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| Johnson, S. (n.d.). Cooked Chicken Breast [Cooked chicken breast on a plate with rosemary.]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/artbystevejohnson/ |
The conditions of metabolic disorders, obesity, and diabetes have substantially increased due to the changes of eating habits in Western cultures. As agricultural science has become more advanced the health violations that are associated with it are not as closely monitored. For example, there hasn’t been long term research on the effects of GMO induced foods because this discovery is fairly new to the food industry. The nutritional standards have shifted and in turn, have resulted in mental health disorders and other health related issues. Unhealthy diets contribute to more than just weight and heart issues. The article by Melo, Santos, and Ferreira, suggests that neuroinflammation is one of the main features of brain disorders that are linked to an unhealthy diet. Throughout the blog, there are a number of reviews that support the findings of the link between diet and mental illnesses, while highlighting the specific causes as well.
The transitional process of agricultural practices has been changed in order to produce food fast for more consumption rather than embracing its qualitative factors. In other words, the mass production of food effects the quality of accessible nutrition for us. This fast-paced mindset has made places like fast food restaurants popular and affordable but lessens the intake of foods that are actually good for you. In America there is a huge disparity between natural grown food and what ends up on our dinner plates. I want you to imagine chicken for example. These chickens are mass inseminated in farms thousands of miles away from our dinner tables. They are shot with hormones that make their bodies grow bigger and reproduce faster. Again, we are not sure the long-term effects of this, ultimately, they end up on our dinner tables. It also makes the consumer crave larger portions of food. Sugar consumption, intake of carbohydrates and the overuse of protein “is a key driver of the modern pandemic of obesity and metabolic conditions” (Melo et. Al, 2019). The article then goes on to address the concept of nutritional psychiatry and what it actually means. Nutritional psychiatry is a term that refers to the impact of certain nutrients in someone’s diet and how it coincides with psychiatric conditions. In other words, comparing provisions with behavior that are both uncontrollable.
When finding one of the causes of obesity, it has been shown that fatty acids have a huge impact on that because of its toxicity. Other dietary issues cause metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and brain dysfunction. For the rest of the article, it talked about the role that fatty acids plays to mental health issues, specifically depression. Though it is believed that having a balanced, healthy meal makes you happier, in a study conducted in 2014, it is shown that “healthy diets, including a high intake of fruit, vegetables, fish and whole grains, were inversely correlated with depression” (Melo et. Al, 2019). The authors also found another study that found similar results as well. Between all the RCTs (randomized controlled trails), the association between what people eat and the awareness of the mental and physical is significantly decreased in the Mediterranean diet.
Because of the way our bodies are made, dealing with just one food type with no side effects is almost impossible. However, the multiple meta-analyses studies have come up with way that can be a therapeutic target for diseases which is reducing levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The following section talks about the science behind saturated fatty acids, neuroinflammation, and possible links to mood disorders. There is a cell called the microglial cells, and what they do is “respond rapidly to pathological changes in the brain, altering their morphology and phagocytic behavior, and increasing cytotoxic responses by secreting NO, proteases and cytokines, such as TNF-α and IL-1β” (Melo et. Al, 2019). All that means is that the cells alters the brain, which contributes to mood disorders. Inflammation has also become an important factor for mood disorders. Some of the studies conducted where on mice and the research showed that “Increased consumption of high fat diet is related to depressive-like behavior and emotional disorders in mice” (Melo et. Al, 2019). Now, the next section in the article talks about polyunsaturated fatty acids, neuroinflammation, and the links to mood disorders. The nutritional transition that was discussed in the beginning has made high amounts of SFAs and PUFAs popular through dairy products, vegetable oils, and red meats. Docosahexaenoic acids and arachidonic acid are both major components in brain cells. These acids act as structural components.
In a study conducted by Kleniridders et. Al, it showed that “reduced insulin signaling in the brain, as a result of insulin resistance, led to increased levels of monoamine oxidases and increased dopamine clearance. They further showed that this change in dopamine metabolism led to age-related anxiety and depressive-like behavior in mice, results consistent with the above mentioned increasingly important role of dopamine signaling in mood disorders” (Melo et. Al, 2019). The results that they found basically led them to the conclusion that the signal of dopamine can be altered and that is another factor that contributes to mood disorders.
At the end of the article, the conclusion that the authors come up with were that with the failure of antidepressant therapies, the idea of having dietary interventions is not a bad one at all. In order to reach this goal, it is important to tailor the patients diets to help protect and strengthen their mental heal is important and the food consumed by humans so be further examined to keep up with the results.
By DeAundrae Ballard, University of Florida
References
Helen M. Melo, Luís Eduardo Santos, & Sergio T. Ferreira. (2019). Diet-Derived Fatty Acids, Brain Inflammation, and Mental Health. Frontiers in Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2019.00265
I found this article to be interesting because the idea of depression associated with food is something that isn't talked about much, but makes sense! Make sure to include the title of the article that you read, and also make your own title for your blog post so the reader can get an idea of what your topic will be before reading the whole thing. There are a few errors in sentence structure that you might want to review, but overall good job!
ReplyDeleteHey DeAundrae! I really enjoyed reading your blogpost. I think this is an important topic to discuss as like you said, so much of our food consists of GMOs. I did not realize, however, that we are un aware of a lot of the health consequences that comes with eating this type of food. That is a very interesting and concerning point. My only suggestion is to give your blogpost a title, in order to give readers a better understanding of what to expect to read. Great job on your blogpost!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post, I found this topic extremely interesting because I am a Nutrition major and nutritional psychology is something that is not addressed enough. Your chicken example was a great way to show how we are very unaware of what mass produced food actually contains or how it can effect our health, especially our mental health! I would only suggest that you add a title to your blog to help focus what you are trying to say, and give the reader some idea about what will be discussed. Overall great work!
ReplyDeleteI am personally very interest in nutrition so I found your blogpost to be very interesting! It is kind of crazy how we had no idea about GMO's a couple of years ago and it kind of makes you think what other harmful things could be in our food that we don't know about. It's kind of scary especially because you said an unhealthy diet can be linked to an unhealthy brain. I also never really thought about how mass production could affect the quality of the food we are eating. You also did a great job breaking down and putting into layman's terms all of the biological/scientific words.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised by the fact that the mass-produced food can have different quality compared with the naturally grown food. I was not sure if this is the case in the beginning of your blog, but the chicken example explained the reason for this fact very effectively. The relation between our diet choice and our mental health is also a new thing for me. My suggestion for improvement is to explain the scientific terms a little more especially towards the second half of your blog.
ReplyDeletefor the first article, the set up was perfect. Reading the article, was easy and the information was easy to understand. I found it interesting how they treat the animals, "they are shot with hormones that make their bodies grow bigger and reproduce faster." you did a great job inserting sources throughout your post, making your article more reliable and trustworthy. My one constructive note would be to mention what you think a good solution is. This gets readers thinking and possible thinking of solutions themselves.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog post. Specifically, I found the section on mental health and how it is related to the food we eat. This is extremely fascinating because it shows how diet can affect all aspects of our health, not just physical. Parts of your article I found slightly confusing, specifically the section that addresses the Mediterranean diet. I was confused as to whether or not you were saying if it had positive or negative mental health effects because if I am not mistaken, it is high in fat. I also wish that you elaborated on tailoring diets for people with mental health disorders as this is extremely interesting!
ReplyDelete