Top Foods to Help Fight Depression

Story outline

• A total of 34 nutrients known to be essential for humans were analyzed to find those thought to be most beneficial in fighting depression. We narrowed it down to the 12 highest to create an Antidepressant Food Score (AFS) list
• Watercress tops the overall list of antidepressant foods with a score of 127%, while oysters are the highest among animal foods with a score of 56%.
• Psychiatric conditions, including depression, are the leading cause of disability worldwide among people aged 15 to 44, so it is important to look at diet as a treatment option.

While there are hundreds of articles, dietary strategies, government agencies, and non-profits aimed at providing information on how to fight disease and optimize health, there were no diets and brain health or mental health issues before 2007. Finding one that focuses on disability can be difficult.

Given how much we’ve learned about how diet affects mental health, that lack of insight is astonishing.

In September 2018, researchers conducted a systematic review looking at available research on nutrient-dense foods to find the best foods to help fight depression.

Dr. Laura R. LaChance and a team at the University of Toronto and Drew Ramsey of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons worked on this initiative.

Specifically, the study sought to derive a list of antidepressant nutrients.

“Using the USDA, nutritional data were extracted for a subset of foods high in at least one antidepressant nutrient [U.S. Department of Agriculture] database. These foods were analyzed for antidepressant nutrient density, which yields an antidepressant food score (AFS),” they wrote.

The AFS-based list of antidepressant foods is headed by watercress, the plant-based food with the highest score at 127%. Oysters topped the list of animal products, with a score of 56%. The researchers also averaged the food category scores to create a statistical average for each food type.

Food categories and average antidepressant food scores

Researchers were motivated by the prevalence of depressive disorders and the cost and often inadequate management of such conditions. Their research highlighted that each of the top foods can be integrated into any type of meal plan.

Not all of the foods studied are familiar to everyone in the world. For example, people in the United States do not often eat bivalve foods (foods of marine life such as clams that have split shells).

However, even when such foods are readily available, some people rarely eat them even though they know they should. In fact, most of the adult population in the United States does not meet the recommended daily intake of vegetables. Only 27.2% of Americans eat three or more servings of vegetables.

What Nutrients Work Best for Depression?

The scientists concluded that prospective researchers should look to key nutrients in antidepressants when designing intervention studies. You have to develop your diet. Researchers have listed 12 antidepressant nutrients that may be best for depressive disorders.

• folic acid
• iron
• Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA)
• magnesium
• potassium
• selenium
• Thiamine
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B6
• Vitamin B12
• Vitamin C
• zinc

The epidemic of mental illness and the ‘recipe’ of hope

A study by LaChance and Ramsey found that mental conditions, including depression, are the leading cause of disability worldwide among people between the ages of 15 and 44. Creating new treatment options, including antidepressant foods, is essential to addressing the growing number of people suffering from such problems, they say.

They recommended avoiding processed foods, such as those high in sugar and refined carbohydrates, and following traditional diets such as the Mediterranean diet.

“Furthermore, an international consortium of mental health and nutrition researchers recently recommended that ‘nutritional psychiatry’ be made a routine part of mental health clinical practice,” said the researchers.

Part of the foundation of their research centered around a meta-analysis involving scientists from Australia, Spain, Finland, the UK and France. The aim was to address such disorders through dietary recommendations, which is also the focus of his 2017 randomization called “SMILES” (Supporting Lifestyle Modifications in Emotionally Depressed States). It was also intended for comparative testing.

SMILES involved the collaboration of multiple experts based in neuroscience, psychiatry, dietary, medical and other research centers across Australia. It concluded with the premise that “dietary modifications may offer an effective and accessible therapeutic strategy for the management of this highly prevalent psychiatric disorder.”

He also noted that addressing the association between what people eat and what they don’t eat is very likely to influence the number of related deaths.

LaChance and Ramsey conclude, as advocated in a previous review published in Lancet Psychiatry in 2015, that nutritional psychiatry should be part of the routine clinical care of mental health clinical practice. I support you.

“Evidence of nutrition as an important factor in the high prevalence and incidence of psychiatric disorders suggests that diet is as important to psychiatry as it is to cardiology, endocrinology, and gastroenterology. ,” the researchers reported in their study. “

“There is steadily growing evidence of the relationship between dietary quality (and potential nutritional deficiencies) and mental health, and the selective use of nutrition-based supplements to address deficiencies, or as monotherapy or augmentation therapy. .

