Paige Harris Read on to learn how the foods you eat affect your mood instead of the other way around.
When you feel depressed, a popular excuse for not eating healthy is that you want to eat your ‘comfort foods’ to make yourself feel better. But what if those foods are actually the cause of your depressed mood?
The recent SMILES trial (Supporting the Modification of lifestyle In Lowered Emotional States) led by Dr. Felice Jacka, the director of Deakin University’s Food and Mood Center in Australia, explored just that. In this 12-week experiment, 67 individuals with depression partook in a diet support group to see if changing the way that they ate would positively affect their mood.
Spoiler alert: It did.
Breaking It Down
In fact, the majority of participants experienced significant reduction in their depression symptoms, independent of their body mass index, self-efficacy, smoking rate, or amount of physical activity. What does that mean?
- No matter their weight or body fat percentage, the participants still felt that their mood improved when they stuck to their new, healthier diet.
- Fatigue and lack of motivation are some of the biggest symptoms of depression, and so researchers were skeptical that the participants would be able to stick to their new routine. BUT the group that was given dietary intervention ended up having the highest rate of participation throughout the entire 12-week period.
- Both smokers and non-smokers saw an improvement in their moods.
- The participants did not start new exercise routines or attempt to lose weight during this experiment; everything was kept constant to ensure that they did not feel hungry or overworked.
What That Means
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: When you eat well, you’ll feel well. ‘Eating well’ looks a little different for everyone. But there are a few major tenets of eating well that everyone can follow to see some mood gains:
- Eat (and encourage others to eat) real foods, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, unsweetened dairy products, nuts, lean red meat, chicken, fish, eggs, and olive oil.
- Limit your intake of sweets, refined cereals, fried foods, fast foods, processed meats like hot dogs or bologna, and manufactured salty snacks like chips and pretzels.
- Occasionally enjoy an alcoholic beverage or two (red wine preferred), and keep your sugary beverages like soda or sweetened tea to a minimum.
Another one of the biggest excuses I hear for choosing to not eat whole, fresh foods is the cost. However, in this study (and in my own personal experience), eating healthfully actually ends up costing you less than a diet full of refined and manufactured foodstuffs. Sure, you may be paying $8 or so for a pound of locally grown, grass fed ground beef. But when you divide that pound into four burgers, it suddenly doesn’t seem too bad! Go out and try and find me that kind of quality burger for $2 — I’ll wait!
Doing What’s Best For YOU
No matter what, though, it’s important to eat in the way that makes you feel your best. For example, I love carbs, but after some self-experimentation, I realized that eating a low-carb lunch helps me avoid the awful two o’clock slump. This doesn’t mean I’m going to give up all carbs by any means, but I’m definitely happy to push my carb consumption a little higher before bed instead of spreading it out so much throughout the day if it means I can make it through work without that extra cup of coffee!
And yes, I know it’s hard to imagine cutting out your favorite processed foods now, but once you realize how great you feel without them, you won’t look back!
