Can the Foods Minnesotans Eat Impact Mental Health?

All of us know a picky eater. Whether it is one of your children, or that friend who you know no matter where you eat, you could easily put money on what they will order.  

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I had a childhood friend who would eat what he called a “Jam Sandwich”, which consisted of two pieces of plain white bread “jammed” together. And if he wanted variation, he would put plain potato chips in between the bread. To say he was picky is a bit of an understatement. 

There are obvious concerns about not getting enough nutritional value in one’s diet being picky, but now there’s another reason why being picky could have adverse effects. Our memory could decline more rapidly without getting enough mixture of foods. 

I learned of this study from The Morning Brew, a daily email of news and information I subscribe to, that cited a Washington Post article that displayed results of one of the largest and longest health studies in the world from the U.K. Biobank.  

Basically, the study said people who did not eat a variety of foods did not have the same or as good cognitive performance or mental well-being as those who ate different foods regularly.  

The article even went on to say that some of the findings go against the health benefits that we are told about in certain diets, such as a vegetarian diet. The U.K. Biobank study found that a those who ate only a vegetarian diet had an elevated risk of anxiety. 

This is a large study that broke down the results of 182,000 older adults in Britain. And the study also said that more research would need to be done to understand why eating different foods can be good for your mental health.  

If it’s your child that is picky, you can hope that they will grow out of it. But if it’s your significant other or friend who is the picky one, maybe you can point back to this article to encourage them to consider developing different eating habits.