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You are what you eat – and your mood is too, writes Megan Lee, lecturer at Southern Cross University, for The Conversation.
Worldwide, more than 300 million people live with depression. Without effective treatment, this disease can make work and relationships with family and friends difficult.
Depression can cause sleep problems, difficulty concentrating and a lack of interest in generally enjoyable activities. In the extreme, this can lead to suicide.
Depression has long been treated with medications and talking therapies – and they are not going anywhere for the moment. But we are beginning to understand that more and more how much exercise is done and move to a healthy diet can also play an important role in the treatment or prevention of depression.
So, what should you eat more and avoid, for the sake of your mood?
RELATED: Australian food recommendations, explained
Ditch junk food
Research suggests that if a healthy diet can reduce the risk or severity of depression, unhealthy diets can increase the risk.
Of course, we are all happy from time to time but unhealthy diets are those that contain a lot of energy-rich foods (kilojoules) and low nutrients. It means too much food that we should limit:
- processed foods and take away
- Processed meat
- frying
- Butter
- salt
- potatoes
- refined grains such as white bread, pasta, cakes and pastries
- sweet drinks and snacks.
The average Australian consumes 19 junk food services a week and much less serves of foods high in fiber and whole grains than those recommended. This leaves us over-powered, undernourished and mentally degrade.
Here's what to eat instead
Have a Balanced diet means to consume a wide variety of nutritious foods every day, including:
- fruit (two services a day)
- vegetables (five services)
- whole grains
- nuts
- legumes
- fatty fish
- dairy products
- small amounts of meat
- small amounts of olive oil
- water
RELATED: Back to work? Take lunch at home to save time and money – and improve your mood
This way of eating is common in Mediterranean countrieswhere people have been identified as having lower rates of cognitive decline, depression and dementia.
In Japan, a diet low in processed foods and rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, green tea and soy products is recognized for its protective role in mental health.
How does a healthy diet help?
A healthy diet is naturally rich in five types of foods that improve our mental health in different ways:
Complex carbohydrates found in fruits, vegetables and whole grains feed our brain cells. Complex carbohydrates slowly release glucose into our system, unlike simple carbohydrates (found in drinks and sugary snacks), which create highs and lows in energy throughout the day. These ups and downs diminish feelings of happiness and negatively affect our psychological well-being.
antioxidants in brightly colored fruits and vegetables, recover free radicals, eliminate oxidative stress and decrease inflammation in the brain. This has the effect of increasing the chemicals of well-being in the brain raise our mood.
RELATED: Five types of foods to increase your psychological well-being
Omega 3 found in oily fish and Vitamins B present in some vegetables increase the production of brain happiness chemicals and have been recognized to protect against both dementia and depression.
Pro and prebiotics that we find in yogurts, cheese and fermented products millions of bacteria to live in our guts These bacteria produce chemical messengers from bowel to brain that influence our emotions and our reactions to stressful situations.
Research suggests that prebiotics and prebiotics may act on the same neurological pathways as antidepressants, decreased depressive and anxious states and raise happy emotions.
What happens when you switch to healthy eating?
An Australian research team recently undertook the first randomized controlled trial study 56 people with depression.
During a 12-week period, 31 participants benefited from nutrition consultation sessions and were asked to move from an unhealthy diet to a healthy diet. The remaining 25 attended social support sessions and continued their usual eating habits.
Participants continued their antidepressants and oral therapies during the trial.
At the end of the trial, the depressive symptoms of the group that maintained a healthier diet improved significantly. Some 32% of participants had scores so low that they no longer met the criteria for depression, compared to 8% of the control group.
The trial was replicated by another the research team, which found similar results and supported by a recent review of all studies about eating habits and depression. The review found that in 41 studies, people who were dependent on a healthy diet had a 24-35% lower risk of depressive symptoms than those who ate healthier foods.
These results suggest to improve your diet could be a cost-effective complementary treatment for depression and may reduce your risk of developing mental illness.
This article is republished from The conversation under Creative Commons license. Read it original article.
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