Dietary patterns and mental health

 

Fatty acids are a major constituent of the membranes of almost all cells in the body and account for around two thirds of the dry mass of the brain. Some forms of these lipids are not able to be synthesised within the body and must therefore be obtained directly through diet for the maintenance of healthy functioning.

 

Significant changes have occurred in the ‘average’ diet of children in Australia and other developed countries over recent years. Until quite recently, there has been surprisingly little research into the role which these changes in dietary patterns may play in shaping children’s outcomes in areas such as cardiovascular disease risk and mental health problems.

 

• Child and adolescent mental health problems are common and burdensome, affecting around one in six WA children in any one year.
• Depression has become more frequent in children and adolescents over recent decades. The average age of onset of these problems has also become progressively earlier over this period.
• One of the more striking aspects of the changes in the average western diet has been a substantial change in omega-6 and the omega-3 fatty acids intake.

Investigating the relationship between nutrition and brain development in utero, during infancy and over the course of childhood is an important new focus of metabolic and neurodevelopmental research. Early findings on the relationship between dietary quality and mental health in the Raine Study showed that children with identifiable behavioural or emotional difficulties on the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist were more likely to have a lower diet quality as measured by our diet quality index. As their mean diet quality score increased, all areas of mental health improved, suggesting that healthy diets should be encouraged in adolescent children for the benefit of their mental health and wellbeing.

 

Australian Rotary Health Research funding has enabled more detailed analysis of dietary factors and trajectories of mental health from infancy to adolescence. This has included new methods of dietary pattern analysis coupled with blood assays of essential fatty acids and other key nutrients to establish the extent to dietary patterns may contribute to adolescent behavioural or emotional difficulties when other socioeconomic and psychosocial factors are taken into account.