Can curing depression be as simple as changing your diet?
In most cases I’m going to be honest with you and say no, curing depression is usually a little more complicated than improving your nutrition alone.
For the vast majority of people I facilitate to break free of the exhausting and life sapping restraints of depression we address nutrition alongside mind work including undoing old programming, creating new thought patters, developing real life skills and ultimately a new way of being that, as cliché’ as it sounds, results in a life and self-transformation.
A transformation in that commonly clients let me know weeks, months or even years later that not only do they no longer have to try to be happy, energetic or try to make themselves be involved in or interested in life but that it feels impossible to go back to the old depressive way of thinking, feeling and behaving.
To me that’s transformation.
Now that given the caveat that nutrition alone likely isn’t going to cure clinical depression, it is irrefutable that if you’re not eating well or if you have a nutritional deficiency correcting this can work wonders. In any case it will go a long way towards supporting your body and brains capabilities to do the additional work necessary to get you where you want to be. What you must appreciate is that you are a biological being and as such you will always be limited by your physiology and your physiology is only ever going to be as good as the nutrition you have on board.
Diet industry doesn’t want you to know this, but eating well is actually important for reasons beyond the shape, size and weight of your physical body.
Nutrition has a huge impact on your mental wellbeing, or lack of it.
A core feature of depression is a reduced appetite so the relationship between low levels of any of the following nutrients we’re going to discuss is somewhat of a “what came first the chicken or the egg” situation.
However, in any case there are benefits to eating well.
Eating well allows your body to produce all the things it needs in order to support your optimal functioning including the very chemicals we know are associated with feeling good (more on this soon). If you’re chasing a direct link between nutrition and mental health you can’t get any more direct than that.
When it comes to depression there are 4 key nutrient players which can cause or contribute to depressive symptoms and which unfortunately in our fast-paced medical model as it stands can often get overlooked.
Which is why I’m going to list them here as well as common foods which are good sources of each and which you can begin to include in your diet today if you’re not already doing so. Because what if by doing so it made all the difference?…
Depression Protective Nutrient #1: Folate
Folate is one of the B vitamins and is best known for its role in the healthy nervous system development of babies in utero. However, folate or rather lack of it also appears to play a role in depression.
There is accumulating evidence that low folate is associated with depression.
The pooling of findings of a systematic review including 11 studies (15 315 people) showed an association between low folate status and depression1.
Folate plays an important role in the synthesis of a number of neurotransmitters, most notably serotonin.
Which given that serotonin is also known as the happiness hormone it’s not too hard to imagine that having a folate deficiency and your body not being able to produce serotonin at adequate levels could contribute to a lack of the feelings of happiness and wellbeing or in other words depression.
Food Sources of Folate
Seafood
Meat
Nuts
Green leafy vegetables
Legumes
Dairy foods
Depression Protective Nutrient #2: Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is a vitamin we need in such small amounts it always amazes me how many things go wrong when we don’t get that tiny amount met. However, when you take a look at the number of functions it is involved in including DNA synthesis and brain function it’s no surprise that a deficiency in this nutrient can have major consequences, one of them being depression.
What’s interesting is that studies have shown those with low B12 even within what would be considered “normal low range” respond poorly to antidepressants2-4 and in one study when participants were supplemented with B12 alongside taking antidepressants depressive symptoms were significantly improved in comparison to taking antidepressants alone5.
Food Sources of Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is naturally found in animal products including;
Meat
Seafood
Dairy
Eggs
Along with these foods some products such as breads and breakfast cereals are now fortified with vitamin B12. However, if you do not consume animal products it is recommended that you take a B12 supplement. Talk with your dietitian about the best option for you.
Depression Protective Nutrient #3: Vitamin D
You’ve likely heard we can get our vitamin D needs met from sunlight and this is true, however it is only true if we are indeed getting sunlight and enough of it!
If you’re not getting adequate sun exposure or somewhere something along the pathway of converting the precursor 7-dehydrocholesterol in your skin to its activated form, what we know as vitamin D or cholecalciferol, isn’t running smoothly you may become deficient. Given that there are a number of steps to the conversion process and numerous enzymes involved at each step which themselves each rely on your having adequate nutritional status of other vitamins, minerals and cholesterol it is more possible than you might at first think to become deficient or at least have less than optimal levels of vitamin D.
Food Sources of Vitamin D
Fatty wild fish such as mackerel, sardines, tuna and salmon
Beef liver
Egg yolk
Cheese
Depression Protective Nutrient #4: Omega-3 Fats
Given that your brain is nearly 60% fat it follows fairly logically that fat is important to brain function.
In fact, we now know that fatty acids are one of the most crucial molecules that determine your brain’s integrity and ability to perform6.
Studies in both animals and humans have confirmed that omega-3 deficiency leads to impaired brain function7.
Omega-3 fats directly maintain and increase brain structure and therefore function, they also play a role in modulating the inflammatory response which is associated with depression.
