Here’s some food for thought… Making the right nutritional choices can affect more than the fit of our clothes; it can have an impact on our mental health.

A new study by the UK’s Mental Health Foundation suggests that poor diet has played a role in the significant increase in mental health problems over the past 50 years.

The trend away from eating less fresh produce and consuming more saturated fats and sugars, including substances like pesticides, additives and trans-fats, can prevent the brain from functioning properly, says the Feeding Minds study. It makes a persuasive link between changing food fads and increases in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.

The message is not a new one, but it is perhaps the most forceful argument yet for paying more attention to the nutrition-mental health connection. What we put on our plates becomes the raw material for our brains to manufacture hormones and neurotransmitters – chemical substances that control our sleep, mood and behaviour. If we shortchange the brain, we also shortchange our intellectual and emotional potential.

Our diet also supplies the vitamins which our bodies cannot create, and which we need to help speed up the chemical processes that we need for survival and brain function. Vitamin deficiencies sometimes manifest themselves as depression and can cause mood swings, anxiety and agitation, as well as a host of physical problems.

Mental health professionals point out that good eating habits are vital for people wanting to optimize the effectiveness of and cope with possible side effects of medications used to treat mental illnesses.

Clearly, selecting which foods to eat has consequences beyond immediate taste bud satisfaction. To optimize our brain function, we need to eat a balanced diet of:

• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Foods high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish, nuts, seeds and eggs
• Protein
• Whole grains