The Institute of Food Technologists held their annual meeting earlier this week, and one of the sessions was “Diet, Mental Energy, and Mental Well-Being: A Landscape Overview of the Science and Consumer Perceptions.” Panel speakers suggested that a change in dietary patterns may be more effective than pharmaceuticals to address mental health issues.
University of Calgary researcher Bonnie Kaplan was one of the panelists, and she claimed that the greatest cause of acquired insanity is poor nutrition. She also reports that as psychiatric medications grew in popularity over the last 6 decades, mental health professionals have moved away from dietary intervention as a way to address mental health issues.
According to Kaplan, studies have shown that diets high in processed food seem to be connected to higher rates of mood and anxiety symptoms and diets focused on vitamin-rich foods (like the Mediterranean diet) seem to be connected to lower rates of mood and anxiety symptoms.
Kaplan suggested that since people have a difficult time changing dietary practices, one solution maybe supplementation. She points out, however, that broad-spectrum supplements (like EMPowerplus, for example) may be the solution because trying to treat mental disorders with a single nutrient has been ineffective.
For more information, check out the research showing EMPowerplus’s positive effect on mental health.