Depressed? Healthy eating can help

Various healthy diets to reduce the symptoms of depression and work even better for women

Doctors and scientists know that a junk food diet can be detrimental to mental health. But apparently, until now, there was no general evidence that eating healthy can help. A new study changes that.

Dr. Joseph Firth, of the University of Manchester, and his colleagues found that "existing research has been unable to definitively establish whether an improvement in diet could be beneficial to health mental. " They therefore decided to conduct a meta-study on the hypothesis that a healthy diet would affect the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

A meta-study uses data from studies already completed to accumulate a lot of evidence that can be badyzed to answer new questions. Dr. Firth and his team found 16 appropriate studies ("randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of dietary interventions reporting changes in symptoms of depression and / or anxiety") involving more than 45,000 participants.

The study found that various types of diets – to lose weight, target fat reduction or nutritional value (nutritional density) – have all shown benefits for reducing the symptoms of depression. Dr. Firth explains:

"This is actually good news, the similar effects of any type of food improvement suggest that highly specialized or specialized diets are not necessary for the average person – high fiber and vegetable meals, while reducing fast foods and refined sugars, seems sufficient to avoid the potentially negative psychological effects of a "junk food" diet. "

In general, the study did not show any reduction in anxiety symptoms – but when the subpopulation of women was evaluated, the results showed that the diet could be effective in helping to control anxiety. in women. In addition, the benefits of depression are greater for women.

The study demonstrates the need to evaluate the use of these healthy and natural approaches to mental well-being, whether to replace or support pharmaceutical interventions or other therapeutic interventions. But until the science that explains why a healthy diet correlates with less depression becomes clearer, eating healthier seems to be a good first step to fight the "darkness".

The comprehensive study, titled The Effects of Food Improvement on Depression and Anxiety Symptoms: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials, is published in the journal Psychosomatic medicine.