What Goes on Your Plate Can Go to Your Mind: Diet and Mental Health in Adolescence

This scientific review shows that diet can influence the mental health of adolescents, especially when considering the diet as a whole, and not just isolated supplements like vitamin D. Healthier dietary patterns are associated with fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Although the evidence is still inconsistent, the results indicate that promoting a balanced diet can be an accessible and promising strategy to support the emotional well-being of young people.

Adolescence is a crucial phase of life, marked by rapid changes in the body, brain, and social relationships. It is also a period in which many mental health problems begin to emerge, sometimes even in childhood.

It is estimated that about one in five adolescents experiences some type of emotional difficulty, such as anxiety, persistent sadness, or high stress. Therefore, identifying factors that can protect mental health at this stage is a priority for science and public policy.

Among the possible protective factors, diet has gained prominence. Unlike psychological treatments or medications, which are not always available or accessible, diet is part of everyone's daily life and can be modified.

During adolescence, this is especially relevant, as young people gain more autonomy over what they eat, while at the same time their brains are still developing and have high nutritional demands.

This scientific review analyzed studies that investigated the relationship between diet and mental health in adolescents. Researchers compared two main approaches: the use of isolated supplements, such as vitamin D or omega-3, and the assessment of the diet as a whole, considering complete dietary patterns and food quality indices.

The results showed that balanced, higher-quality diets were more consistently associated with fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, while isolated supplements produced more variable and less reliable effects.

An important point revealed by the analysis is that the effects of diet on mental health are not the same for everyone. In many studies, the associations changed when researchers took into account socioeconomic level, such as family income and parental education. Furthermore, some effects differed between boys and girls, indicating that social, cultural, and biological factors influence how diet affects mental health.

From a biological standpoint, there are several plausible explanations for this relationship. Diet can influence inflammatory processes in the body, the balance of bacteria in the gut, oxidative stress, and the production of substances that help neurons grow and communicate.

All these mechanisms are linked to brain function and emotional well-being. However, most direct evidence on these processes comes from studies with adults or laboratory experiments, which limits the specific understanding of adolescence.

The review also highlights important limitations in the existing literature. The studies analyzed varied considerably in sample size, methods of dietary assessment, and ways of measuring mental health.

Many focused only on clinical diagnoses, such as depression, neglecting milder, but common, symptoms that also affect quality of life. Furthermore, some intervention trials presented a high risk of bias, making definitive conclusions difficult.

Despite these limitations, the overall results point to diet as a promising target for mental health prevention strategies. Instead of focusing solely on specific supplements, the findings suggest that promoting healthy dietary patterns, rich in natural and varied foods, may be more effective and sustainable in supporting the emotional well-being of adolescents.

Based on this, the authors propose a roadmap for future research, advocating for more robust studies with standardized symptom assessments, the use of biological markers to validate effects, and analyses that explicitly consider the role of gender and socioeconomic level. These advancements are essential to transforming scientific knowledge into public policies and clinical interventions that truly make a difference in the lives of young people.

READ MORE:

A Recipe for Resilience: A Systematic Review of Diet and Adolescent Mental Health

Jade E. Tucker, Anthony M. Brennan, David Benton, and Hayley A. Young

Nutrients. 2025, 17(23), 3677;

DOI: 10.3390/nu17233677

Abstract: 

Adolescence is a critical period of vulnerability for the onset of mental health difficulties, presenting an urgent need for scalable prevention strategies. Diet is a universal, modifiable factor, yet its evidence base remains inconsistent. This systematic review synthesised evidence from controlled trials and prospective cohort studies investigating the relationship between diet and mental health in adolescents aged 10-19 years. Methods: Searches were conducted to 20 July 2025, and risk of bias was assessed. Results: Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria: six intervention trials and thirteen cohort studies. Examined exposures included vitamin D, omega-3s, polyphenol-rich foods, Mediterranean-style diets, and overall diet quality. Depressive symptoms were the most studied outcome, though the synthesis also included other dimensional outcomes such as anxiety, stress, well-being, and internalising/externalising indices. Across designs, healthier dietary patterns were often associated with fewer depressive symptoms, while poorer diet quality was linked to increased psychological distress. However, the current evidence is constrained by wide variation in assessments, small samples, and significant methodological limitations, particularly with high risk or some concerns noted in half of the included intervention trials, along with evidence suggesting that associations may differ by sex and are often sensitive to adjustment for socioeconomic status. Conclusions: Despite these challenges, the findings suggest diet as a possible, actionable target for supporting adolescent mental health. This review concludes by proposing a detailed roadmap for future research, prioritising harmonised symptom-based outcomes, biomarker-verified assessments, explicit analysis of sex and socioeconomic (SES) effects, and adequately powered trials to inform effective public health strategies for youth. Protocols were registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023413970) and archived on the Open Science Framework.