Does What You Eat Impact Mental Health? A Dietitian Explains

Nutritional psychiatry looks at how food, nutrients and the gut microbiome affect brain health and emotional well-being. As a dietitian with over 20 years of experience, I’ll share key findings from this growing field, explain how the gut-brain axis works and offer six research-backed ways nutrition can support your mental health.

Nutrition

Published: Jul 14, 2025

Author

Julia Cassidy, MS, RD, CIEC, CEDS-C

Sources

  1. Horn, J., Mayer, D.E., Chen, S., & Mayer, E.A. (2022). Role of diet and its effects on the gut microbiome in the pathophysiology of mental disorders. Translational Psychiatry 12, 164. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-01922-0.

  2. Grajek, M., Krupa-Kotara, K., Białek-Dratwa, A., Sobczyk, K., Grot, M., Kowalski, O., & Staśkiewicz, W. (2022). Nutrition and mental health: A review of current knowledge about the impact of diet on mental health. Frontiers in Nutrition, 9, 943998. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.943998.

  3. Adan, R.A.H., van der Beek, E.M., Buitelaar, J.K., Cryan, J.F., Hebebrand, J., Higgs, S., Schellekens, H., & Dickson, S.L. (2019). Nutritional psychiatry: Towards improving mental health by what you eat. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 29(12), 1321-1332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.10.011.

  4. Mudd, M. (2024). Special report: Using nutrition as a therapeutic modality. Psychiatric News, 60(1). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2025.01.1.18.

  5. Marx, W., Manger, S.H., Blencowe, M., Murray, G., Ho, F.Y., Lawn, S., Blumenthal, J. A., Schuch, F., Stubbs, B., Ruusunen, A., Desyibelew, H.D., Dinan, T.G., Jacka, F., Ravindran, A., Berk, M., & O'Neil, A. (2023). Clinical guidelines for the use of lifestyle-based mental health care in major depressive disorder: World Federation of Societies for Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) and Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine (ASLM) taskforce. The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 24(5), 333-386. https://doi.org/10.1080/15622975.2022.2112074.

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