Almost everyone has experienced intense sadness, depression, hopelessness and many often experience as depression as serious as suicidal thoughts. These days more and more people suffer from depression. According to the U.S. National Institue of Mental Health, those suffering from either major or mild depression have exceeded 18 million in number.
Depression is often attributed with hectic lifestyle; daily stress of work and finances but what most people don’t realize is the relation of their diet with depression. Malnutrition is one of the reasons for depression and also, depression might result in poor eating that leads to inadequate nutrition for body. The Standard American Diet is referred to as SAD for the reason of its effect on one’s health.
British Journal of Psychiatry compared a data on diet of 3,500 middle-aged civil servants. The study was based on a span of 5 years. The aim was to look at the diet find out its relation to depression. The participants were split into two types of diet. One group ate diet based on whole foods; fruits, vegetables and fish. The other group relied mostly on the processed food diet, like fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products.
The other factors were taken into account and controlled. After five years when the results were compared, the people with a diet high in processed food had a 58% higher risk of depression than the other group. Therefore, highly processed food and diet lacking in fresh food can increase a risk for depression.
Dr Andrew Stoll from Harvard Medical School carried out an experiment on 40 patients of severe depression. He gave them omega-3 supplements and within days the patients started showing double the improvements than the anti-depressant drugs did. Omega-3 helps to build your brain’s neuronal connections and it also builds the receptor sites for neurotransmitters. The richest dietary source for omega-3 is from fish. Carnivorous cold water fishes, such as salmon, mackerel and herring, are high in omega-3.
Too high or too low levels of dietary fat are also seen in many cases of depression. Caffeine and refined sugar can also make you depressed. More than 700mg, i.e. four to five cups of a coffee, daily intake of caffeine can cause depression.
Vitamin B deficiency is also one of the major observations seen among the patients of depression. Vitamin B is a powerful regulator of mood. Among all vitamins, deficiency of Folic acid is the most common. Depression is a common symptom of folic acid deficiency. The level of folic acid in body is inversely proportional to the stage of depression. At least eight studies have shown that patients with depression have lower levels of folic acid than other populations.