Food Sources of Omega-3 Fats
Seafood including caviar and fatty fish such as mackerel, sardines, tuna and salmon are the richest sources
Nuts and seeds (walnuts, flaxseeds and chia seeds)
Soy
I’m Depressed but I Am Pretty Sure I Eat Well, What Do I Do?
The focus of my consultancy practice is on what the human body needs to function optimally.
I began with extreme interest in the nutritional components of foods and especially loved the microdetails of E.X.A.C.T.L.Y how each nutrient interacted within our cells to create health and prevent disease.
Interestingly as the years have passed and I’ve spent more and more time in this space working less and less with textbooks and instead with hundreds if not thousands of people to help them make real life change I appreciate the big picture.
The big picture is there are more nutrients human beings require for a good life than those found in foods.
Which is why I no longer look for the one nutrient that is going to change it all and rather consider the human being before me in their entirety and which is why one standalone blog post on nutrition for depression is never going to give you the information or change you deserve.
A human being is not something to be fixed and sent on its way but rather as a unique, ever changing, ever evolving and growing lifeform and I now go about ways of enhancing life that not only remove problems but put wonderful things in their place. This to me is wellbeing.
Nutrition and what we eat is undeniably an monumentally important component of health however, if you are depressed, low on energy and finding little purpose or meaning to your life there is only so far nutrition can get you.
Take Home Messages
As a biological being you are always going to be limited by your biology.
Your biology is only as strong as the nutrition you have on board, given that everything you are is created through the foods that you eat.
There will always be value in feeding yourself well.
We know well-fed people are healthier and happier and far more enjoyable to be around too!
But what we also know is that food is not the be all and end all of health (it would be great if it was because life and my work would be a whole lot more straightforward!)
Rather than try to isolate your feelings of depression down to one nutrient, vitamin or mineral you may be lacking and rushing out to buy a supplement as your answer I would encourage you to start with the basics.
No one becomes a master without mastering the fundamentals.
Start with eating regular and adequate meals.
For some people this means three main meals and three snacks per day and for some it means three main meals. If this is different to how you have been eating or seems like an effort I’d encourage you that this is even more reason to give it a go for a few weeks and get curious about what changes.
Start by looking for opportunities to include more of the examples of the foods I’ve given above in order to increase your body’s ability to use the specific nutrients of interest within them that have been shown to be important to mental health.
The last thing I want you to takeaway is the notion that while some stress is a good thing, you needn’t be living in a constant state of overwhelm or exhaustion to the point where you’re simply not enjoying big parts of your life.
You deserve more than this.
If there are things in your life that are causing you constant stress, you get little reprieve and you do not feel there is an end please consider enlisting outside help to change this.
For some things there is no faster “cure” than a simple medical intervention but for many other challenges we face in life as the complex beings we are it truly does take more.
To go on treating yourself as though willpower or motivation alone will be enough or that one day when you are less busy everything will be different is naïve and at the very least disrespectful towards yourself.
Your life won’t change when you are less busy, your life will only change when you make the decision to change it and when you follow through on that decision.
Remember it’s not just about being able to do the things, it’s about how you feel doing them.
How you feel doing them is your life.
Consider working with a human nutrition expert and mental health professional who can help you address possible nutritional short fallings as well as facilitate you to be able to do the things you want to do as your new natural default.
Getting free of the problem may be your highest goal of what’s possible now but one day when you’re living your life at a level higher than you may have ever dreamed possible you’ll realise it was only just the beginning.
Make a clear decision and get started now.
With my whole heart I hope you found this information useful and inspiring.
Become Great. Live Great.
Bonnie.
Reference
- Gilbody S, Lightfoot T, Sheldon T. Is low folate a risk factor for depression? A meta-analysis and exploration of heterogeneity. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007 Jul;61(7):631-7.
- Hintikka J, Tolmunen T, Tanskanen A, Viinamäki H. High vitamin B12 level and good treatment outcome may be associated in major depressive disorder. BMC Psychiatry. 2003;3:17–22.
- Tiemeier H, vanTuijl HR, Hofman A, Meijer J, Kiliaan AJ, Breteler MM. Vitamin B12 folate and homocysteine in depression the Rotterdam Study. Am J Psychiatry. 2002;159(12):2099–01.
- Sachdev PS, Parslow RA, Lux O, et al. Relationship of homocysteine folic acid and vitamin B12 with depression in a middle aged community sample. Psychol Med. 2005;35(4):529–38
- Syed EU, Wasay M, Awan S. Vitamin B12 supplementation in treating major depressive disorder: a randomized controlled trial. Open Neurol J. 2013 Nov 15;7:44-8.
- Chang Chia-Yu, Ke Der-Shin, Chen Jen-Yin. Essential Fatty Acids and Human Brain. Acta Neurol Taiwan. 2009 Dec;18(4):231-41.
- Sinclair AJ, Begg D, Mathai M, Weisinger RS. Omega 3 fatty acids and the brain: review of studies in depression. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2007;16(supplement 1):391–397.
