Vitamin B deficiency (B1, B6, B7, B12, B complex) can contribute to depression, anxiety, and mood swings. It is associated with a disruption in the nervous system as well as the circulatory system. B12/B9, or folate, is at the forefront of mood management.
Being deficient in certain minerals and vitamins can affect your physical and mental energy, your body's health along with the biochemical balance in your brain, resulting in anxiety or increasing the levels you're currently experiencing.
Having a mineral deficiency like iron deficiency anemia can predispose people to hyperventilate and experience panic attacks at a higher rate than those without anemia.
Eating disorders and malnourishment have a profound effect on cognitive function. The ability to concentrate, focus, and process information dramatically declines as health deteriorates. Individuals are often irritable, apathetic, and very disengaged from life.
Weight loss itself can also contribute to anxiety, so it is important to address anxiety and rule out other conditions. Reducing anxiety may or may not cause the weight to go or come back, but is important for healthier living.
One of the main causes of diet anxiety is focusing too much on the future instead of the present. Instead, try focusing on what you can do today while taking these changes one day at a time. This can make starting a new diet more sustainable and far less overwhelming.
Losing weight helps improve many aspects of your emotional health, such as sleep, energy, vitality, and mood. All of these can have a direct impact on your confidence, personal outlook, body image, sex life, and social life.
Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE), first described by Carl Wernicke in 1881, is a severe neuropsychiatric disorder due to a nutritional deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B 1). WE is characterized by a typical triad of altered mental status, ataxia of gait and ocular sign.
These associations were particularly strong for aggression and anxiety. Another American study found that child hunger was independently associated with mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
Skipping meals releases stress hormones like cortisol to increase energy, which causes stress on the body and increases anxiety, as well as depression, diabetes and high blood pressure.
When you stick to a diet of nutrient-rich foods, you're setting yourself up for fewer mood swings and an improved ability to focus. Studies have even found that clean diets consisting of mainly whole, unprocessed foods, can help with symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Diet and emotional well-being
What it boils down to is that what we eat matters for every aspect of our health, but especially our mental health. Several recent research analyses looking at multiple studies support that there is a link between what one eats and our risk of depression, specifically.
Foods naturally rich in magnesium may, therefore, help a person to feel calmer. Examples include leafy greens, such as spinach and Swiss chard. Other sources include legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Foods rich in zinc such as oysters, cashews, liver, beef, and egg yolks have been linked to lowered anxiety.
Foods rich in protein contain amino acids to help produce key neurotransmitters in preventing and treating depression and anxiety. Protein packed meals and snacks help you avoid sugary, processed foods, which can trigger anxiety and depression.
Tryptophan in the brain affects the neurotransmitters levels. Consumption of diets low in carbohydrate tends to precipitate depression, since the production of brain chemicals serotonin and tryptophan that promote the feeling of well being, is triggered by carbohydrate rich foods.
In addition to these physical consequences, malnutrition also results in psychosocial effects such as apathy, depression, anxiety and self-neglect.
The cumulative proportion of recovery was 0.6% at 2 months, 17.5% at 3 months, 49.5% and 78% at 5 and 6 months, respectively (Figure 2).
If insufficient nutrients are consumed, a change in mood and energy levels will occur and a negative cycle will ensue. Other psychological causes can include eating disorders, substance addiction and dementia.
Malnutrition is positively associated with cognitive decline in centenarians and oldest-old adults: A cross-sectional study.
In a study of obese older adults, 3 months after a significant weight loss, they reported less tension, depression, anger, and fatigue. And it went both ways. People whose moods were better dropped more pounds. Keeping a healthy weight lowers risk for depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems.
It can also mean navigating a host of new social situations, like flirting and dating. “There is this weight bias and negative attitudes towards individuals in a larger body,” said Goldman. “And after people lose a significant amount of weight, they really do start experiencing this. People are kinder and nicer.