Health News Update: Standard American Diet Fuels Anxiety and Gut Disruption
Hello again everyone:
The Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) is considered a high fat food plan that is associated with obesity and altered mood and brain function. Any food plan that is more than around 20% fat could be considered high fat, and the typical American diet has been measured to be at or above 35% for both men and women. Not only that, it is not good fat but fried, oxidized, and otherwise adulterated fat and too much of it. The U.S.D.A. estimates that 32% of our calories come from animal foods, 57% from processed foods, and only 11% from whole, unprocessed grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Reverse those numbers and you have a much healthier approach. A new report issued these findings:
· A high-fat diet can disrupt the gut microbiome, leading to an imbalance in gut bacteria.
· An altered gut microbiome can influence brain chemicals, potentially increasing anxiety-like behaviors.
· Healthy fats, like those found in fish, olive oil, and nuts, are beneficial for the brain and may counteract the negative effects of a high-fat diet.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/diet.htm
https://neurosciencenews.com/anxiety-diet-microbiome-26331/
Bottom Line:
While this is a study on rats, there are similar articles on humans with the same results, such as these:
“Analysis revealed an association between less anxiety and more fruits and vegetables, omega-3 fatty acids, “healthy” dietary patterns, caloric restriction, breakfast consumption, ketogenic diet, broad-spectrum micronutrient supplementation, zinc, magnesium and selenium, probiotics, and a range of phytochemicals.
Analysis revealed an association between higher levels of anxiety and high-fat diet, inadequate tryptophan and dietary protein, high intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates, and “unhealthy” dietary patterns.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8706568/
So, what do the researchers advise?
“Eat as many different kinds of fruits and vegetables as possible, add fermented foods to your diet to support a healthy microbiome and lay off the pizza and fries. Also, if you do have a hamburger, add a slice of avocado. Some research shows that good fat can counteract some of the bad.”
Sounds a lot like the Mediterranean diet to me. Respect yourself and eat right, please.
