Diet and Resilience
The CNP Diet and Resilience Research Category consolidates research exploring the interdependent relationship between dietary intake and resilience. To view each original study on the open internet, click “Original.” To view the CNP summary of the study, click “CNP Summary.” While a small portion of the studies in this research category is available below for free, the full set of studies (and their summaries) are available to CNP members through the CNP Library Membership.
2019
Dietary diversity was positively associated with psychological resilience among elders: a population-based study
Yin et. al (2019) tackled the association between dietary diversity (DD) and psychological resilience in an elderly Chinese population. With 8571 community-based citizens taking part in this study, the frequency of food groups in their diets were reported, and psychological resilience assessed through a simplified resilience score (SRS). Lower DD resulted in poorer resilience compared to those with good DD, with the association proving significant [ β (95% CI) = -0.94 (-1.07, -0.81) for SRS (p<0.01) and odds ratio (OR) of 1.83]. The interaction effects of age with DD were also statistically significant with p-value less than 0.001 for SRS and low SRS status. When age groups were analysed, it was revealed that the younger subgroup was more likely to score less on SRS if on a poor DD compared to the older subgroup, with 83% and 61% increases in occurrence in separate analyses. The younger subjects consuming diets with higher diversity on average scored higher on SRS than others (compared to this group, risk of scoring low in resilience was higher in those younger with low DD, oldest with good DD, oldest old with poor DD, as ORs were 2.39, 1.28, and 2.03 respectively). Increased consumption of vegetables, fruits and nuts proved to contribute most to the DD. The researchers may have discovered that greater diet diversity is crucial in maintaining/improving resilience in the Chinese elderly and perhaps even more important in the younger elderly. [NPID: resilience, diet diversity, Chinese, China, elderly, vegetables, fruits, FV intake, nuts]
CNP Research Summary can be found in the CNP Library Membership
2018
Mediterranean-type diet is associated with higher psychological resilience in a general adult population: Findings from the Moli-Sani study
Setting out to discover the relationship between psychological resilience and dietary habits in a general adult population, Bonaccio et. al (2018) examined the 10812 participants of the Moli-sani study (2005-2010). The study measured food intake by the EPIC food frequency questionnaire, psychological resilience by the Connor Davidson Psychological Resilience Score, and adherence to the Mediterranean diet by both a Greek Mediterranean diet score and an Italian Mediterranean Index. The findings suggest positive associations between adherence to a Mediterranean diet and consumption of vegetable-based diet (using the ‘olive oil and vegetables pattern’) with psychological resilience. Increased polyphenol or antioxidants in the diet and greater diversity in fruit and vegetable consumption were also linked to enhanced psychological resilience, whereas associations with Western diets were weak. The conclusion was that better diet quality, the Mediterranean diet and vegetable-based dietary patterns may build up psychological resilience in adults whereas Western diets don’t appear to help. [NPID: resilience, EPIC, Med diet, Mediterranean diet, olive oil, vegetables, polyphenol, antioxidants, Western-style diet, WS diet]
2019
A diet enriched with Curcumin promotes resilience to chronic social defeat stress (animal)
Aubry and team (2019) experiments on a strain of mice highly susceptible to chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) to test the efficacy of 1.5% dietary curcumin, a polyphenol compound found in the turmeric plant known to possess anti-inflammatory and antidepressant properties, on promoting resilience. Although a 4.5 fold improvement in stress resilience was seen in the mice with administration during CSDS, 36% of the mice were still susceptible to the effects of the stress (non-responders). Those who demonstrated resilience (responders) were found to release less corticosterone following acute restraint stress and had lower concentrations of peripheral IL-6 compared to non-responders, which could indicate the involvement of the NF-κB pathway in the response. Another promising sign was the preventative effect curcumin had on anxiety-like behaviour in both responders and non-responders in the elevated-plus maze and open field test. The study provides the first preclinical evidence of curcumin in improving resilience in response to CSDS, and also suggests its potential role in preventing anxiety-like symptoms during exposure to chronic social stress. [NPID: resilience, stress, CSDS, curcumin, polyphenols, turmeric, anti-inflammatory, inflammation, depression, corticosterone, anxiety, social stress]
CNP Research Summary can be found in the CNP Library Membership
2019
Adherence to a Mediterranean dietary pattern is associated with higher quality of life in a cohort of Italian adults
This 2019 study inspects the diet and demographic data of 2044 adults living in southern Italy to find a link between overall quality of life (QoL) and adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Quality of life was self-reported using the Manchester Short Appraisal (MANSA), while the dietary information was taken through food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) and a Mediterranean diet adherence score. All but one component of the MANSA were positively associated with adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MeD). An association with self-rated mental health could not be found. With regards to the Mediterranean diet adherence score, there was a significant linear trend of association observed with the overall quality of life. These results show that there is a strong connection between adhering to a healthy dietary pattern and the perception of having a higher quality of life. [NPID: resilience, Italy, quality of life, Med diet, Mediterranean diet, perception]
CNP Research Summary can be found in the CNP Library Membership
2020
A systematic review of the association between dietary patterns and health-related quality of life
The objective of this 2020 review was to evaluate the evidence on the relationship between dietary patterns and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) since past studies have produced inconsistent results. The focus was not aimed at the association between single nutrients or foods with HRQOL because this would fail to consider the complex interactions that exist between nutrients. After conducting a literature search for relevant papers investigating the interlink between dietary patterns and HRQOL, this paper examined 13 studies (with an accumulative total of 43,445 participants). The data indicated that, after excluding 3 studies showing no significant association, healthy dietary patterns such as "Mediterranean", "healthy" and "fruit and vegetable" dietary patterns were linked with better health-related quality of life scores in the physical and mental domains. The quality of the included studies ranged between medium to high quality. To summarize the results, unhealthy and “Western” dietary patterns related to lower quality of life scores, whereas “healthy” and “Mediterranean” dietary habits positively correlated with health-related quality of life scores in both physical and mental components. [NPID: dietary patterns, diet, habits, eating, Mediterranean, quality of life, healthy, fruits and vegetables, nutrients, nutritious, Western]