In January 2019, researchers in Turkey published a study in Progress in Nutrition, showing a connection between malnourishment and depression in older adults.
The researchers studied the diet quality and depression levels of over 200 people 65 years old and older. They split participants into 3 groups based on their diet quality—malnourished, risk of malnourishment, normal nourishment—then examined any connections between diet and depression levels.
What they discovered was that the more malnourished the participants were, the more likely they were to have depression.
Nearly 71% of participants in the malnourished group displayed depression symptoms, compared to 46.3% for those in the group at risk of malnourishment, and 21.3% for those in the normal nutrition group.
This is one more study among a growing body of research showing a connection between what we eat and our mental health. Here at Truehope, we’ve been promoting nutrition as mental health treatment for over 20 years.