ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition, Psychology and Brain Health
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1546564
This article is part of the Research TopicUnraveling the Associations Between Diet and Mental HealthView all 9 articles
The association of dietary components with depression and anxiety symptoms: Findings from a cross-sectional survey
Provisionally accepted
- 1Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
- 2Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
It is understood that diet has a significant impact on health. However, the associations between individual macronutrients and mental health are poorly understood. We aimed to investigate the relationship between dietary components and symptoms of depression and anxiety. A cross-sectional study of 129 healthy adults was conducted using an online food frequency questionnaire and measures of depression, anxiety, and early life experiences. Of the sample, 31% experienced moderate or severe anxiety and/or depression. Sugar-sweetened beverage intake was positively associated with depression (β = 4.827; 95% CI: 0.954, 8.7; p = 0.015). Dietary fibre was negatively associated with anxiety (β = -2.306; 95% CI: -3.791, -0.82; p = 0.003). Moderate caffeine consumption (100-300mg) was associated with reduced depression (β = -4.099; 95% CI: -7.049, -1.15; p = 0.007). Women experienced higher rates of depression and anxiety. We found evidence suggesting an association between high fructose corn syrup and depressive symptoms and a potential protective effect of fibre on anxiety. A U-shaped curve for caffeine may be present, with moderate consumption associated with improved mental health.
Keywords: sugar-sweetened beverages, SSB, Caffeine, Dietary Fibre, Depression, Anxiety
Received: 17 Dec 2024; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gillespie, Kemps, White and Bartlett. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kerri Marie Gillespie, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.