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  Exploring Dietary Intake Behaviors Related To The Covid-19 Lockdown Summary A 2021 scoping review by Bennett et al. examined how dietary habits changed during the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown. The pandemic disrupted daily routines, social interactions, and food-related behaviors, leading to both positive and negative health outcomes. The review identified four main themes: dietary patterns, favorable habits, unfavorable habits, and physical health factors. Two key changes in dietary patterns were an increase in snacking and a higher number of daily meals. Snacking was largely categorized as an unfavorable habit. Many people turned to energy-dense, low-nutrient “ comfort foods ” to cope with stress and anxiety. This emotional eating pattern, supported by findings from Shen et al. , often shifted focus away from making healthy food choices and toward short-term emotional relief. Despite these negative trends, some positive dietary changes were also ob...
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  Food Insecurity, Nutrition, and Mental Health: Insights From Cross-Cultural Research Food insecurity is a growing global problem that occurs when individuals lack consistent access to enough nutritious food to support a healthy life. Increasing research shows that food insecurity affects not only physical health but also mental well-being. Understanding how food insecurity contributes to mental health problems is an important focus within nutrition and mental health research. A study by Weaver et al. (2021) examined how food insecurity may influence symptoms of depression and anxiety through two potential pathways: nutritional factors and social experiences related to food . The researchers aimed to better understand the mechanisms connecting food insecurity with mental health, often described as a “black box” in public health research. Study Locations and Research Design The study was conducted in two regions with high levels of food insecurity and depression: A rural comm...
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  Nutrition and Mental Health: How Diet Supports Resilience Across the Lifespan Resilience is commonly defined as the ability to adapt well during adversity, trauma, or significant stress. According to the American Psychological Association , resilience reflects how individuals respond to challenges such as relationship problems, financial strain, health conditions, or global crises. While resilience is shaped by biological, genetic, psychological, social, and cultural factors, emerging research in Nutritional Psychology shows that dietary intake also plays a meaningful role. Across the lifespan, growing evidence suggests that what we eat may influence how well we cope with stress and maintain mental health. Youth: Diet Quality and Emotional Strength In 2019, Whatnall and colleagues studied 2,710 Australian students to explore the relationship between diet and resilience. Researchers assessed fruit and vegetable intake, breakfast habits, soft drink consumption, and takeaway foo...
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  Gut Microbiome, Loneliness, and Wisdom: A Nutritional Psychology Perspective Loneliness has consistently been linked to poorer well-being, while wisdom appears to promote emotional resilience and life satisfaction. Beyond psychological outcomes, loneliness has also been associated with changes in cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immune functioning, including activation of pathways within the microbiota–gut–brain axis, particularly the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. Building on this foundation, the present study explored whether the gut microbiome is associated with loneliness, wisdom, or both. Study Design The study included 184 community-dwelling adults aged 28 to 97 years. Participants completed questionnaires measuring loneliness, wisdom, compassion, social support, and social engagement. Fecal samples were collected and analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing to assess gut microbial diversity. Two types of microbial diversity were examined: Alpha diversity , which...
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 Mental Health Professionals Report Poor Literacy for Nutritional Medicine: International Survey Summary :  A 2021 international online survey by Mörkl et al. assessed nutritional literacy among mental health professionals (MHPs) across 52 countries. The sample included psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and professionals in training, with most participants based in Europe and additional representation from Asia, North America, Oceania, South America, and Africa. The findings revealed a substantial gap between interest in nutritional psychiatry and formal training. Although 92.9 percent of respondents expressed a desire to expand their knowledge of nutritional psychiatry, only 0.8 percent rated their nutrition education as “very good.” Most participants reported having no formal training in nutrition. Despite this, many were already integrating nutritional strategies into clinical practice: 58.6 percent recommended supplements and 43.8 percent recommended dietary...
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 The Psychology of Food Insecurity: Effects of Early COVID-19 on Mental Health Summary:  Food insecurity is a critical issue within nutritional psychology due to its strong impact on mental health. During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic , food insecurity in the United States increased dramatically, rising from 11 percent of households in 2018 to approximately 35–38 percent in early 2020. Among low-income adults, 44 percent experienced food insecurity, alongside sharp increases in depression , anxiety , and psychological distress. Wolfson, Garcia, and Leung (2021) examined the relationship between food insecurity and mental health outcomes in a low-income adult sample of 1,476 participants between March 19 and March 24, 2020. Household food security over the previous 30 days was assessed using the 18-item U.S. Household Food Security Survey, with food insecurity defined as low or very low food security based on U.S. Department of Agriculture criteria. Mental healt...
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  Does Exposure to Food Advertisements Influence Dietary Intake? This research highlights the diet sensory perceptual relationship (DSPR) as a core mechanism within the broader diet mental health relationship and a foundational component of nutritional psychology . The DSPR explains how sensory and perceptual experiences influence dietary choices and eating behavior. Zimmerman and Shimoga (2014) investigated how exposure to food advertising affects food selection, particularly under varying levels of cognitive demand. Participants were assigned to one of four conditions combining food or non food advertisements with either cognitively demanding or non demanding tasks. Researchers measured both the number of unhealthy snacks selected and total caloric intake. Results showed that participants exposed to food advertisements selected 28 percent more unhealthy snacks than those exposed to non food advertising, resulting in an average increase of 65 kilocalories. Im...
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