Diet and Mental Health Tools and Scales

The currently used self-report questionnaires to assess emotional eating do not account for the distinction between the experience of emotions and the resulting increase or decrease in food consumption. Meule et al. (2018) responded to this gap by developing a novel measurement scale for emotional eating, the Salzburg Emotional Eating Scale (SEES), where the higher end of the scale alludes to emotional overeating and the lower end to emotional undereating. Through their first study, the authors used a group of 40 emotional states, with the subsequent factor analysis identifying four SEES subscales: happiness, sadness, anger, and anxiety. Thereafter, the scale was curtailed to a total of 20 emotional states (five per subscale) and was further tested in two subsequent studies. SEES demonstrated a robust consistency in all three studies, showing through mean subscale scores that the highest tendencies to emotional overeating are associated with sadness and anger, and a substantial association was seen between emotional undereating and anxiety. Furthermore, the higher a participant scored on the happiness scale, the lower were their negative emotional scores, body mass index (BMI), and dietary derangements, while higher negative emotional scores were found to be associated with lower happiness subscale scores, higher BMI and increased dietary derangements. The authors comment that SEES provides a consistent option to examine emotional eating, improving on the specificity (by accounting for distinct emotional states) and span (by accounting for both over- and under-eating) of current investigative measures of the links between emotions and eating. [NPID: Emotional eating, positive emotions, negative emotions, arousal, eating behavior, BMI]

At present, Brazil is experiencing a brisk transition in nutritional habits, causing a reduction in diet health. The Eating Motivation Survey, investigating 15 motivators behind eating (for example, choice of food based on nutritional healthiness or favorable taste profiles), may be useful in discerning the factors underlying observed dietary transitions. To better understand these distinct forces that propel this transition aside from environmental factors, Sproesser et al. (2019) conducted their study aiming to evaluate a Brazilian Portuguese version of The Eating Motivation Survey. 442 study participants submitted an online survey that included 15 motivator factors and 45 items. The results collected demonstrated an acceptable fit for the model, good factor loadings and corrected-item scale correlations, and overall convergent validity. The authors comment that these results attest to the validity of the Brazilian Portuguese version of The Eating Motivation Survey as an assessment tool for factors driving dietary choices and habits in Brazil. [NPID: Brazil, The Eating Motivation Survey, consistent structure, cross-country replication, cross-cultural validity, food choice motives]

In this systematic literature review, LaChance & Ramsey (2018) aimed to explore foods that were demonstrated to contain the highest density of effective nutrient elements used to treat and prevent depression. The authors firstly extrapolated a list of antidepressant nutrients from 34 nutrients essential for wellbeing, and subsequently acquired data on particular foods that contained a significant concentration of one antidepressant nutrient at a minimum. These foods were finally investigated using the Antidepressant Food Score (AFS, a nutrient profiling scale designed to recognize which foods contain the highest density of nutrients and the supporting evidence in literature backing their utility in depression) for density of antidepressant nutrient content, with analysis on plant and animal foods conducted separately. The authors identified 12 antidepressant nutrients derived from food that can help prevent and/or treat depression, namely: Folate, iron, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), magnesium, potassium, selenium, thiamine, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin C, and zinc. Foods boasting the highest density of these nutrients included bivalve molluscs (oysters, mussels), seafood, organ meat, leafy vegetables (such as lettuce), peppers, and cruciferous plants (like cauliflower, bok choy, collard greens, and brussels sprouts). The authors conclude that their list of food groups with the highest twelve antidepressant nutrients - i.e. the Antidepressant Foods - should be an objective of focus during the design and implementation steps of future studies by researchers, and are useful as an adjunct intervention for the treatment and prevention of depression. [NPID: Depressive disorder, mental disorders, diet, diet therapy, food]

Patients suffering from serious mental illnesses (SMI) have higher odds of physical health complications compared to the general population, with unhealthy dietary habits and disorganized nutritional patterns at the top of the etiological reasons. Currently available nutrition-risk screening tools are not optimized for use in mental health services, and there are no definitive mental health services-focused nutritional risk screening tools available. Teasdale et al. (2021) present their works in this paper, outlining the principle and methodology behind developing and authenticating the NutriMental screener, a screening tool suitable for use in clinical settings to discern at-risk mental illness populations experiencing dietary and nutritional concerns, in order to expedite referral to specialized clinical care. NutriMental screener emerged through five developmental phases: Phase 1 - expansion on nutrition-related domains of interest from other screening tools used in mental illnesses, Phase 2 - review of literature and interviews to help recognize further domains of interest, Phase 3 - consorting with clinicians and SMI patients to establish accord on screener’s questionnaire, Phase 4 - Screener underwent multinational feasibility and preliminary validation studies, and finally, Phase 5 - Screener was tested in formal validation studies. The authors comment that producing a nutrition-risk screening tool for mental health services is critical to correcting the disproportionate care and gaps in life expectancy experienced by individuals suffering from SMI. [NPID: Diet, eating, mental disorders, mental health, mental illness, nutrition, nutrition screening, nutritional psychiatry]