Does an inflammatory diet affect mental well-being in late childhood and mid-life? A cross-sectional study

The objective of this 2021 study was to assess if inflammatory diets are related to mental well-being among adolescents (11-12 years) and midlife adults. The sample included adolescents and parents from all over Australia (88% of the parents were mothers). The answers to food frequency questionnaires were used to calculate the alternate inflammatory diet scores of each participant. The study used the data from prior literature as well as predictions of inflammatory markers. Mental well-being was measured through several surveys based on psychosocial health, quality of life and life satisfaction. In both children and adults, an increase in literature-derived inflammatory diet score by one standard deviation point was associated with a 44-57% higher risk of having the worst mental health state (in other words below the 16th percentile for mental health). Similar results were seen for inflammatory-derived scores. In the adult sample population, body mass index (BMI) mediated this inflammatory score-mental health relationship. Essentially, there was a cross-sectional connection between inflammatory diet patterns and mental well-being among adolescents, while similar associations were also found for “middle aged” adults. Reduction of inflammatory dietary components during childhood could improve mental well-being on a population level across the life course. [NPID: inflammation, inflammatory diet, midlife, middle age, adolescents, adults, mental health, Australia, Australians, BMI]

Year: 2021

Reference: Lycett, K. M., Wijayawickrama, D. J., Liu, M., Grobler, A., Burgner, D. P., Baur, L. A., Liu, R., Lange, K., Wake, M., & Kerr, J. A. (2022). Does an inflammatory diet affect mental well-being in late childhood and mid-life? A cross-sectional study. The British journal of nutrition, 127(6), 939–947. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114521001616