whole grains and high-quality meat and fish, along with general avoidance of processed foods including chips, fried foods, chocolate, sweets and ice cream. They found individuals with better quality diets were less likely to be depressed, whereas a higher intake of processed and unhealthy foods was associated with increased anxiety.
Depression and anxiety are very complicated disorders and research has not shown specifically that they can be solved with simple diet changes alone. But an improvement in your diet might help you on your road to improved mental health.
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