If anxiety and stress are affecting your mental wellbeing, making changes to your diet could be an effective way to support your mental health. Here’s how you can use this diet to help reduce stress and improve your peace of mind.
If you suffer from a lot of stress, a Mediterranean diet (rich in fruits and vegetables, nuts and legumes) may help, according to a study. The study, conducted by a team from Binghamton University at the State University of New York, compared the Mediterranean diet with the traditional Western diet to understand how diet influences stress.
Stress can be a precursor to mental distress, said Lina Begdache, associate professor of health and wellness studies, adding that the findings show people may reduce their perception of how much stress they can tolerate by following a Mediterranean diet.
Begdache said the study, published in Nutrition and Health, “showed that the Mediterranean diet reduces mental stress.” “It may be associated with a decrease in the negative components of perceived stress and an improvement in its positive attributes.”
Benefits of the Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet is based on plant-based foods and healthy fats. It is rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and extra virgin olive oil; moderate in fish and seafood; low or moderate in wine; and low in red and processed meats, dairy products, animal fats and processed foods.
In direct contrast, the Western diet is known for its high concentration of low-quality, high-glycemic processed foods. To assess perceived stress levels, the team conducted a survey of over 1,500 people. The machine learning model decoded the results to show that “consumption of Mediterranean diet components is associated with lower levels of perceived stress and mental distress.”
On the other hand, the consumption of “components of the Western diet is linked to the perception of stress and mental distress.” In addition to the risks to mental health, the Western diet, rich in sugar, salt and fat, is also known for its harmful effects on health. Research has shown that it contributes to the global increase in the risk of non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
A recent study, published in the journal Heart, has shown the link between a Mediterranean diet and the risk of cardiovascular disease and death. The study, which focused especially on women, has shown that a Mediterranean diet can improve heart health and reduce the risk of heart disease and death by almost 25 percent.
(Inputs: IANS)
