I knew it. But I have always dismissed my personal feelings about low-cal Diets affecting mood. And sometimes causing full-blown depression. But it now appears advocates who’ve pushed that pro-position were right – especially when it comes to men…
Mike Meyers’ infamous Dr. Evil henchman, the perennially obese
Fat Bastard, knew exactly what the researchers mean…
Jokes abound about grumpy men who mope around when their wives put them on low-cal diets to lose a little weight. The men in question typically say their wives are being ‘mean’ for holding them to the directives of the doctors who prescribed the classic weight loss regimes…
No joke to them…
I’ve known guys (adults males of all ages) who’ve complained up and down about being ‘put on diets’. They say calorie restriction makes them angry/sad/jumpy/short-tempered/frustrated. You name it. If it’s aggravating to you, as an innocent bystander, it must be Hell for them. I’ve wondered, if it’s a real phenomenon. Or are the men involved using an old wive’s tale to justify their grumpiness?
Rationalizing the justification?
A new study by a team reporting to the British Medical Journal’s Nutrition, Prevention and Health has come to some solid, quantitative conclusions about why folks who go on reduced-Calorie diets get grumpy. Apparently, it’s all in their heads…
The team wanted to test the veracity of the current belief that all ‘healthy eating regimes’ boost mental wellness. They wondered if real-life restrictive diets may be nutritionally unbalanced, po-tentially harming emotional and cognitive health.
What they did
According to an abstract of the study report, researchers drew on a pool of responses from 28,525 adult respondents (14,329 women and 14,196 men) to the nationally representative US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for the years 2007-18, who had completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for depressive symptom severity.
Participants were asked if they were following any particular diet, either to lose weight or for other health reasons. Dietary patterns were categorised into 4 groups: (1) calorie-restrictive; (2) nutrient-restrictive (low in fat/cholesterol, sugar, salt, fibre, or carbs); (3) established dietary patterns (for diabetes, for example); and (4) not on a diet.
Most participants (25,009, 87 percent) said they weren’t on any specific diet, while 2026 (8 percent) followed a calorie-restrictive diet, 859 (3 percent) a nutrient-restrictive diet, and 631 (2 percent) an established dietary pattern.
A greater proportion of men (12,772; 90 percent) than women (12,237; 85 percent) said they weren’t on a diet. Calorie restriction was most commonly reported by obese participants (1247; 12 percent) and those who were overweight (594; percent).
What they found
Patient Health Questionaires (PHQs) are commonly used to establish a baseline for a new patient’s self-perceived state of health and well being when they start seeing a new doctor. Specific ques-tionaires are used to probe specific dimensions of a patient’s overall health profile. PHQ-9 is spe-cifically associated with depression.
Researchers found that PHQ-9 scores were:
- higher in those on calorie-restrictive diets than in those not on any specific diet.
- higher among those who were overweight and following a calorie-restrictive diet.
- nutrient-restrictive diets were associated with higher cognitive-affective symptom scores in men than in women not on a diet, and…
- all 3 types of diet were associated with higher somatic symptom scores in men. And…
- people living with obesity following an established dietary pattern had higher PHQ-9 scores.
The takeaway
The findings contradict those of previously published studies suggesting that low calorie diets im-prove depressive symptoms.
But the researchers explain: “This discrepancy may arise because prior studies were primarily ran-domised, controlled trials (RCTs) where participants adhered to carefully designed diets ensuring balanced nutrient intake.
In contrast, real-life calorie-restricted diets and obesity often result in nutritional deficiencies (par-ticularly in protein, essential vitamins, and minerals), and induce physiological stress, which can exacerbate depression, including cognitive-affective symptoms.”
Simply stated, men have greater nutritional needs and may be more-affected by reduced intake of essential materials such as protein, vitamins and minerals. But the study did incontrovertibly estab-lish that me really are subject to deeper mood dives than women when the former are overweight and/or on calorie-restricted diets!
My take
Pity the guy trying to lose weight who is not only being ‘starved’ on a Calorie-restricted eating re-gime, but suffering depression because of it – AND being belittled for his grumpiness by those around him!
It’s officially ‘no joke’!
~ Maggie J.