Studies show food and mental health to be connected. Many foods, particularly processed varieties, have been associated with various forms of cancer. Research also has shown a number of foods to be beneficial or detrimental to heart health.

Today we will link you to a series of studies that illustrate the connection between your health and food. The oft-repeated phrase “You are what you eat” is appropriate in this discussion. What you eat, what you put in your body in the quest for nutrition, can have major effects on how you feel, your energy levels, your mood, your sleep patterns, the list goes on and on.

Below we look at a few pieces of research that illustrate the connection between what you eat and your overall physical and mental health.

1. Food and mental health

Food, Mood, and Brain Health: Implications for the Modern Clinician

Diet and mental health:What we eat doesn’t just affect our physical health: it can also affect our mental health and wellbeing

The link between food and mental health: New research connects nutrition and mental illness, though more rigorous research is needed

2. The Gut-Brain Connection

The possibility and probability of a gut-to-brain connection in autism

Microbiome–microglia connections via the gut–brain axis

3. Food and Cancer

No single food can protect you against cancer by itself.But research shows that a diet filled with a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans and other plant foods helps lower risk for many cancers. In laboratory studies, many individual minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals demonstrate anti-cancer effects

Higher mushroom consumption is associated with a lower risk of cancer

13 Foods That Could Lower Your Risk of Cancer