Food and nutrition that support mental health

Abstract

Nutritional psychiatry is a new area that approaches the prevention and treatment of mental disorder and the elucidation of the mechanism from the viewpoint of diet and nutrition. Numerous observational studies have found a link between diet and mental health, and a relatively small number of intervention studies have suggested that dietary guidance and nutritional supplementation may improve depressive symptoms, but no conclusion have been reached. The dissemination of effective interventions requires the development of evidence-based guidelines through systematic reviews. Required research in the future is the establishment and verification of effective dietary guidance based on evidence, high-quality clinical trials including biomarker measurement, and biological research that approaches the elucidation of the mechanism.