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 today.
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 industrialised
diets.
A further report, Changing Diets, Changing Minds, is also
published today by Sustain, the organisation that campaigns for better
food. It warns that the NHS bill for mental
illness, at almost £100bn a year, 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, South Yorkshire. 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 stabilising 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. "It costs £1,000 a week to keep someone in a
psychiatric hospital.
How much does good food cost? We need mentally healthy school meals,
and mentally healthy hospital foods," he said.
###
Junk food can lead to
mental illness
Posted Sep 2nd 2006 5:01PM by Sarah
J. Gim
According to reports published last week by the
Mental Health Foundation and Sustain, an organization that campaigns
for better food in the UK, junk food and the absence of essential fats,
vitamins and minerals appear to have contributed to
increasing mental illness: attention deficit disorder (ADD),
depression, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
Nutritionist Caroline Stokes said that mental health patients
had the poorest diets, "eating lots of convenience foods, snacks,
takeaways, chocolate bars, crisps." Additionally, they are "drinking a
litre or two of cola a day."
source: http://www.slashfood.com/2006/09/02/junk-food-can-lead-to-mental-illness/
How much will that diet cost you?
(9/03/2006)
