Young adults in Appalachia may face poor nutritional status due to low access to healthy food and high mental health symptoms attributed to high stress and the college environment. A cross-sectional design was used to investigate the relationship between diet intake and mental health status of this population via surveys. The mean fruit and vegetable intake was 1. Significant variables were placed into a full logistic regression model. Mental health disorders affect Two common disorders in young adults are major depression and anxiety, occurring at Medications are not always favored by patients, who report a three-fold preference for non-pharmacological forms of treatment [ 2 ].
There is strong epidemiological evidence that poor diet is associated with depression. The reverse has also been shown, namely that eating a healthy diet rich in fruit, vegetables, fish and lean meat, is associated with reduced risk of depression. To date, only one randomised controlled trial RCT has been conducted with elevated depression symptoms being an inclusion criterion, with results showing that a diet intervention can reduce clinical levels of depression. No such RCTs have been performed in young adults. Young adults with elevated levels of depression symptoms and who habitually consume a poor diet were randomly allocated to a brief 3-week diet intervention Diet Group or a habitual diet control group Control Group. Diet compliance was measured via self-report questionnaires and spectrophotometry. One-hundred-and-one individuals were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to the Diet Group or the Control Group.
Health diet mental graph and
The survey asked participants to self-report their sex, height, and weight. In contrast to other meta-analyses [ 16, 17 ], we presented global estimates of studies assessing the same dietary score, analyzed as categorical variable, and did not include studies assessing dietary scores as continuous variables, in order to provide more homogeneous results and an accurate quantification of the diet-depression relationship. Received : 10 May More Resources. Reprints and Permissions. Rachel A. From analyses of longitudinal studies, there is a robust association between both higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet and lower adherence to a pro-inflammatory diet and a lower risk of depression. Food and mood: diet quality is inversely associated with depressive symptoms in female university students.