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Whereas none of the countless individual studies conducted on the interactions between diet and depression in the past have been able to establish any causal links in either direction, new research out in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine indicates that dietary patterns related to fat loss and increased nutrient levels all have a clear advantage.
The new meta-analysis rounded up 16 eligible randomised controlled trials on the effects of dietary interventions on symptoms of depression and anxiety, including a total of 45,826 people.
“The overall evidence for the effects of diet on mood and mental well-being had up to now yet to be assessed. But our recent meta-analysis has done just that; showing that adopting a healthier diet can boost peoples’ mood,” said Firth.
Results showed that all diets (at least of those analysed) which improve on an individual’s baseline pattern of eating have a positive effect on overall mental well-being, but not on anxiety.
According to Firth, this is actually good news because it means that people who wish to improve their chances of recovering from depression are not required to go on any special, complicated diet – straightforward, common-sense changes are enough to elicit an advantage.
Adding the type of foods pictured above to your diet might just improve your mood, even if you’re not currently suffering from clinically diagnosed depression. Image credit: maxpixel.net, CC0 Public Domain.
“In particular, eating more nutrient-dense meals which are high in fibre and vegetables, while cutting back on fast-foods and refined sugars appears to be sufficient for avoiding the potentially negative psychological effects of a ‘junk food’ diet,” explained Firth.
Furthermore, the meta-analysis also found that best results are more likely to occur when good diets are combined with exercise, and that dietary tune-ups are even more effective in females versus males – and may even alleviate anxiety (an effect absent from the male samples).
Given the differential outcomes, Firth advocates for more research to “establish how the benefits of a healthy diet are related to improvement in physical health”, suggesting this might be the result of reduced overweight, inflammation, or fatigue, all of which are linked to diet and interact with mental health.
More work is also warranted in depressed populations, as 15 out of the 16 trials included in the meta-analysis were carried out on psychologically healthy subjects.
Sources: study abstract, medicalxpress.com