The Connection Between Food and Mood
Can what you eat impact your mental health?
When you feel down or anxious, what do you feel like doing? Binge-watching your favorite series (again)? Calling a trusted friend? Grabbing comfort foods? And why not? These strategies can make you feel better and temporarily boost your moods.
But, what if I told you that eating a certain way every day (not just when we’re down or stressed) can reduce your risk of anxiety and depression in the first place? What if new clinical trials confirmed that this could even help elevate bad moods after they’ve started? Yes, after! Would you want to know which foods are considered “good mood foods”?
If your answer is a resounding “yes,” let’s take a short trip through the emerging field of “nutritional psychiatry.”
Reduce Your risk
One dietary pattern is consistently linked to lower rates of anxiety and 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 vegetables, fruits, olives and olive oil, whole grains, nuts, and lean proteins such as fish or chicken. It’s also low in red meat and dairy.
Eating a Mediterranean-style diet may do more than protect your mental health over the long run—it may even help 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 was given guidelines to eat 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 experienced the most significant 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.
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 give us the energy to move, think, digest, breathe, etc. Essential vitamins and minerals from food are used in complex reactions needed to make necessary compounds such as neurotransmitters (chemical messengers for our brains and nerve cells to 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. I wrote about this in my book, The Swift Diet, one of the first books on the microbiome!
Antidepressant nutrients
When it comes to the nutrients themselves, twelve are considered to have “antidepressant” roles in the body. Here’s a rundown of these notable nutrients and a mood-lifting food source:
Folate (dark green leafy vegetables- spinach, Swiss chard, kale, etc.)
Iron (clams)
Omega-3 fatty acids, EPA, and DHA (salmon)
Magnesium (cashews)
Potassium (sweet potato)
Selenium (Brazil nuts)
Thiamine (lentils)
Vitamin A (eggs)
Vitamin B6 (avocado)
Vitamin B12 (shellfish)
Vitamin C (kiwi)
Zinc (oysters)
Food and neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitters play a critical role when it comes to mood. You may have heard of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Numerous studies have linked low levels of serotonin to poor mood and depression. In fact, several medications for depression attempt to improve levels of serotonin. What does this have to do with nutrition and food? Nutrients from whole food can help your body produce serotonin without side effects. However, medications that help your body produce serotonin can negatively impact your gut and have common side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, or even weight gain. 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 another example of how what we eat can impact our mental health. People with depression tend to have higher levels of inflammation. People who eat an anti-inflammatory plant-based diet and avoid sugary and processed foods have reduced inflammation and reduced risks for depression. To learn more about inflammation, check out my blog: What is Inflammation and Can Nutrition Treat It?
These examples illustrate the many complex interconnections between what we eat and how it can influence the way we feel (emotionally).
The best foods for your moods
Here are some strategies on how to put nutrition guidelines to work for you and increase mood-uplifting foods:
Enjoy eating more vegetables and fruit
Whether fresh or frozen, adding more vegetables and fruits is an important step toward better physical and mental health.
Aim for 9-10 servings of vegetables and fruits daily (approximate serving sizes = ½ cup vegetable, 2 cups leafy greens, 1 small fruit).
Add a range of colorful plants to your diet: green, red/blue/purple, yellow/orange, and white/brown (spinach and other greens, red peppers, berries, pumpkin, lemon, cauliflower, garlic).
Choose unsweetened fruits and vegetables over juices.
Eat enough fiber
In addition to vegetables and fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds 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.
Cut down on sugar
Avoid high sugar food products - check the nutrition facts label for “added sugars” and remember, every 4 grams equals ~ 1 teaspoon of sugar!
To reduce sugar intake, begin by using less and substituting with spices like cinnamon and cloves.
Reach for better proteins
Choose seafood (salmon, oysters, mussels, sardines) and lean poultry over red meat.
Avoid pro-inflammatory foods as often as you can
Highly processed foods that are high in trans fats, saturated fats, refined flours, and sugar are linked to higher levels of inflammation.
Add in more herbs and spices which offer anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits (ginger, turmeric, rosemary, etc.)
The bottom line
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 eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes with some nuts, seeds, olive oil every day, and opting for fish and poultry over red meat.
And benefits go beyond better moods—a Mediterranean-style diet can also reduce your risks for heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.
Want to learn more about nutrition for mental health, including therapeutic diets, nutrient lab testing, supplements, and other resources that can help? If so, I would love to work with you.
Note: If you are experiencing depression or other mental health issues you may need additional help beyond food, please see your licensed healthcare provider.
References
Food and Mood Centre. (n.d.). The SMILEs trial. Retrieved from https://foodandmoodcentre.com.au/smiles-trial/
Harvard Health. (2018, February 22). Diet and depression. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/diet-and-depression-2018022213309
Harvard Health. (2018, June). Food and mood: Is there a connection? Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/food-and-mood-is-there-a-connection
Harvard Health. (2019, March 27). Gut feelings: How food affects your mood. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/gut-feelings-how-food-affects-your-mood-2018120715548
Harvard Health. (2020, April 7). Eating during COVID-19: Improve your mood and lower stress. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-during-covid-19-improve-your-mood-and-lower-stress-2020040719409
LaChance, L. R., & Ramsey, D. (2018). Antidepressant foods: An evidence-based nutrient profiling system for depression. World journal of psychiatry, 8(3), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v8.i3.97
Mayo Clinic. (2018, November 17). Antidepressants and weight gain: What causes it? Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/expert-answers/antidepressants-and-weight-gain/faq-20058127
Medscape. (2018, September 28). More Evidence Links Mediterranean Diet to Less Depression. Retrieved from https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/902685
Medscape. (2019, May 21). Mediterranean Diet May Keep Late-Life Depression at Bay. Retrieved from https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/913284