# study shows poor diet, mental illness connected



## skyydl (Jul 4, 2006)

Study Shows Poor Diet, Mental Illness Connected 
By Felicity Lawrence

LONDON: Changes in diet over the past 50 years appear to be an important factor behind a significant rise in mental ill health in the UK, say two reports published recently.

The Mental Health Foundation says scientific studies have clearly linked attention deficit disorder, depression, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia to junk food and the absence of essential fats, vitamins and minerals in industrialized diets.

A further report, Changing Diets, Changing Minds, was also published recently by Sustain, the organization that campaigns for better food. It warns that the UK national health service bill for mental illness will continue to rise unless the government focuses on diet and the brain in its food, farming, education and environment policies.

"Food can have an immediate and lasting effect on mental health and behaviour because of the way it affects the structure and function of the brain," Sustain's report says.

Its chairman, Tim Lang, said: "Mental health has been completely neglected by those working on food policy. If we don't address it and change the way we farm and fish, we may lose the means to prevent much diet-related ill health."

Both reports, which have been produced collaboratively, outline the growing scientific evidence linking poor diet to problems of behaviour and mood.

Rates of depression have been shown to be higher in countries with low intakes of fish, for example. Lack of folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, selenium and the amino acid tryptophan are thought to play an important role in the illness.

Deficiencies of essential fats and antioxidant vitamins are also thought to be a contributory factor in schizophrenia.

A pioneering nutrition and mental health programme, thought to be the only one of its kind in Britain, was carried out at Rotherham in the north of England.

According to Caroline Stokes, its research nutritionist, the mental health patients she saw generally had the poorest diets she had ever come across.

"They are eating lots of convenience foods, snacks, takeaways, chocolate bars, crisps. It's very common for clients to be drinking a litre or two of cola a day. They get lots of sugar but a lot of them are eating only one portion of fruit or vegetable a day, if that."

The therapy includes omega-3 fatty acids and multivitamins, with advice on cutting out junk food and replacing it with oily fish, leafy vegetables for folic acid, Brazil nuts for selenium, and food providing tryptophan.

Some patients who resist treatment with drugs accept nutritional therapy and most have reported an improvement in mood and energy.

Ms Stokes said: "Within the first month there's been a significant reduction in depression. We've had letters from (the patients') psychiatrists saying they can see a huge difference."

One sufferer who benefited from a dietary change was James McLean, who was at university when first diagnosed with bipolar disorder (manic depression).

After he had been sectioned repeatedly, his father read about the role of nutrition in mental health. The pair went privately to the Brain Bio Centre, in London, where Mr McLean's nutrient levels were checked; he was allergic to gluten and yeast and was given supplements, including vitamin B and essential fatty acids.

"I'd been eating lots of intense carbohydrate foods ... because they were cheap, and very little fruit or vegetables," Mr McLean said. Now, he excludes wheat from his diet too.

He added: "I have more energy and confidence, I sleep better, and I came off the anti-psychotic drugs, although I still take mood stabilizing ones."

Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, acknowledged that mental illness results from a complex interplay of biological, social, psychological and environmental factors, but thought diet should be an everyday component of mental health care.

"We need mentally healthy school meals, and mentally healthy hospital foods," he


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2006)

I think there may be a connection there, but it def doesnt apply to me. I take multi vitamin, fish oils, I drink 3/4 gallon of water every day and i workout three times a week.

And i eat good foods. I eat alot of fish, chicken, beef, rice, veges, and fruits. And i dont eat any fastfood, any at all. And i dont smoke. And i dont drink.


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## skyydl (Jul 4, 2006)

we'll if you wasnt taking care of your self then you could be much worse cause if you can work out like that then your doing good cause if i walk around the corner to 7-11 most of the time i get dr/dp so bad i almost just drop , and it gets so bad some times i cant hardly get out of bed or even lift my head ,and its even a struggle to clean my house
so just keep on taking care of your self keep eating healthy and i beleive you will make it through all this ,and also working out to much can be causing some problems to and all the supplaments could be also cause some of them could contain harmfull chemicals ,thats why i think all natural is best not that thers anything with taking cod liver or omega 3 tablets you just wanna be carefull of what you take


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## Xu (May 6, 2006)

> and all the supplaments could be also cause some of them could contain harmfull chemicals


Yeah, I got some bad quality stuff off of ebay before, and it had really poor effects on me. I could tell it was different. The good quality, fecking expensive stuff with no fillers etc is great though.

I realized that some of the suppliments my mother takes for Huntington's contain unnecessary things in them. It may be a differentiation on opinion, but she sometimes gets cheap fish pills that contain like every type of useless filler out there, and also she gets vegge pills that have silica in them. I wouldn't want to ingest that added stuff daily, my body just tells me it wouldn't be good.


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## +[ thedeadpoet ]+ (Jul 23, 2006)

Xu said:


> fecking


Jaysis, thought that was only an Irish term.

Anywho, be careful of supplements containing Jinsang or traces thereof, it can counter-act alot of anti-depressants on the market - especially the older ones.


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