Dietary Patterns and Their Role in the Prevention and Management of Mental Health Disorders

Purpose: In order to better understand the relationship between nutrition and brain health, we compared different studies and their results to evaluate the significant association between diet and preventing psychological & neurological disorders such as: Alzheimer’s disease, depression or how different diet patterns can influence mental and brain health. Method: This research includes a descriptive and retrospective study, including a number of 280 subjects of both sexes and different ages, who accomplished a proposed survey. A statistical analysis was made targeting a variety of parameters that indirectly reflects the impact of diet on mental health. Results: General health– 46,8% of subjects confirm the presence of a high impact on general health (131 cases), followed by the category thinking that chose the presence of a very high impact (114 cases, 40,7%). Physical health – in this case the statistical analysis highlighted equal percentages among high (127 cases, 45,4%) and very high impact (126 cases, 45,0%) on physical health. Mental health – 43,6% of subjects consider that adopting a healthy diet is followed by a significant impact mostly on mental health (122 cases, 43,6%). Focus capacity– 43,2% of subjects consider that healthy alimentation has a significant effect on the ability to focus (121 cases). The ability to memorise – similarly to the previous section, the analysis indicated in the previous item that diet has a high impact on the capacity to memorise (109 cases, 38,9%). Good disposition – the major impact is shown is shown on this aspect as well (125 cases, 44,6%). Conclusion: Over 70% of the subjects involved in this research paper have healthy eating behaviours in correlation with the high percentage of patients without any neuro-degenerative or mental health disorders. Most of the subjects consider that healthy nutrition has a significant impact on health in all its forms (general, mental, physic), but not all of them have healthy food habits, nor use their knowledge. Promising results show that healthy nutrition positively contributes in alleviating focus or learning capacity. There has been a distinctive link between daily caffeine consumption which is associated with an unhealthy diet and unhealthy diet behaviours. 24,6% of subjects with an unhealthy diet and 4,9% of those with relative healthy diet agree daily consumption of soda drinks. Negative feelings, with a significant emotional impact were reported in most of the cases or in superior proportions in subjects with an unhealthy diet (prevailing or intermittent), proving that unhealthy habits might have an important effect on mental health, while exacerbating mental health disorders.