Unprocessed/minimally processed foods daily intake reduced anxiety symptoms in a brazilian academic community during the period of social isolation during Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: Social isolation affected the mental health of the population in an extensive way and led to changes in eating habits, causing people to reduce their consumption of healthy foods and increase their intake of unhealthy foods. Objective: To evaluate the association between the consumption of unprocessed/minimally processed foods and anxiety symptoms among members of a Brazilian academic community. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving individuals of a Brazilian public university, by way of online. The academic community was composed of university students, professors, and administrative technicians in education. Only subjects aged 18 or above were included. Unprocessed/minimally processed foods were evaluated through a questionnaire, based on Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian population that evaluated the type of processing used in food production to which each food item. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory for a general population. The following variables were included as covariates: age, sex, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, academic role, and Body Mass Index (BMI). Descriptive analyses were performed to characterize the population, and linear regression models were evaluated to verify the association between unprocessed/minimally processed foods and anxiety symptom scores. Results: A total of 195 subjects filled out the online questionnaire. The means (standard deviations) were as follows: anxiety symptoms 49.57 (8.55); age 28.46 (10.40) years; unprocessed/minimally processed foods daily consumption 0.87 (0.24) times a day; and BMI 25.44 (5.49) Kg/m2. Most of the academic community was female (72.68%), did not practice physical activity (59.79%), did not smoke (91.75%), consumed alcohol (51.55%), and were students (71.13%). In the multivariate linear regression, after adjusting for potential confounders variables, higher daily consumption of unprocessed/ minimally processed foods was associated with lower anxiety symptoms during social isolation due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (ß = −6.69; 95% Confidence Interval = −11.73; −1.66; p-value = 0.009). Conclusion: The consumption of unprocessed/minimally processed foods reduced anxiety symptoms in individuals of the academic community at the university studied.