The relationship between a plant-based diet and mental health: Evidence from a cross-sectional multicentric community trial (LIPOKAP study)
Plant-based eating regimens may be neuroprotective and have positive effects on mental health. The correlation between a plant-based dietary index and indicators of mental health, however, is weakly supported by the available research. In this cross-sectional research study by Haghighatdoost et al. (2023), a sizeable multicentric adult sample (n = 2,033) was used to investigate the relationship between anxiety, depression, and plant-based dietary indices (PDI). The dietary intakes of the subjects were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire, developing a whole PDI, a healthy PDI (hPDI), and an unhealthy PDI (uPDI). The HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale – validated Iranian version) was used to evaluate for anxiety and depression. After possible confounders (sex, age, energy, physical activity, marital status, and smoking) were adjusted, the authors noted that PDI and hPDI were unrelated to depression and anxiety. However, the crude model showed that the greatest uPDI use correlated with increasing the risk of anxiety by around 50% and around twice the risk of developing depression. The relationships were little altered after possible confounders were taken into account. The authors conclude that while whole plant-based and healthy plant-based diets were not linked to anxiety and depression, bad plant-based diets were linked to a greater risk of these conditions. [NPID: Depression, anxiety, plant based diet, vegetarian, vegan, adults, nutrition]
Year: 2023
