Researchers at Binghamton University found that women’s mental health is more closely associated with dietary factors compared to men.
Appearing in the Journal of Personalized Medicine, Binghamton researchers invited a number of young adults to participate in a food-mood questionnaire.
“The purpose of the study was to explore the combined and individual relationships between food groups, dietary practices and exercise to appreciate their association with mental distress in mature men and women,” the journal report reads.
“A multi-analyses approach was used. A combination of data mining techniques, namely, a mediation regression analysis, the K-means clustering and principal component analysis as well as Spearman’s rank–order correlation were used to explore these research questions,” it also states.
Based on the findings, women’s mental health was more closely associated with dietary factors than men’s, with mood considered more sensitive to those dietary factors.
“For men, consumption of fast food and absence of exercise were associated with mental distress. However, low to moderate exercise seemed to significantly improve their mental wellbeing. In essence, our findings suggest that the customization of diet and exercise for mature men and women is needed to improve mental wellbeing,” the study concluded.
