Dietary variety boosts mental health

If you want to perform well ‘up top’ for years to come, research suggests that you don’t cut out healthy foods.

Its long been said that variety is the spice of life. When it comes to diet, it also appears to be a recipe for better mental functioning as we age. An investigation involving 182,000 older adults published in Nature Mental Health found that people who typically included a wide variety of foods in their diet had better mental health and cognitive abilities, compared with those who ate a more limited diet; a category which included vegetarians and those eating a lower carb diet. Findings show that even those who preferred dietary patterns commonly considered healthful—like those including large quantities of fruits and vegetables—their mental performance was not as strong as those eating a “balanced” diet; defined as one including vegetables, fruits, cereals, nuts, seeds, pulses, moderate dairy, eggs and fish. It’s likely that the wider variety of healthy foods we eat the more diversity of brain-benefiting nutrients and phytochemicals we consume.