| Food and Mood Centre

Body composition and mental health: healthy body, healthy mind

It’s well known that conditions such as obesity may lead to physical chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease, but what about their impact on mental health? The world of psychiatry once considered the functioning of the body to operate separately from that of the mind, ho...

Is there a role for the gut microbiome in the complexity of anorexia nervosa?

During World War II, the famous Minnesota Starvation Experiment in healthy young men showed that semi-starvation (loss of >25% of body weight) caused both physical symptoms, such as fatigue, dizziness and hair loss, and psychological symptoms, such as depression, and anxiety. Interesti...

Diet and Nutrition Infographic

Developed in conjunction with Mental Health America, this infographic is a handy resource summarising the current evidence in Nutritional Psychiatry in lay terms. ...

Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Gut Feelings

We have trillions of bacteria living inside us, with most residing in our gut. Until recently, it has been challenging to explore our gut bugs, but advancements in genetic sequencing have allowed us to discover these bacteria by sequencing their DNA. Over 1000 species of different bacteria exist in ...

Not getting enough sleep? It may be influencing how you eat.

An overwhelming amount of evidence supports diet as an integral factor for determining health and wellbeing. In particular, diet quality overall appears to largely influence health, with the consumption of a healthy diet, often characterised as a Mediterranean-style diet, increasingly associated wit...

Big data = big opportunities?

Here at the Food and Mood Centre, we aim to discover the ways in which what we eat influences our brain, mood and mental health. To do so, we conduct a broad range of research activities, referred to as ‘bench to bedside’. This refers to the translation of discoveries from research laboratories ...

Less is not more: how excluding major food groups may impact your health

by Dr Sarah Dash If you look at the menu at your local café, you’ll likely notice a range of options for your meal; gluten-free, low-carb, Paleo friendly. Based on a recent CSIRO report, Australians are electing to avoid certain foods more than ever, and approximately one in three Australians a...

Feeling stressed? It probably affects your eating as well.

Stress - it’s that all too common feeling that has somehow become synonymous with modern day life. But aside from the tension and worrying thoughts, how else does stress hijack your body? If you’re someone that reaches for the chocolate in the shadows of a looming deadline to find comfort,...

Find happiness in your gut: In a nut shell

Humans are heterotrophs, which means we can’t produce our own food within our body, instead we have to consume food. We eat in order to meet our energy and nutritional requirements. If we are hungry, frustrated and over-loaded with work, we often feel that “my brain is not working” and we rush...