Diet is an essential part of everyday human life, but the effect of any particular diet is hard to tell. According to Nature Mental Health, dietary patterns impact areas of brain health, including cognitive function, metabolic biomarkers, and brain structure, as measured using MRI.
Almost 182,000 participants were analyzed, and researchers found that those who followed a balanced diet were prone to better mental health and cognitive functioning. Genetic differences that may have influenced the outcomes among different dietary groups were also noticed. 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.
People develop preferences for certain foods, which can impact dietary patterns over time. As per previous research, diet can also impact how well the brain functions following the Mediterranean diet, which helps slow cognitive decline. For the current study, researchers focused on four main dietary patterns by looking at participants’ food preferences: starch-free or reduced starch, vegetarian,high-protein, low-fiber, and balanced diet. Researchers who conducted the current study analyzed data from the UK Biobank, which also focused on food preference data. Researchers asked about food preferences within numerous categories like dairy, fruits, flavorings, alcohol, meat, snacks, starches, and vegetables.
They then examined 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.
The study found that the balanced dietary subtype benefitted all four groups since there were 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 cognition test involving symbol substitution.
People in the balanced dietary group also had higher levels of gray matter in some brain regions compared to the high-protein, low-fiber group. However, the vegetarian group also showed higher levels of gray matter in specific 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. It can be concluded that a ‘healthier’ diet with balanced preferences in various food categories like fruit, vegetables, starches, protein, and snack foods is associated with better mental health status, higher levels of cognitive functions, and fewer risks of mental disorders.
