Two years ago, in 2001, there were almost 25,000 admissions to Irish psychiatric hospitals and units. Can mental health problems be prevented, and even reversed, by changing the kind of food we eat? Iva Pocock reports
According to the Health Research Board, two-thirds of the patients were suffering from one of three conditions: a depressive disorder, schizophrenia or an alcoholic disorder.
Patrick Holford, a psychologist and nutritionist, believes their problems may have much to do with what they eat. He believes many mental-health problems, from attention deficit disorder to Alzheimer's disease, depression and schizophrenia, can be prevented and in many cases reversed by eating different kinds of food and by taking nutritional supplements.
Holford defines insanity as wanting to keep doing the same things but expecting different results. In Optimum Nutrition For The Mind, his new book, he argues that for the millions of people around the world who suffer from mental-health problems, it is insane to expect relief from their symptoms without taking account of their diet.
Holford, who founded the London-based Institute for Optimum Nutrition in 1984, has been researching nutrition and health since the early 1980s. Back then, he says, he demonstrated that you can boost IQ with extra vitamins, but now "there is evidence way beyond that", which he presents in his book, including 500 scientific references.
"For example, I've worked with hundreds of people with schizophrenia and, by changing the diet and giving supplements, have achieved an 80 per cent cure rate," he says. "By cure I mean free of symptoms, able to socialise with family and friends and paying income tax."
He claims that some foods and nutrients are better than any prescribed drug at alleviating depression, quoting a study in which participants who hadn't responded to antidepressant medication responded to fish-oil supplements.
"In my book I present the case that Alzheimer's is completely preventable," says Holford. "This is a disease of industrial countries, just like cancer and heart disease. In the UK, the latest statistics show that one in 10 will get Alzheimer's by the time they're 85. I don't want to pretend that everyone can be cured, but while 10 years ago this was considered a nice idea, there is now a body of evidence that Alzheimer's can be substantially improved and in some cases cured."
But not everybody is in the same camp. "I certainly wouldn't agree and I don't think many psychiatrists would agree either," says Cara Cullen, a senior dietician and nutritionist in mental health at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, in Tallaght. "That is quite an alternative theory, and any research I'm familiar with wouldn't concur with it.
"The thinking of nutritionists such as Holford is very different from dieticians and nutritionists who have trained as I have," says Cullen, whose degree in human nutrition and dietetics is the only Irish-based degree recognised by the Department of Health and Children for hospital dieticians.
But Cullen's position, as Ireland's only dietician dedicated to treating mental-health patients, was created following research into mental health and diet. In August 2000, two senior dieticians at the Tallaght hospital identified the nutritional needs of 30 mental-health clients and found that 26 of them ate badly.
"It highlighted the need for the input of a dietician when treating people with psychiatric illnesses," she says. "In other hospitals there may be some input from a dietician, but unfortunately this is an area that has been ignored."
Holford is critical of psychiatry for recognising schizophrenia as a largely biochemical disorder but failing to develop a biochemical diagnostic test or a treatment that does more than tranquillise patients. He says people with schizophrenia should have "proper objective diagnostic tests, such as blood-sugar or histamine levels", followed by a specified nutritional strategy.
Cullen says she "wouldn't routinely do biochemical tests on clients" and would test only specific patients, such as those who were not responding to antidepressants.
Holford also criticises the amount of antidepressants that doctors give out. "In Britain alone, 30 million prescriptions for antidepressants and tranquillisers are written every year," he says. "At present, you can either go for drug therapy from a psychiatrist or talk therapy from a psychologist, but there should be a third way: looking at a person's nutrition.
"I believe that a significant proportion of mentally unwell people do not need drugs because the primary cause of their problem is not a lack of drugs but a chemical imbalance brought on by years of inadequate nutrition and exposure to pollutants and environmental toxins.
According to the World Health Organisation, we are experiencing an epidemic of mental-health problems, especially among young people. Around the world there has been an increase in autism, attention deficit disorder, suicide, schizophrenia, violence and depression. In Holford's opinion, the increase is related to two factors: we are living in a more stressful world and our diets have changed enormously.
"In the 1940s, an average person ate two pounds of sugar per annum, while nowadays eating just seven fast food meals of a burger, chips and cola gives the same quantity of sugar," he says.We are also consuming far more caffeine, from tea, coffee and cola, as we are additives and colourings. In contrast, we consume far fewer essential fats.
Cullen accepts that our diet is different to that of the 1940s, but she still doesn't think there is enough evidence that this has led to mental-health problems. "We had mental-health problems back then," she says.
Holford claims, however, that some foods damage our brains while others boost them.Sugar, caffeine and colourings are out if you want to increase IQ, reverse age-related memory decline, improve concentration, reduce aggression and alleviate depression, he says.
Cullen is not convinced. Cutting sugar out of the diet cannot cure mental illness, she says. Nor does she agree that any one food is good for your brain. "In a healthy balanced diet, you have all the nutrients you need."
But Holford is adamant that certain foods are good for your brain. The first is glucose, not from sugar but from carbohydrates, which release their energy slowly into the bloodstream. Next come essential fatty acids, which are found in oily fish and seeds, especially linseed, which is the only plant to contain omega-3s.
Phospholipids, of which the brain is predominantly built, are Holford's third brain-boosting food. They are found in eggs - he is a big fan of eggs laid by hens fed on linseed - and offal. Amino acids, which are derived from protein in general, are also brain-boosting. Finally, he recommends "intelligent nutrients", which "fine-tune your mind".
Holford certainly has supporters. Dr Hyla Cass, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, in California, believes Holford's book will make "a tremendous difference to the millions of people who suffer unnecessarily from mental-health problems". Prof André Tylee of the Institute of Psychiatry in London considers Holford's work as "the breakthrough we've been waiting for".
Here, Cullen says: "I'll keep an open mind, as I did attend a conference where he spoke, but I wouldn't be going down his line of thinking."
Patrick Holford is giving four seminars today at Marino Institute of Education, Dublin. Starting at 1.30 p.m., they are entitled Kid Life Crisis; Schizophrenia Can Be Cured; Beat Fatigue, Anxiety And Depression; and Prevent And Reverse Memory Decline. For more information and bookings contact Ann McKeever on 087-9690799
Few of us are achieving our full potential for mental health, happiness, alertness and clarity - and all because we are not eating for the mind, says Patrick Holford.
There is plenty of scientific evidence to prove that certain foods boost our brains, according to Patrick Holford. There are also certain substances that damage them.
The brain boosters are:
- slow- releasing carbohydrates, such as oats and potatoes
- essential fatty acids from
- oily fish or seeds, especially linseed
- phospholipids, which are found in eggs and offal
- amino acids from proteins
- Certain nutrient supplements.
The brain damagers are:
- stress, alcohol and oxidants from fried foods, pollution and smoking
- sugar and stimulants such as caffeine
- pollution from heavy metals.