Beware! Poor nutrition can cause mental illness —Experts

CHINWE AGBEZE

It is no news that feasting on balanced meals is necessary for the optimal growth and wellbeing of an individual. What apparently is not known, is the vital role nutrition plays in the development, management and prevention of mental health disorders.

A recent scientific review published in Lancet psychiatry journal which involved 18 researchers around the world established a link between nutrition and mental health.

“Evidence is steadily growing for the relation between dietary quality and potential nutritional deficiencies and mental health and for the select use of nutrient-based supplements to address deficiencies”, researchers said in the review.

A psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-author of the Lancet study, Dr David Mischoulon maintains that a link exists but in varying degrees.

“If your diet is deficient in some nutrients, it can have many effects on the brain. It can be subtle in some people and may result in psychiatric illnesses such as depression, anxiety and so forth in others”

In a 2013 study published in Neurocase journal, two women with a two-year old history of bipolar disorder witnessed better stabilized moods than they did with their medication alone after they were place on a high fat, moderate protein and low carb diet.

Consultant psychiatrist and clinical psychologist, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Yaba, Dr Richard Adebayo reechoed the need to feed on proper nutrition as a way of preventing mental breakdown.

“The physical and mental health of an individual is highly interwoven. Lack of essential ingredients in the system will definitely affect the mental faculty causing it not to function well.

“The brain needs some multivitamins especially the water-soluble vitamins, the B group of vitamins, to function well. Taking food items that are not rich in these trace elements, minerals, multivitamins and even proteins which is necessary for body building will make the individual not to be able to cope well”, he explained.

Dr Adebayo advises against certain lifestyles that spell trouble and are capable of increasing one’s risk to mental problems.

“An Individual who consumes a lot of alcohol lacks vitamins B1, B2, B12 which is present in good nutrition. When the deficiency of this form thiamin or multivitamin in their food gets to a critical state in the brain, it manifests in mental disorder. Under nutrition or malnutrition can affect the brain.

“Processed or refined foods should be avoided; exercise is advised to ensure a normal weight is maintained as being overweight will in the long run affect the brain. Adults should eat more of fruits, vegetables and little of carbs”

The Psychiatric expert also encouraged nursing mothers to embrace exclusive breastfeeding as a way of guaranteeing the mental wellbeing of their children.

“Pregnant women are advised at an early stage to eat balanced diet not just for their own good but for the baby in the womb. When the baby is born, nursing mothers are again advised to breastfeed the baby for the first six months for the brain to function well because the breast milk contains all these multivitamins.

“A child that is not well nourished in the first year when the brain grows fastest, that child is more or less sentenced to a life of being a dullard because the cognitive and intellectual abilities will suffer. Children that are not properly fed will also not be mentally alert”