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Keep calm and eat cauli
What uni students’ eating habits
mean for their stress levels,
resilience and mental health.
By Nicole Madigan
A
ny university student will tell you
the pressures of academic study
often cause significant levels of
anxiety and stress.
Well, a new study has found that a simple
change in diet could have a noticeable
impact on the levels of psychological
distress in university students and could also
increase overall resilience in times of stress.
The research from the University of
Newcastle reveals a clear connection
between mental health and the common
dietary habits of Australian university
students.
Researcher and accredited practising
dietitian Dr Amanda Patterson found that
more than a third (37 per cent) of the 2710
students surveyed reported a high or very
high risk of psychological distress, and
30 per cent reported having low resilience.
The students who reported better mental
health had higher fruit and vegetable
consumption, were more likely to start their
day with breakfast, and consumed soft
drinks and takeaway foods less frequently,
Patterson said.
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“The positive diet traits – fruit and
vegetable intakes – were associated with
better mental health; and the negative diet
traits – lack of breakfast, takeaways and soft
drinks – were associated with poorer mental
health,” she said.
The study was completed via an online
survey, so all measures were self-reported.
“The data analysed for the study is actually
part of a surveillance program where we are
monitoring health and wellbeing of students
every two years – the UON Student Healthy
Lifestyle Survey,” Patterson said.
“We collect data on diet, physical
activity, sleep, body mass index, mental
health, alcohol and drug use, as well as
sociodemographic – age, living situation,
etc – and student characteristics – faculty,
year of study, type of degree, domestic/
international student etc.
“The purpose of this particular study
was to examine any associations between
dietary intake and mental health outcomes,
such as psychological distress and
resilience, adjusted for other factors that
might influence mental health, such as sleep
and exercise.”
About 3000 students participate in each
survey, coming from all campuses and
faculties, from all years of study and from
undergrad, postgrad and enabling courses.
“Like all health research, more females
than males participate, and we also get
more Faculty of Health and medicine
students taking part, but we expect this and
account for it.
“Students simply click on the link from
their email and complete the survey online.
“Previously validated tools are used so that
we can compare the results with other large
studies and students can opt whether they
do the questions of a more sensitive nature
such as those on drug use, mental health
and sexual health.”
As might be expected of students, the
study revealed that most reported low levels
of fruit and vegetable intake, with only half
having the recommended two serves of
fruit per day and only 12 per cent having the
recommended five serves of vegetables.
“While 58 per cent had breakfast every
day, nearly 20 per cent were having
breakfast less than two times per week.
“Most were limiting takeaways to less than
once per week, which is great, but more
than a quarter were having them 5+ times
per week.”
Patterson said while some of the findings
were expected, more research is required
to truly understand the impact of diet on
mental health.
“When people think about poor diets and
health outcomes, they think about heart
disease, diabetes and cancer.
“Most people are far less aware of the
links between diet and mental health.”
Patterson said while there was a lot
of literature looking at associations with
diet and mental health, most of it was
observational.
“We consistently see that those with
better diets have better mental health, but
we need much more research on whether
poor diet leads to poor mental health or
poor mental health results in people having
poor diets, and whether we can improve
mental health with improvements in diet.
“We need to do some studies that
follow students over time to tease out the
relationships of diet and mental health
for students as they move from first year
through to third or fourth year and beyond.
“This will help to clarify the relationship
and give us the evidence we need to plan
interventions that might be able to help.”
Patterson’s advice to students?
“Pack some [healthy food] and take it with
you to campus and eat that instead of the
packet of chips or muffin that you might
have had. Just one extra serve of fruit or
vegetables per day can contribute to better
mental health.” ■