When you feel down what do you feel like doing? Binge-watching your favorite series (again)? Calling a trusted friend? Maybe meditating, doing yoga, going for a run, or having a nap? Grabbing mood-boosting comfort foods? Any of these strategies can make you feel better and temporarily boost your moods, as they often do.

But, what if I told you that recent studies show that eating a certain way every day (not just when you’re down or stressed) can reduce your risk of getting depression in the first place? What if new clinical trials showed that this can even help elevate bad moods after they’ve started? Yes, after! Would you want to know which foods are “mood-boosting foods”?

If your answer is a resounding “yes,” let’s take a short trip through the new and exciting field of “nutritional psychiatry.”

Use Mood-Boosting Foods to Protect your mental health

There is one dietary pattern that is consistently linked to lower rates of depression. It’s also linked to lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. That diet? The Mediterranean diet.

The Mediterranean diet is based on what people traditionally ate in that area of Europe. It’s rich in fruits, vegetables, olives and olive oil, whole grains, nuts, and lean proteins such as chicken or fish. It’s also low in red meat and dairy.

The SMILES Trial

Eating a Mediterranean-style diet may do more than protect your mental health over the long run—it may even help to improve symptoms of depression after they’ve started. Exciting new research from the Food and Mood Centre at Deakin University in Australia recently tested this hypothesis in a clinical trial.

The SMILES (Supporting the Modification of lifestyle in Lowered Emotional States) trial recruited participants with depression and randomly split them into two groups. One group (the “Diet” group) received a dietary intervention that included several meetings with a dietitian for education, support, and nutritional counseling. This group ate a modified Mediterranean-style diet for 12 weeks. The other group (the “Befriending” group) had the same number of meetings as the “Diet group,” but instead of a dietitian and nutrition advice, they met with a neutral new “friend.”

After 12 weeks, the researchers compared each person’s symptoms to how they were feeling at the beginning of the trial. They also compared these two groups to each other. It turns out that the people who participated in the Diet group (the ones who changed their diet to be more like the Mediterranean diet) had a greater reduction in their depression symptoms than those in the Befriending group. Participants who improved their diet the most experienced the greatest mental health benefit. In fact, 32 percent of the people in the diet group went into remission, compared to 8 percent of those in the befriending group.

What does this all mean? Eating a Mediterranean-style diet reduces your risk for depression before you ever experience it. Plus, if you do experience symptoms of depression, changing your diet can help improve symptoms of depression after 12 weeks of a more Mediterranean-style diet. This is huge!

How can food affect your mood?

Food is often referred to as “fuel,” but in fact, what and how you eat has a profound effect on almost every aspect of your physical and mental health. On a basic level, calories provide fuel to give us the energy to move, think, digest, breathe, etc. Essential vitamins and minerals from food are used in the complex reactions needed to make necessary compounds such as neurotransmitters. (Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers for our brains and nerve cells that transmit messages to each other). Fiber and some starches feed your friendly gut microbes that have their own nervous system, communicate with the brain, and make their own neurotransmitters.

Antidepressant Nutrients

When it comes to the nutrients themselves, twelve are considered to have “antidepressant” roles in the body. They include folate, iron, omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), magnesium, potassium, selenium, thiamine, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin C, and zinc. Eating more foods that are rich in these nutrients can help your mental health.

Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters have very important roles when it comes to moods. You may have heard of serotonin. The link between serotonin and poor moods and depression are well-studied. In fact, several medications prescribed for depression try to improve levels of serotonin. Many common side effects from these medications affect the digestive system such as nausea, diarrhea, or even weight gain. Food may help your body produce serotonin without the unpleasant side-effects. Recent evidence shows that a whopping 90 percent of serotonin receptors in the body are located—not in the brain—but, in the digestive system.

Inflammation

Inflammation is yet another connection between what we eat and our mental health. People with depression tend to have higher levels of inflammation. Those who eat a more anti-inflammatory plant-based diet and avoid sugary and processed foods have reduced inflammation and reduced risks for depression.

These examples illustrate the many complex interconnections between what we eat and how it can influence the way we feel emotionally.

Eat Delicious Mood-Boosting Foods

The Mediterranean diet and the modified version tested in the SMILES trial that successfully reduced participants’ depression symptoms is based on a foundation of whole grains, vegetables, and fruit. These plants are the top mood-boosting foods, according to this clinical research. After these, you can include some nuts and olive oil every day. This diet also recommends drinking plenty of water, daily exercise, and enjoying meals with others. These are the daily nutrition and lifestyle recommendations for nutritional psychiatry.

In addition to these daily guidelines, enjoy other nutritious foods several times per week: legumes, red meat, fish, poultry, and eggs. These foods are rich in proteins which are essential for building your neurotransmitters.

Here are some strategies on how to put these nutritional psychiatry guidelines to work for you.

Enjoy more fruits and vegetables

• Whether they’re fresh or frozen, more fruits and vegetables is an important step toward better physical and mental health. Frozen organic vegetables are a great go-to for ease of use that are still rich in nutrients.
• Add a range of colorful plants to your diet (spinach and other greens, peppers, cauliflower, pumpkin, peppers, lemon).
• Choose unsweetened fruits and vegetables over juices.

Eat enough fiber

• In addition to fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes are high in fiber.

Get some fermented and probiotic-rich foods

• Examples of fermented foods include plain yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, pickles, miso, kimchi, etc.
• When shopping, look for ones in the refrigerator section (not on the shelves at room temperature), as refrigerated ones are more likely to still contain live active cultures.
• Exercise caution if you experience high-histamine reactions as these may make your symptoms worse.

Cut down on sugar

• To reduce sugar intake, try using less and substituting with berries or cinnamon. You can safely use stevia or pure monk fruit extract too.

Reach for better proteins

• Choose seafood (salmon, oysters, mussels) and lean poultry over red meat. People who struggle with depression tend to do better when they start their day with proteins rather than simple carbohydrates.

Avoid pro-inflammatory foods as often as you can

• Highly processed foods, high in trans fat, saturated fat, refined flours, and sugar are linked to higher levels of inflammation.
• Foods high in pesticides and herbicides may cause inflammation and exacerbate depression and anxiety

Limit caffeine

• Caffeine may exacerbate anxiety, especially in high quantities like those found in energy drinks, espresso, or coffee. Green tea has a little caffeine but is understood to be both stimulating and calming at the same time.

Final thoughts

The connections between what you eat and how you feel keep getting stronger. New research has found that a Mediterranean-style diet can reduce your risk of developing depression and can even help to alleviate some symptoms of mild to moderate depression. This includes a focus on eating more whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, with some lean protein, nuts, and olive oil every day.

Benefits go beyond better moods and can also reduce your risks for heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

If you’d like some motivation and see how simple and delicious this can be, I’d encourage you to try recipes from our Anti-Inflammatory diet meal plan which is based on Mediterranean style dining.

If you are experiencing severe depression or other mental health issues, you may need additional help beyond food, so see your licensed healthcare provider.

What’s Next?

For most people, minor lifestyle changes will make a big difference. However, there are times when the problem runs deeper, and you need professional help. If you’ve tried to figure this out on your own, or you feel like you’re lost in a maze of information and aren’t sure which path to take, don’t give up hope.

We use a range of different approaches to help you figure out the root cause of your dysfunction and stop the cycle of sickness so you can feel better now. Book your free 30-minute Breakthrough Strategy Session today.

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