Diet and resilience

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.

This study states that since students report poorer diets and more trouble with mental health than the rest of the population, Whatnall and her team (2019) intend to find a link between psychological distress and resilience with diet in a group of Australian university students. The amount of fruits, vegetables, soft drinks, takeaway food and breakfast intakes were noted in the form of short diet questionnaires, whereas the Kessler Scale and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) were used respectively to assess psychological distress and resilience. Analyses were conducted on data from 2710 academics (average age 26.9, 30.4% male), with adjustments made for socio-demographic factors, undergraduate/postgraduate status, and health characteristics. Higher fruit and vegetable consumption per day (analysed separately), more consistently having breakfast, and less frequent intake of soft drinks and takeaway food were all significantly associated with both lower psychological distress and higher resilience. Further studies may be required to prove this potential link between psychological distress and resilience with dietary habits.

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.

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.

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.

A diet enriched with curcumin promotes resilience to chronic social defeat stress