ArticleNutrition journal2019
Adherence to low carbohydrate diet and prevalence of psychological disorders in adults.
Article in Nutrition journal, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dietary eating patterns, dairy consumption, and anxiety: A systematic literature review.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- The Association Between MIND Diet Adherence, Nutritional Status, and Psychosomatic Health in Adults Aged 60+: A Pilot Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The association between fodmaps intake and psychological disorders in a large sample of Iranian adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Role of Dietary Carbohydrates in Cognitive Function: A Review.Food science & nutrition · 2025Review
- The association between quality and quantity of carbohydrate with sleep, mood, anxiety, depression and stress among elderly.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Adherence to the Healthy Low-Carbohydrate Diet and incident depression and anxiety.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Diet quality and anxiety: a critical overview with focus on the gut microbiome.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Dietary Factors Associated with Depressive Symptoms in Midlife Women 40-50 Years of Age Living in the United States.Women's health reports (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Review
- Influence of Weight-Control Attempts as Based on Self-Perception of Macronutrient Intake Among Young Females and Its Association with Mood Disorder.Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Article
- Associations of overall and specific carbohydrate intake with anxiety status evolution in the prospective NutriNet-Santé population-based cohort.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Dietary glycaemic index and glycaemic load in relation to risk of breast cancer.Public health nutrition · 2022Article
- Adherence to Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Eating Plan and Prevalence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Adults.Journal of neurogastroenterology and motility · 2021Article
- The relation between low carbohydrate diet score and psychological disorders among Iranian adults.Nutrition & metabolism · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough individual macronutrients were studied in relation to mental health, no information exist about the association between adherence to low carbohydrate diet and psychological disorders. This study was conducted to investigate the association between adherence to a low carbohydrate diet and prevalence of psychological disorders among Iranian adults.
methodsIn this cross-sectional study on 3362 adult men and women, dietary intakes were examined by the use of a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Low carbohydrate diet (LCD) score was computed for each participant based on deciles of percentages of energy from macronutrients. Then the scores of carbohydrate, protein and fat intake for each participant were summed up to achieve the overall LCD score, which ranged from 3 (highest carbohydrate intake and lowest fat and protein intakes) to 30 (lowest carbohydrate intake and highest fat and protein intakes). Anxiety, depression, and psychological distress were assessed by validated Iranian versions of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and General Health Questionnaire-12.
resultsPrevalence of depression, anxiety and psychological distress in the whole population were 28.0, 13.3 and 22.6%, respectively. No significant differences were observed in the distribution of depression, anxiety and psychological distress across different quartiles of LCD score. After controlling for potential confounders, no significant association was seen between LCD score and prevalence of depression (OR for the highest vs. the lowest quartile of LCD score: (1.15; 95% CI: 0.93, 1.39). Consumption of LCD was not also associated with increased risk of anxiety (0.82; 95% CI: 0.59, 1.14) and psychological distress (0.92; 95% CI: 0.72, 1.16). These associations did not alter when the analyses were done stratified by gender or BMI status.
conclusionAdherence to the low carbohydrate diet, which contains high amount of fat and proteins but low amounts of carbohydrates, was not associated with increased odds of psychological disorders including depression, anxiety and psychological distress. Given the cross-sectional nature of the study which cannot reflect causal relationships, longitudinal studies, focusing on types of macronutrients, are required to clarify this association.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.