YTread Logo
YTread Logo

How The mediterranean Diet Improves Your Mood - What The Science Shows

Mar 18, 2024
Did you know that a healthy

diet

is associated with a 30% reduction in depression and a 40% improvement in

your

thinking? That's

what

I'm talking about today. I am dr. Tracey Marks, a psychiatrist, and I make videos on mental health education. There is increasing research showing a link between

diet

, inflammation and depression. Recently, two Australian studies showed that eating a Mediterranean diet actually

improves

symptoms of depression. These are just two studies, so we need to review a few more times before we can get to the point as an official protocol, but even with

what

we have, the results are consistent enough to recommend it as an intervention for depression.
how the mediterranean diet improves your mood   what the science shows
The way they did the study was they took two groups of people with depression, one group received social support counseling sessions and the other group received counseling from a dietician. Among other things, this counseling provided instruction in mindful eating. The social support group was not the same as supportive psychotherapy, it was activities like playing cards or board games, or talking about sports or books. And talking about sports or books is not therapy. What they found was that after 12 weeks the diet group showed a significant improvement in their depression symptoms, as measured by depression scales. And the scales are questionnaires that are used in research to measure the degree of disease and quantify it.
how the mediterranean diet improves your mood   what the science shows

More Interesting Facts About,

how the mediterranean diet improves your mood what the science shows...

That's why it was exciting to see that a healthy diet can not only prevent depression, but can also change the course of a person's active depression. Let's look at the diet. This is a modified Mediterranean diet called the Medimod diet. You don't count calories or keep track of points. You'd rather eat brain sins like whole grains, fruits and vegetables, beans, fish, and extra virgin olive oil. The next thing they did was reduce or eliminate foods that were bad for the brain, such as refined grains, fried and sweet foods, processed foods, and refined flours like white bread.
how the mediterranean diet improves your mood   what the science shows
What is processed food? These are things like cold cuts, crackers, and chips. And you want to eat foods as close to their original state as possible. Foods that are close to their original state are what we call whole foods. If you cannot tolerate gluten, you can still follow the diet, but eat cereals that do not contain gluten. Gluten is found in wheat, rye and barley. Whole grains that do not contain gluten include buckwheat, oats, and millet. Whole wheat is the most common, but variety is important, so you'll want to try some of the other grains. Whole grain rice options are brown rice and black rice.
how the mediterranean diet improves your mood   what the science shows
Other whole grains include couscous and quinoa. For pasta and bread, you should look for 100% whole grains or whole grains. What makes this work work? We know that inflammation contributes to depression. Healthy diets are anti-inflammatory and rich in B vitamins and folate, which are important for brain function. These nutrients improve neuroplasticity, which

improves

depression. I made a video about neuroplasticity and depression. You can see it in the corner and I'll link to it in the description. But ultimately, neuroplasticity refers to the connections between neurons. Tight connections are good because that's what nerves need to be able to communicate with each other.
Loose connections are bad because they make it difficult for nerves to transmit information between cells. The author of one of the two studies conducted another study that showed that it only takes five days for a high-fat, high-sugar diet to affect memory in the hippocampus. For example, levels of brain-derived neurotropic factor increase with a healthy diet. We see a similar effect with antidepressants and aerobic exercise. So, we believe that diet affects

your

brain in positive and negative ways. How long does it take to work? In these studies, they didn't retest people until three months later, so we don't know if people started feeling better sooner.
But there have been other studies on the Mediterranean diet, and some of these studies show that the gut microbiome changes within two to three weeks. And the bacteria you have in your gut determine the health of your gut. And the health of your gut affects the health of your entire body, including your brain. What we don't know is the time between improvement in gut bacteria and improvement in

mood

. Even if you are not depressed, the Mediterranean diet is associated with a reduced risk of strokes and heart attacks, and you may need to adapt it to your special needs, for example if you are lactose intolerant or follow a low-protein diet as a result of kidney disease.
But I think the best part of this diet that works, no matter how you modify it, is cutting back on processed foods and sugar. Whether you eat paleo or keto, eating whole foods can make a big difference. I have included a brochure with recommendations and menu that you can download from my website and the link is in the description. If you're part of my email community, you already have the worksheets in your inbox. I am really interested in improving gut health and intend to seriously try it for at least two weeks. I'll post how it went on my community page.
Subscribe to my channel to stay up to date with the latest mental health information. See you next time.

If you have any copyright issue, please Contact