Diet Impacting College Students
This study looked at the relationship between diet intake and mental health status via surveys of a young adult Appalachian college population.
22.1% of U.S. young adults are affected by mental health disorders, usually due to serotonin deficiency, and often treated with medications.
There has been an increase in the focus on the relationship between nutrition and poor mental health because the CNS needs certain nutrients to maintain the best possible function.
The article defines food insecurity as “the lack of consistent access to a sufficient quantity of healthy affordable foods”.
Food insecurity has been linked to poor mental health, and it’s also been found in students, as high as 59%.
Diet Impacting College Students
While this issue has been minimally studied, it does vary regionally. It does seem to be higher in the Appalachian region because of the difficulty of transporting shipments due to the Appalachian mountains.
Depressed/anxious women consume bigger quantities of unhealthy foods compared to depressed/anxious men.
Conclusion
The survey in this study was completed by 1,956 students. 36.7% of students were found to be food insecure. The study showed that when there was lower fruit and vegetable intake in males, there were higher rates of depression, however this was not found in females. Another result was that with higher added sugar intake, there were high rates of depression in both males and females.