Nutrition has long been discussed in the context of body weight management or metabolic and cardiovascular disease. But until very recently, the link between nutrition and mental or brain health rarely featured in psychology courses. I certainly didn’t hear about it during my studies.

Luckily, there’s been a shift in recent years.

Although many questions remain, research shows that what we eat and drink affects our mood and how our brain works. For example, frequent consumption of ultra-processed and high-sugar foods is associated not only with physical illnesses but also with poorer mental health.

A recent large-scale study using UK Biobank data examined associations between food preference patterns and mental health, cognitive performance, and brain volume (among other outcomes).

Let’s take a look!

What the authors did

In this study, the authors used a large sample of 181,990 participants with an average age of 71 years. All of them had completed a food preference questionnaire containing foods within the following 10 categories:

• Dairy

• Beverages (includes all non-alcoholic beverages except water)

• Alcohol

• Vegetables

• Starches (includes potatoes, bread, pasta, and pizza, among others)

• Snacks (for example, cake, ice cream, salty pretzels)

• Meat

• Fish

• Fruit

• Flavoring (includes salt, seasoning, sauces, and more)

Based on people’s preferences for these 10 categories, the authors identified 4 nutrition subtypes:

1. Starch-free or low starch: Strong preference for fruits, vegetables, and protein foods (meat, fish). Low preference for starchy foods.

2. Vegetarian: Strong preference for fruits and vegetables, but little to no preference for protein foods (meat, fish). It doesn’t mean that all members of this group were vegetarians, but their diet resembled a vegetarian diet.

3. High protein, low fiber: Strong preference for protein foods (meat, fish) but low preference for fruits and vegetables.

4. Balanced: Preferences for each of the 10 food types were relatively similar.

Here’s a graphical display of the 4 subtypes:

After assigning each participant to one of 4 subtypes based on their food preferences, the authors examined relationships among the subtypes and other variables.

Key findings

Here are some of the observations:

• Subtype 4 scored lower on mental health issues (e.g., depression, anxiety) and higher on overall well-being than the other groups.

• Subtype 4 also performed better on cognitive tests, although the differences were less consistent than for mental health.

• In brain scans, several regions had reduced volume in subtype 3 compared with subtype 4.

These results show that a balanced diet can be beneficial for mental and brain health.

As with any study, this study has some limitations:

• It shows an association, not a causal mechanism. It’s also possible that healthier people consume more balanced diets.

• The subtypes are based on food-preference questionnaires and may not accurately reflect the products participants actually consumed.

• The subtypes are very broad.

• The sample is from the UK and a specific age group, so it’s unclear whether the results generalize to other groups.

Bottom line

This study provides strong evidence that a balanced diet, rather than extremes, is associated with better cognitive performance, mental health, and even brain structure in older adults.

Although the study cannot prove causality, others suggest that diet can improve mental and brain health; for example, the SMILES trial found that a modified Mediterranean-style diet improves depressive symptoms.

So: diet is not just a sidebar; it’s a core pillar you should include in your brain-health toolkit.

Announcement: the Neuroscience-Optimized Morning Routine

Sound familiar? You wake up in the morning feeling behind. Your mind races with everything you need to do. You know you should meditate, journal, work out, and eat a healthy breakfast, but who has the time?

So you scroll your phone instead, feeling guilty, and the day spirals from there. Or you just rush to get your children to school and completely forget about yourself.

I’m building a guide to help you create a neuroscience-backed morning routine that even the busiest people can follow and that works WITH your brain, not against it.

No 5 AM wake-ups. No guilt. Just evidence-based strategies that reduce morning anxiety and set a calm tone for your day so you can be successful and productive. Made by a real neuroscientist with 20+ years in research and teaching, not some random internet guru.

If that’s something that might interest you, head to this link and leave your email address to get notified once it’s ready. No strings attached.

That’s it for today!

And now?

• You can follow me on X and Threads for more inspiration.

• If you find my newsletter valuable, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee here. ☕ It’s how I keep this newsletter free.

• If you’re looking for a ghostwriter with a strong science background, check out my Work with Me page or book a call to discuss how we could work together.

• Reply to this email with your thoughts or questions. I read every email. 💌

Until next time!

Best wishes,

Patricia (Dr. Schmidt) from creatorschmidt.com.