Influence of nutrition on mental health: Scoping review

This article by Suárez-López, Bru-Luna & Martí-Vilar (2023) aims to present a scoping review of existing studies on the impact of diet on mental health. Nutritional intake, appropriate nutrient levels, and maintaining a healthy body weight appear to influence mental well-being. Additionally, the use of psychotropic medications has been associated with weight gain. A total of fifteen prior research articles were reviewed using the PRISMA methodology, alongside SPIDER and GRADE tools, to analyze the relationship between diet and mental health. The findings indicate a clear connection between dietary habits and mental health. Low magnesium levels combined with high calcium levels are linked to anxiety, whereas supplementation with Melissa Officinalis helps alleviate such symptoms. Overall, adopting a healthy diet can reduce depressive symptoms, and vitamin D supplementation has shown improvements in mental health status. A well-balanced diet, particularly the Mediterranean diet, positively affects mental health. This review highlights that nutrients such as magnesium, vitamin D, and vitamin B6 play crucial roles in mental well-being, however, this review has limitations, as it defines “food” broadly to include any nutrient administered as an independent variable, potentially introducing linguistic and publication biases. [NPID: Mental health, nutrition, feeding, anxiety, depression, psychopathology]

 

Year: 2023

Reference: Suárez-López, L. M., Bru-Luna, L. M., & Martí-Vilar, M. (2023). Influence of nutrition on mental health: Scoping review. Healthcare, 11(15), 2183. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11152183

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