Food, nutrition and mood

Please click on the links below to read our articles. If you are interested in research findings, click here for links to research reports.

Nutrition and Addiction – a handbook Supporting recovery from food and substance misuse with nutritional and lifestyle interventions – Edited by Martina Watts December 2011

Food and behaviour – expert workshop: four speakers contribute to the results of a modern diet lacking in DHA and omega fatty acids – David Marsh 2007

Food for the brain: focusing on nutrition for mental health disorders, how deficiencies can be traced back to our refined, sugary diets and depleted soils, and promoting healthy behavioural development – Jane Lorimer and Michelle Berriedale-Johnson 2006

Memory and the brain – new discoveries: including findings that follow on from the Food for the brain conference – The Letten Foundation 2006

Changing diets changing minds: an article mapping how our diets have changed since our ancestors were hunter-gatherers, and how this is reflected by an increase in obesity and mental health problems – Sustain 2006

Optimum nutrition for the mind: outlining how the brain can be adversely affected, and how to combat this with nutrition – 2005

Generating healthy brains: a report on a conference on the importance of pre-conceptual nutrition, looking at recent and historical evidence, for optimum brain development – 2006

First Published in 2006

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Microbiome restoration diet improves digestion, cognition and physical and emotional wellbeing. June 2017
This research study is by Kate Lawrence (of the Foods Matter team) and her colleague, Jeannette Hyde. It is a small-scale preliminary study exploring the influence of a dietary manipulation on physical and emotional wellbeing. The diet, designed to optimise gut bacteria, was found to reduce medical symptoms by 70%. Of specific note, digestive symptoms and emotion symptoms including depression and anxiety improved significantly following this month-long intervention. 8th June 2017

Gut bacteria regulate happiness – 06/12

Dietary sensitivities and ADHD symptoms - 35 years of research: artificial food colours (AFCs) are not the cause of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but evidence suggests that some people with ADHD improve when eating an AFC-free diet – 04/11

Link between fast food and depression confirmed
03/12

Food affects behaviour
02/11

People who eat processed foods are more likely to suffer from depression
03/10

Great Chocolate news – it can reduce your stress levels while warding off Alzheimer’s and heart attack.
02/10

Plastic used in food and medicine containers could affect mood and memory
(10/08)

The brain bowel connection
(27/07/07)

Mood-Food Connection: people tend to eat more unhealthy comfort foods when they feel sad than when they feel happy
(04/02/07)

First Published April 2007

NB Information on this site is not a substitute for medical advice and no liability can be assumed for its use.

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