- Dietary patterns and food choices impact brain function, but the specific relationship between food and the brain is complex.
- Researchers are interested in finding out what diet optimize brain functioning and health.
- One study examined four dietary patterns and found that a balanced diet containing several food types saw the most overall benefit in brain health.
What people eat affects their well-being, but sometimes it is hard to tell the precise effects of diet on health.
Recently, a study published in Nature Mental HealthTrusted Source explored how dietary patterns impacted a number of areas of brain health, including mental health, cognitive function, metabolic biomarkers, and brain structure as measured using MRI.
In their analysis of almost 182,000 participants, researchers found that those who followed a balanced diet were likelier to have better mental health and cognitive functioning.
They also noted genetic differences that may have influenced the outcomes among different dietary groups.
While research will continue in this area, the study points to the importance of making wise nutritional choices to improve brain function and mental health outcomes.
The researchers who conducted the current study looked at data from the UK Biobank, focusing on food-preference data. Researchers asked about food preferences in several categories, including dairy, fruits, flavorings, alcohol, meat, snacks, starches, and vegetables.
They then looked at the association between these dietary preferences and several brain-related outcomes. First, they assessed mental health, collecting data on components including anxiety and depressive symptoms, mania symptoms, psychotic experience, trauma, self-harm, and well-being.
Higher scores indicated poorer mental health, except for the well-being measurement, where a higher score suggested better mental well-being.
Researchers further evaluated cognitive function with several tests, looked at blood biochemistry and metabolic biomarkers, and examined brain structure via MRI.
Finally, they looked at polygenic risk scoresTrusted Source for mental disorders, which measure how genetics factor into risk for mental illness, and did a gene enrichment analysis.
The study found that the balanced dietary subtype saw the most benefit of all four groups — those in the balanced dietary subtype had lower scores for most mental health measurements and higher scores for well-being.
This group also had the best-measured reaction time, while the high-protein, low-fiber diet group scored the best on a cogntion test involving symbol substitution
People in the balanced dietary group also had higher levels of gray matter in certain areas of the brain compared to the high-protein, low-fiber group.
However, the vegetarian group also showed higher levels of gray matter in certain brain regions.
The balanced dietary group also had a relatively lower genetic risk for most mental disorders. In contrast, the vegetarian group had a higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and several other mental disorders.
The high-protein and low-fiber group had a higher genetic risk for ischemic stroke.
Researchers also found that several genes were different between the balanced group and the high-protein, low-fiber group.
These genes were “enriched in biological processes related to mental health and cognition,” which points to how genetics may be involved in the observed outcomes.
Overall, the results show how following a balanced diet may help improve brain health and mental well-being.
Molly Rapozo, RDN, registered dietician nutritionist, and senior nutrition and health educator at Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, CA, not involved in the research, shared her thoughts on the findings with MNT.
“This study found that a ‘healthier’ diet with balanced preferences in various food categories — fruit, vegetables, starches, protein, and snack foods were noted — is associated with better mental health status, higher levels of cognitive functions and fewer risks of mental disorders,” she explained.
“It’s exciting to see this result in such a large study (181,990 participants) with lots of data — behavioral, neuroimaging, biochemical and genetic analyses. It was also found that high-protein, low-fiber diets with an emphasis on snack foods were associated with lower well-being scores, higher levels of inflammatory markers, and an increased stroke risk. These findings appear to agree with what we already know about diet and brain health.”
– Molly Rapozo, RDN
Ive read several just right stuff here Certainly price bookmarking for revisiting I wonder how a lot effort you place to create this kind of great informative website
Hi Neat post There is a problem along with your website in internet explorer would test this IE still is the market chief and a good section of other folks will pass over your magnificent writing due to this problem
k8 カジノ アフィリエイト
素晴らしい記事で、とてもインスピレーションを受けました。感謝しています。
bingo Masamune senkyoku
この記事のおかげで、多くの実用的な知識を得ることができました。
ミリオンゴッド-神々の凱旋
非常に興味深いトピックでした。感動しました。
geinoutime.com
“항상 들고 있니?” Zhu Houzhao는 더욱 혼란스러워졌습니다.
geinoutime.com
이 장을 여러 번 바꾸고 싶었습니다. 성모님께 혼날까 봐 혼내지 말아 주십시오.
geinoutime.com
Fang Jifan은 서둘러 말했습니다. “폐하의 눈은 횃불처럼 밝습니다. 저는 당신을 매우 존경합니다.”