Top Scoring Plant Foods for Mental Health

One of the key observations LaChance and Ramsey made during the course of their research was that deficiencies in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, zinc, magnesium, and vitamin D undoubtedly contribute to the ‘pathophysiology’ of depression. It was related.

More specifically, the effect of food on inflammation and the effect of dietary fiber on the gut microbiome are two important factors when considering the best foods to eat for mental health.

Here are the top-scoring plant-based foods for depression:

• Leafy Vegetables – Herbs such as watercress, spinach, mustard, turnips, chicory, beet leaves, chard, dandelion, collard greens, coriander, basil, parsley, kale.
• Lettuce – red, green, and romaine lettuce.
• Peppers – bells, serranos, jalapenos.
• Cruciferous vegetables – cauliflower, kohlrabi, red cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts.
  

  antidepressant plant foods	antidepressant food score (AFS range)
  watercress	127 percent
  spinach	97 percent
  mustard, turnip, or beet leaves	76%–93%
  lettuce (red, green, romaine)	74%–99%
  swiss chard	90 percent
  fresh herbs (coriander, basil, or parsley)	73%–75%
  chicory green	74 percent
  Pumero	69 percent
  bell pepper (bell, serrano, or jalapeno)	39%–56%
  kale or collards	48%–62%
  pumpkin	46 percent
  young dandelion leaves	43 percent
  cauliflower	41%–42%
  kohlrabi	41 percent
  red cabbage	41 percent
  broccoli	41 percent
  Brussels sprouts	35 percent
  Acerola	34 percent
  butternut squash	34 percent
  papaya	31 percent
  lemon	31 percent
  Strawberry	31 percent

Although vegetables are highly nutritious and often contain a surprising number of phytonutrients not available elsewhere, modern food production has its drawbacks.

Case in point: Although labeled as likely carcinogenic, glyphosate, one of the most common and problematic herbicides, continues to be used on crops, poisoning many foods. Birth defects, infertility, neurological disorders, endocrine disruption, and cancer are all listed as potential risks of exposure, according to multiple studies.

Many crops have even been genetically engineered to be able to tolerate more glyphosate. Acres of farmland are overrun with glyphosate-tolerant superweeds.

Highest Scoring Animal Foods for Mental Health

When it comes to eating foods to counteract depression, the focus has shifted from studying individual nutrients to assessing overall dietary patterns. There is a possibility.

According to one study, people who follow a typical Western diet rich in unhealthy fats and sugars may be at increased risk of depression, attention deficit disorder, and other problems.

An analysis known as the SUN Cohort Study (Segimiento University, Navarra) followed more than 10,000 college students over four years and found that those who adhered most to the Mediterranean diet, in contrast, had a more than 30% lower risk of developing depression. I understand. For those with the lowest adherence to the Mediterranean diet.

A 2018 study by LaChance and Ramsey found several foods associated with reducing depression. The highest scoring animal products are:

• Bivalves (soft-bodied invertebrates with two-part hinged shells) – oysters, clams, mussels.
• Variety of seafood including octopus, crab, tuna, smelt, roe, bluefin tuna, wolf, walleye, lobster, rainbow trout, snail, spotted fish, salmon, herring, snapper.
• Offal meat – spleen, kidney, or heart, and poultry offal.

Similar to modern fruit and vegetable production, modern animal food production has its problems.

Fish is sometimes considered the ultimate superfood, but when buying it, be careful not to add lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), or radioactive toxins.

With an AFS score of 15-21%, tuna is one of the most consumed seafood, but can carry risks of mercury toxicity. Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is one of the best foods, but when buying, make sure it’s not farmed.

Also problematic are intensive animal feeding operations (CAFO), which increase the risk of animal disease and contamination with drugs and animal by-products.

Herring is one of the top 5 healthiest fish and a sustainable local food source. Smaller fish such as sardines, anchovies and herring are generally less pollutant and rich in omega-3 fats.

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Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder of Mercola.com. An osteopathic physician, bestselling author, and multiple award winner in the field of natural health, his primary vision is to provide valuable resources to help people manage their health. It’s about changing the modern health paradigm.