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Category: Nutrition
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Eating This Food Is A Sign You Are Extraverted
What your diet says about your personality.
What your diet says about your personality.
Eating more meat is a sign of being extraverted.
Vegetarians and vegans, meanwhile, are more likely to be introverted.
However, vegetarians also tend to be slimmer than their meat- eating peers.
This is probably because avoiding animal foods reduces the intake of fat and sugar.
Dr Veronica Witte, study co-author, is not sure exactly why vegetarians tend to be more introverted:
“It could be because more introverted people tend to have more restrictive eating habits or because they are more socially segregated because of their eating habits.”
The conclusions come from a study of 8,943 people in Germany who were given a test of personality, along with other measures.
The researchers had expected to find a link between diet and neuroticism, but did not.
Dr Witte said:
“Earlier analyses had found that more neurotic people were generally more likely to avoid certain groups of foods and to behave more restrictively.
We focused here solely on the avoidance of animal products and could not observe any correlation.”
People who are neurotic are more likely to experience depression and anxiety.
Indeed, some research finds that plant-based diets are linked to depression.
However, there was no evidence of this in the current study.
Dr Witte said:
“It is possible that in previous analyses other factors had blurred the results, including the BMI or conspicuous personality traits that are known to be associated with depression.
We accounted for them.”
The lower weight of vegetarians and vegans is less mysterious.
Ms Evelyn Medawar, the study’s first author, said:
“Products that are excessively rich in fat and sugar are particularly fattening.
They stimulate the appetite and delay the feeling of satiety.
If you avoid animal foods, you consume fewer such products on average.
People who eat predominantly vegetable foods may therefore absorb less energy.”
The study was published in the journal Nutrients (Medawar et al., 2020).
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The Type Of Meat That Contributes To Manic Episodes
Manic episodes can lead to dangerous risk-taking and delusional thinking — it frequently requires hospitalisation.
Manic episodes can lead to dangerous risk-taking and delusional thinking — it frequently requires hospitalisation.
Eating processed meats like beef jerky and salami is linked to manic episodes.
Manic episodes are a symptom of bipolar disorder and involve becoming euphoric, restless, experiencing a reduced need for sleep and having a racing mind.
Manic episodes can lead to dangerous risk-taking and delusional thinking — it frequently requires hospitalisation.
People who ate nitrate-cured meats were 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalised for mania as those who had not eaten the food, the researchers found.
Professor Robert Yolken, study co-author, said:
“We looked at a number of different dietary exposures and cured meat really stood out.
It wasn’t just that people with mania have an abnormal diet.”
The results come from 1,101 people with and without psychiatric disorders.
It wasn’t clear from this study how much cured meat was linked to mania.
However, the researchers also carried out a lab study on rats.
Some they fed store-bought beef-jerky and these started to show signs of mania within two weeks of eating the meat.
Professor Yolken said:
“We tried to make sure the amount of nitrate used in the experiment was in the range of what people might reasonably be eating.”
The scientists also tried feeding the rats nitrate-free meat — these did not show symptoms of mania, suggesting it was the nitrate causing the problem.
While small amounts of cured meats are unlikely to set off manic episodes in humans, further research is required.
Ms Seva Khambadkone, the study’s first author, said:
“It’s clear that mania is a complex neuropsychiatric state, and that both genetic vulnerabilities and environmental factors are likely involved in the emergence and severity of bipolar disorder and associated manic episodes.
Our results suggest that nitrated cured meat could be one environmental player in mediating mania.”
The researchers think that bacteria in the gut mediate the link between nitrates and mania.
Professor Yolken said:
“There’s growing evidence that germs in the intestines can influence the brain.
And this work on nitrates opens the door for future studies on how that may be happening.”
The study was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry (Khambadkone et al., 2018).
This Pregnancy Diet Predicts ADHD & Autism In Children (M)
What mothers eat during pregnancy may have lasting effects on their child’s ADHD and autism risk.
