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Andrya Adkins

William Loudermilk

English 1201

April 15, 2021

Literature Review

How do processed foods compared to natural foods affect your brain and

mental abilities?

In my paper I would like to find out how processed foods are affecting

human's brains and what a whole foods diet can do for your body and health. I

would like to find out how foods affect disease in your body and how whole foods

diets affect disease. I want to find out how these foods affect you mentally, how

they affect depression, anxiety and other mental illness in the body.

Human beings have not always consumed processed foods. Our

grandparents ate a diet full of whole foods. It is so much easier to throw a T.V.

dinner in the microwave than it is to peel, cut, and prepare a good home cooked

meal. These things are great for us to have but they are not doing our bodies any

favors. Highly processed foods lack the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients your

body needs to function properly. This lack of vitamins is causing health problems

like depression, anxiety, and disease like cancer.

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The key points that I see throughout all my sources is that processed food

directly affects the function and structures of your brain and ultimately your mood.

In all of my articles they agree that processed food is not good for and that it is

addictive.

Leslie Beck stated in her article “How Diet can shape your mental health”

Dyett is thought to have a direct effect on biological pathways that cause

depression and other mental health disorders. Anti-inflammatory properties of

Whole Foods have been shown to influence concentrations of brain chemicals that

regulate emotions and cognition.

Eva Selhub stated in her article “Nutritional psychiatry.” Good bacteria not

only influence what your gut digests and absorbs, but also affects the degree of

inflammation throughout your whole body.

Grace Jauwena stated in her article “nutritional deficiency: a trigger for

mental health disorders.” Those studies have shown the link between nutritional

deficiency and many health disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, OCD

and many more. This is something I myself did not know. I was under the

impression something like schizophrenia was only an imbalance in the brain and

not due to nutrition. She also said 70% of primary care visits are related to

psychological issues. This is very interesting to me.

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I have not seen disagreements on this in my articles. Everyone seems to

agree that no matter how you look at it, processed food is not good for your brain

or mental abilities. It is in your best interest to eat many fruits, veggies and whole

grains. Stay away from processed foods like chips, soda and snack cakes.

Food companies will put things on their packages to make you think

processed foods are healthier than they are or that they're actually organic. So, I

think many people would like to believe that processed foods are actually not as

bad as they are.

As far as further research, I think documentaries are a great place for good

information. What the health on Netflix is one of the best movies I've seen on

nutrition. Game Changers is a good one as well. These movies give you a lot of

good information. I think a possible answer to my question is that maybe in small

amounts processed foods don't affect your brain. I would need to find the research

on that, if it exists. Processed foods simply lack nutrition, which causes brain

dysfunction, especially if you are only eating these kinds of foods. I know that

when I eat healthy, I feel great and my mind is clear. I just seem to be able to

function better all-around when I eat healthy food. Somehow though, this is still

not enough to keep me on a healthy diet, because processed food is so very

convenient. Oh my God, my foot hurts. Oh my God.

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Works Cited

Jauwena, Grace. “Nutrient deficiency: a trigger for mental health disorders.”

Life and Health Network, 15 January 2019, lifeandhealth.org/food/why-plant-

based/nurient-deficiency-the-trigger-of-mental-health-disorders/1314096/?CLID=

Accesssed 11 april 2021

Selhub, Eva M.D. “Nutritional psychiatry: your brain on food.” Harvard

Health publishing, November 2015, updated 26 March 2020,

health.harvard.edu. /Nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food- 201511168626.

Accessed 11 April 2021.

Beck, Leslie.” Can your diet shape your mental health?” Globe and Mail, 20

May 2015, Go-gale—com-.sinclair.ohionet.org./ps/ Retrieve Dot do? Tab ID=

Access 11 April 2021.

O'Connor,Anahad. “This is your brain on processed foods.” New York

Times, 6 April 2021.p, d6 GAIL in context. Opposing viewpoints, Link.gale.com

access 14 April 2021.

“Study finds addiction risk with processed foods.” Melbourne, Australia. 13

January. 2009, p.5 GAIL in Context: Opposing viewpoints, linkgail.com.

/apps/doc/ 82789125631. Access 14 April 2021.

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