While going on a diet isn’t usually a joy, the connection between changing our eating habits and changing our mental health is a topic worth exploring in more depth. As Vox confirms, researchers’ interest in the link between food and the brain is only growing – and the discoveries are numerous.
Science has thus established a link between the intestinal microbiota and mental health, but also between deficiencies in certain micronutrients, such as magnesium or choline, and disorders such as anxiety and depression. On the other hand, it is still difficult to determine how taking food supplements could relieve certain symptoms: data from solid clinical trials are sorely lacking.
The specialists currently working on the subject are unanimous: the link between food and the brain is too “often neglected”as stated by Uma Naidoo, director of the nutritional psychiatry department at Massachusetts General Hospital, also author of the book Anxiety and nutrition – Calm your mind with food. Research carried out in the years to come will eventually fill this gap.
A probable link, not a certain link
In the meantime, we already have some interesting avenues to understand how the link is made between what we ingest (or what we do not ingest) and how we feel. “The environment where food is digested is also where neurotransmitters are produced”explains Uma Naidoo. We can add that the intestine produces most of the body’s serotonin, as well as a good part of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the main inhibitory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system.
Researchers have known for years that gut inflammation and changes in the gut microbiota are linked to mental disorders like anxiety and depression, and possibly other psychiatric disorders. It has also been shown that deficiencies in several micronutrients (magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin D, omega-3, etc.) have an impact on the mental health of certain mammals (tests on mice are conclusive), but with regard to humans, the conclusions are difficult to be as definitive.
Thus, a 2024 study concluded that“Magnesium supplementation is likely helpful in the treatment of mild anxiety and insomnia”especially in people who already have a magnesium deficiency. However, the results of studies showing the effectiveness of magnesium supplements for people suffering from mental disorders such as anxiety or depression are often contradictory, probably due to the wide variety of forms these supplements can take.
Experts agree that doctors should prescribe more blood tests to their patients suffering from anxiety or depressive disorders, because treating the deficiencies can help some of them feel better. This obviously does not mean that depression or severe anxiety problems can be cured with a few magnesium capsules or chewable vitamin C.
“If you think magnesium has the same effect on anxiety as a benzodiazepine, you may be very disappointed.”summarizes Alexander Rawji, New York psychiatrist and main author of the 2024 study. Nutrition can be a lever, but we currently know neither the scope nor the complete instructions for use.
