Research says this is the ideal diet for optimised happiness

Aussies have a lot to learn

• In this article:

• The surprising link between mental health and our diet

• What we should (and shouldn't) be eating to boost our mood

• The countries getting it right, and the countries getting it wrong

If you do your best to keep up with the latest research and findings around nutrition, you’re probably aware of the benefits certain diets and eating habits have. 

Reigning supreme, the Mediterranean diet has long been described as the ideal nutritional routine for optimised physical health, with countless benefits attributed to its high ratio of vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, legumes and whole grains. 

But as we know, our health is multifaceted, with our mental well-being often dictating how ‘healthy’ we feel overall. So, what nutritional choices should we be making for the sake of our mental health? 

According to Dr Megan Lee, a Senior Teaching Fellow at Bond University with a PhD in Nutritional Psychiatry, the answer to that question lies in the diets of the world’s happiest countries.

The connection between happiness and nutrition

As the age-old saying goes, ‘You are what you eat’. But while the idea that what we fuel our body with has a direct impact on our physical health, weight and energy levels has largely become common knowledge, the link between mental health and diet still remains a mystery to many. 

But according to Dr Lee, who has dedicated years to understanding the impact of diet on mental health around the world, the connection is bleedingly obvious, “It's not one recommendation for physical health and one recommendation for mental health – it's all the same: Stay away from ultra-processed foods as much as you can,” she explains.

“If I could boil my PhD down into three words, it was ‘Eat more plants’,” she says, having found the countries and cultures deemed the ‘happiest’ were those that included a diet rich with fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes and fermented foods such as kimchi and sauerkraut.

“If you look at vegans and vegetarians, and keto, paleo, carnivore and all of these different dietary patterns, they tout all these health benefits, but all of them have one thing in common,” she says. “They reduce or eliminate ultra-processed foods.”

“They're all arguing with each other, but they all actually do the same thing – and it's not the particulars of the diet – like eliminating meat or eliminating veggies or eating high-fat low carb – it's the fact that they're not eating the ultra-processed foods that’s actually benefiting their health.” 

Thanks to busy schedules have grown used to eating ultra-processed foods in isolation. Image: Pexels

The most surprising takeaway 

While the biggest takeaway from Lee’s research was that eating more plants and avoiding processed foods are the best things we can do to optimise our mental health, her complete findings reveal it may be a little more complicated than opting for a salad every lunch break. 

Comparing the nutritional choices and habits of the world’s happiest countries, Dr Lee found a correlation between social connectedness and better overall mental health 

“The happiest countries eat together and it's a celebration of love and family and friends and food connects people in that way,” she explains. “Whereas in the West, we're starting to move away from that and be independent eaters on single plates by ourselves looking at a screen.”

Again, while ultra-processed foods are known to be detrimental to our health in more ways than one, Dr Lee says indulging in your favourite comfort food every now and then might not be the end of the world. 

“It's all about this balance – if you can get more than 30 types of plants into your diet each week, then you're doing really well,” she says, explaining that whole, fresh foods should make up 80 per cent of our diet on a daily basis, leaving a little wiggle room to treat yourself to the comfort foods that give you pleasure. 

Cultures that use food to connect people and celebrate things appeared to be happier overall. Image: Pexels

Which countries have the best – and worst – diets

Despite the well-known fact that suicide rates are higher in Nordic countries given the Winter-long darkness and cold, they still managed to rank as the happiest in the world for seven years straight, supporting the powerful impact nutrition can have on the collective well-being of a nation. 

“In these Nordic countries, they tend to stay away from those like traditional industrialised, ultra-processed foods and takeaway foods and lean more towards, fatty fish and whole fresh, foods,” Dr Lee explains. “If you have a look at recipes from those countries, you'll find they eat a little less red meat than we do in the West.”

In addition to healthier food choices, Dr Lee says people in the Nordic countries also use food as a way to connect with each other and celebrate, “Food is sitting down, eating together, laughing, sharing, reaching across, cooking together, planting their own food, growing their own food – it’s a much different culture to our kind of very singular, independent eating-by-myself culture,” she says. 

“Over time, if you have a look at the rise of mental and physical illness, it's in line with that industrialisation of half of our food back in World War II, where the ladies all went out into the world because the men were at war and they were working, and they needed convenient options to feed their families when they got home,” explains Dr Lee.  

“All of our food became more convenient and easier to prepare, and over time, it's gotten to a stage where most of our food products are not actually resembling anything of the original food that it was,” she adds. 

Originally published as Research says this is the ideal diet for optimised happiness