Welcome to another FAB Research update highlighting the latest FAB News and Research.
This update includes just some of the many new articles and studies added to the FAB Research website, including two podcasts that we hope youâll find interesting.
Food and Mental Health â Why are the Links still being Ignored?
An excellent recent episode of BBC Radio 4âs â The Food Programme: âThe Brain Gut Connectionâ focused (again) on the fundamental importance of food for mental health, wellbeing and resilience, with Sheila Dillon and an expert panel including:
- Kimberly Wilson, author of âUnprocessed: How the Food We Eat is Fuelling our Mental Health Crisisâ.
- Dr Ally Jaffee, co-founder of Nutritank - set up to educate doctors on the central role of nutrition (and exercise) in health.
- Natalie Hackett, headteacher of a primary school where learning about food plays a central role in every activity (and the children love it).
- Chef Heston Blumenthal, who has personal experience of having been diagnosed as an adult firstly with ADHD, then bipolar disorder.
Topics covered include:
- Why and how public health policies and guidelines urgently need to stop ignoring the importance of good nutrition for brain as well as body health.
- The role of fibre, and key nutrients like omega-3 - which most ultra-processed foods lack â as well as inflammation.
- Some inspiring real-life examples of how nutrition education for patients, healthcare workers, and children can work.
If you missed it, you can still:
See also:
Unprocessed: How the Food We Eat is Fuelling our Mental Health Crisis
Pregnancy and Early Life
Nutrition in Pregnancy matters hugely to brain development - and has a lifelong influence on both brain and body health - but where is it in our health guidelines?
A huge amount of first-class evidence now shows the critical importance of maternal nutrition for brain development - and yet any mention of this is still completely absent from the latest update of the UKâs (not so) NICE guidelines on pregnancy.
Kimberley Wilsonâs recent âStronger Minds,â podcast explains why prenatal nutrition matters so much â and her thoughts on the missed opportunities from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) update.
And see also this recent news article:
Food for thought: How diet affects the brain over a lifetime
Combined Exposure to Folate and Lead during Pregnancy and Autistic-Like Behaviors
Folate may modify the associations between gestational lead exposure and childhood autistic-like behaviors, suggesting that it might mitigate the neurotoxic effects of prenatal lead exposure.
Nutrition Education for Health Professionals
Dr Ally Jaffee saw the urgent need years ago for better education on nutrition as part of medical training, when she and a colleague founded Nutritank.
In the U.S. now, a professionally-diverse panel of medical and nutrition experts have finally proposed a set of recommended nutrition competencies for all medical students and physician trainees.
Expert panel calls for nutrition competencies in US medical education
As they note:
"This is a surprising and important gap, considering the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related chronic diseases in this country, as well as their ever-increasing financial and societal costs.
âMy guess is that most patients assume their doctors are trained to advise them about nutrition and food choices, but this has simply not been part of their required training."
Of course, improving professional education and training, as well as raising public awareness, remains a core part of FABâs mission.
For details of some of our recent webinars and other events see:
Action on Additives - For the Public, Parents and Teachers
California bans six artificial dyes in foods served at public schools
At last, a new law in California means public schools there can no longer serve foods containing six artificial food colourings linked to child health and behaviour problems.
Top-level evidence from randomised controlled trials first showed 20+ years ago that these additives (which are purely cosmetic) impair attention and behaviour in children with or without ADHD - as covered in detail in Dr Alex Richardsonâs classic book âThey Are What You Feed Themâ. (And on FABâs website many times since then).
The EUâs response was to mandate a small-print warning on food labels â not a ban. The US did nothing... until this action (from just one pioneering State).
However â avoiding these additives is something that all parents, teachers and other interested individuals could do for themselves as far as possible - if they only knew about the evidence.
For more information and links, see
Artificial food colors and AD/hyperactivity symptoms
Dietary sensitivities and ADHD symptoms: 35 years of research
Nutrition for Psychological & Psychiatric Conditions
Strict âKetogenic dietsâ (i.e. with no or minimal carbohydrate) have long been an accepted medical treatment for some forms of epilepsy â although these require specialist planning and supervision.
Preliminary evidence shows that these very low-carb diets may also benefit patients with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental health conditions.
Rethinking Bipolar Treatment: Dietary Interventions
For mental illnesses such as bipolar, the best medications can worsen metabolic health (raising risks for Type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease). However, prescribing a ketogenic diet could well benefit both mind and body, a new pilot study from Stanford shows.
Half of bipolar patients experienced remission following a ketogenic diet â but as ever, âfurther studies are neededâ for this very promising approach to become more widely offered.
As clinical psychologists, like most psychiatrists, receive little or no education on nutrition and diet, this recent open-access review from experts at Oxford Universityâs psychiatry department fills an important gap - explaining why ketogenic diets offer a promising complement to existing evidence-based interventions, and paving the way for advancements in mental health treatment.
Ketogenic diets in clinical psychology
For more information on the topic of ketogenic diets see:
Nutrition and Adult Mental Health - Webinar
Companies keep selling harmful products â but history shows consumers can win in the end
âEpidemicsâ are usually thought of as caused by viruses or other germs. But as public health experts, we know thatâs just part of the story. Commerce can cause epidemics, too. Social media, guns, sugar: are all examples of what we call âmarket-driven epidemics.â
What is interesting is that they follow a similar script â and there is hope.
Other news you may be interested in
- Parents' eating behavior influences how their children respond to food, according to new research.
- Autistic people and those with ADHD are more likely to have eating disorders. Hereâs why â and how this affects their treatment.
- Scurvy is largely a historical disease but there are signs itâs making a comeback. Scurvy is caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) - and without it, the body cannot properly repair tissues, heal wounds, or fight infections.
- Having a sweet tooth is linked to higher risk of depression, diabetes and stroke, study finds.
This update provides just a selection of the latest news and research items continually added to FABâs ever-growing library. If youâd like to see more, please bookmark and browse at your convenience:
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The FAB Research Team
