Running is highly beneficial for both physical and mental health, offering several advantages like improved cardiovascular health, stronger bones and muscles and weight management. Now, recent research has revealed that running protects mental health and improves mood even under poor dietary conditions.
Led by Professor Yvonne Nolan, the study from University College Cork emphasises how exercise benefits brain function through gut health, hormones, and chemical balance, providing biological evidence that physical activity can assist in regulating mood and lowering anxiety.
While diet is important for long-term brain health, these findings demonstrate that integrating regular running or aerobic activity can dramatically reduce the mental health concerns associated with processed food.
According to Nolan, “One of the most striking observations was that exercise helped to counteract the depression-like behaviour caused by the highly processed diet. Subjects on the poor-quality diet who had no access to exercise showed depressive-like behaviour, but animals on the same diet who exercised regularly showed antidepressant-like behaviour, suggesting that physical activity may be beneficial even when consuming a Western-style diet.”
Incorporating physical activity in your daily life improves mood regardless of diet, implying that exercise can help to mitigate some of the mental health hazards associated with inadequate nutrition.
Researchers also discovered that running had minor anti-anxiety effects, regardless of dietary intake. This suggests that physical activity alone can improve mental health by regulating mood and reducing stress, even in the presence of a high-fat, high-sugar diet.
Researchers observed adult male rats for more than seven weeks to investigate the combined effects of nutrition and exercise on the brain. The research included groups on either a standard healthy diet or a high-fat, high-sugar ‘cafeteria diet,’ with half of each group having access to a running wheel.
Even rats on an unhealthy diet showed antidepressant-like effects from exercise, suggesting potential neurological benefits of exercise against a poor diet.
Exercise had a restorative effect by boosting levels of three key metabolites: anserine, indole-3-carboxylate, and deoxyinosine, all of which are linked to mood regulation.
This suggests that running benefits mental health by promoting gut-brain connections, which serve to counterbalance some of the chemical imbalances generated by processed foods.
The study also explored the impact of diet and exercise on the brain, revealing that while exercise offers mood-boosting benefits regardless of diet, it cannot entirely counteract the structural brain effects of chronic junk food consumption.
Researchers examined adult hippocampal neurogenesis, the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus, which is vital for memory and emotion.
Rats on a healthy diet experienced significant increases in neurogenesis with exercise. However, those on a ‘cafeteria diet’ of high-fat, high-sugar foods missed out on this specific cellular-level benefit. This indicates that a poor diet may prevent the brain from fully realising all the deeper advantages of physical activity.
These findings provide reassuring insights for individuals who find it challenging to maintain a consistently healthy diet, highlighting that regular physical activity, such as running and aerobic activities, can still offer significant mental health benefits even when consuming processed or high-sugar foods.
Exercise demonstrably helps reduce symptoms akin to depression, lowers anxiety, and fosters overall well-being.