Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing?

Joseph Firth; James E Gangwisch; Alessandra Borisini; Robyn E Wootton; Emeran A Mayer

doi:10.1136/bmj.m2382

Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing?

BMJ. 2020 Jun 29:369:m2382. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m2382.

Authors

Joseph Firth^{1

2}, James E Gangwisch^{3

4}, Alessandra Borisini⁵, Robyn E Wootton^{6

7

8}, Emeran A Mayer^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Psychology and Mental Health, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Oxford Road, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK [email protected].
² NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Westmead, Australia.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, USA.
⁴ New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
⁵ Section of Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology Laboratory, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College London, London, UK.
⁶ School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁷ MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Oakfield House, Bristol, UK.
⁸ NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁹ G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁰ UCLA Microbiome Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

Poor nutrition may be a causal factor in the experience of low mood, and improving diet may help to protect not only the physical health but also the mental health of the population, say Joseph Firth and colleagues

MeSH terms

Anxiety / diet therapy*
Anxiety / immunology
Anxiety / prevention & control
Cognition / physiology*
Depression / diet therapy*
Depression / immunology
Depression / prevention & control
Diet, Healthy*
Gastrointestinal Microbiome / immunology*
Humans
Inflammation / diet therapy*
Inflammation / immunology
Inflammation / prevention & control
Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Nutritional Status

Grants and funding

MR/T021780/1/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom