Adherence to the EAT-Lancet diet and incident depression and anxiety

Adherence to the EAT-Lancet diet and incident depression and anxiety

Xujia Lu, Luying Wu, Liping Shao, Yulong Fan, Yalong Pei, Xinmei Lu, Yan Borné & Chaofu Ke

High-quality diets have been increasingly acknowledged as a promising candidate to counter the growing prevalence of mental health disorders. This study aims to investigate the prospective associations of adhering to the EAT-Lancet reference diet with incident depression, anxiety and their co-occurrence in 180,446 UK Biobank participants. Degrees of adherence to the EAT-Lancet diet were translated into three different diet scores. Over 11.62 years of follow-up, participants in the highest adherence group of the Knuppel EAT-Lancet index showed lower risks of depression (hazard ratio: 0.806, 95% CI: 0.730–0.890), anxiety (0.818, 0.751–0.892) and their co-occurrence (0.756, 0.624–0.914), compared to the lowest adherence group. The corresponding hazard ratios (95% CIs) were 0.711 (0.627–0.806), 0.765 (0.687–0.852) and 0.659 (0.516–0.841) for the Stubbendorff EAT-Lancet index, and 0.844 (0.768–0.928), 0.825 (0.759–0.896) and 0.818 (0.682–0.981) for the Kesse-Guyot EAT-Lancet diet index. Our findings suggest that higher adherence to the EAT-Lancet diet is associated with lower risks of incident depression, anxiety and their co-occurrence.

How to maintain a healthy gut

Vincent Ho

With a few lifestyle and dietary changes, you can protect your gut microbiome, boost your immunity and improve your mood

There is increasing recognition that an important factor in maintaining gut health is the gut-brain axis. This refers to the physical and chemical connections between your gut and brain. There are many hundreds of millions of neurons in the gut, and the gut is often thought of as a ‘mini-brain’. The gut also produces a large amount of neurotransmitters, which are chemicals that transmit messages within the nervous system, including to the brain. One good example of a neurotransmitter is serotonin, which is responsible for regulating your mood, appetite and sleep. The gut provides approximately 95 per cent of the body’s total serotonin. Your gut microbes (more on them in a moment) and immune cells also play an important role in the gut-brain axis.

The gut-brain axis helps explain why your gut health can affect your mental health and vice versa. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS; a condition that can cause digestive discomfort and irregular bowel movements) is regarded as a disorder of gut-brain interaction. More women than men suffer from IBS, and symptoms often first occur in early adulthood. There is no single cause of IBS, but environmental factors – such as changes of routine, stress, anxiety or depression, infection and diet – can trigger symptoms. These symptoms can then be perpetuated by ongoing chronic stress, anxiety, depression, maladaptive coping strategies and negative beliefs.

Thanks to the gut-brain axis, dysbiosis can also play a role in mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. On the flip side, there is the potential for good bacteria to positively influence mental health. It’s thought that good bacteria can generate compounds that send signals to your brain that elicit positive mood, cognition and stress reduction. Some scientists have called such good bacteria ‘psychobiotics’ and this is a fascinating emerging research area.