How The mediterranean Diet Improves Your Mood - What The Science Shows
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Published 2019-09-25
The diet is a modified Mediterranean diet, called the Medimod diet. You don’t count calories or keep up with points. Instead, you eat brain healthy foods like whole grains, fruits and vegetables, beans, fish and extra virgin olive oil. You also reduce or eliminate foods that are bad for the brain like refined cereals, fried and sugary foods, processed foods and refined flour like white bread,
What are processed foods?
Things like deli meats, crackers, cookies, and chips. You want to eat foods as close to their original state as possible. Foods close to their original state are called whole foods.
If you can’t tolerate gluten, you can still follow the diet but eat non-gluten containing grains. Gluten is found in wheat, rye and barley.
Some non-gluten containing whole grains are buckwheat, oats, millet, and rye. Whole wheat is the most common, but variety is important, so you want to try some of the other grains. Whole grain options for rice are brown or black rice. Other whole grains are couscous and quinoa. For pasta and bread, you want to look for 100% whole wheat or whole grain.
What makes this work?
We know that inflammation contributes to depression. Healthy diets are ¬anti-inflammatory, and are rich in B-vitamins and folate which is important for brain function. These nutrients improve neuroplasticity which improves depression. Neuroplasticity refers to the connections between the neurons. Tight connections are good because that’s what the nerves need to communicate with each other. Loose connections are bad because it makes it harder for the nerves to transfer messages between the cells.
How long does it take to work? In these studies, they didn’t retest the people until 3 months later. So we don’t know if people started to feel better sooner than that. But there have been other studies using the Mediterranean diet. Some of these studies show that your gut microbiome changes in just 2-3 weeks. What kind of bacteria you have in your gut, dictates the health of your gut. The health of your gut influences the health of your whole body including your brain. What we don’t know is the lag time between improved gut bacteria and improved mood.
Even if you don’t have depression, the Mediterranean diet is associated with decreased risk of stroke and heart attacks. You may need to adjust it to your special needs like if you are lactose intolerant or need to have low protein because of kidney disease. But the best part of this diet that works no matter how you need to modify it, is the reduction in processed food and sugar. Whether you eat Paleo or keto, eating whole foods can make a world of difference.
Medimod Guide (free download) markspsychiatry.com/the-depression-diet
Depression and Neuoroplasticity video • What Causes Depression? – It's Not Ju...
References
Rachelle S. Opie, Adrienne O'Neil, Felice N. Jacka, Josephine Pizzinga & Catherine Itsiopoulos (2018)A modified Mediterranean dietary intervention for adults with major depression: Dietary protocol and feasibility data from the SMILES trial, Nutritional Neuroscience, 21:7, 487-501,
Jacka et al. A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the ‘SMILES’ trial). BMC Medicine (2017) 15:23
Lai JS, Hiles S, Bisquera A, Hure AJ, McEvoy M, Attia J. A systematic review and meta-analysis of dietary patterns and depression in community- dwelling adults. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013;99:181–97.
Marx W et al, Nutritional psychiatry: the present state of the evidence.
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 2017;76(4):427-436
Want to know more about mental health and self-improvement? On this channel I discuss topics such as bipolar disorder, major depression, anxiety disorders, attention deficit disorder (ADHD), relationships and personal development/self-improvement. I upload weekly. If you don’t want to miss a video, click here to subscribe. goo.gl/DFfT33
Disclaimer: All of the information on this channel is for educational purposes and not intended to be specific/personal medical advice from me to you. Watching the videos or getting answers to comments/question, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship. If you have your own doctor, perhaps these videos can help prepare you for your discussion with your doctor.
All Comments (21)
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WATCH NEXT - USING MINDFULNESS FOR DEPRESSION https://youtu.be/6SAFvliImdU
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Love to see that certified doctors are now talking about the link between your gut and your brain.
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I was excited until i realized Mediterranean diet didn’t just mean eating all gyros and falafels that I wanted
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I really wish that schools would have taught us how complex the human body as a whole really is… cause my science classes definitely simplified the human body smh. Imagine hearing this as a high schooler.
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My dad was anxious and really depressed after his job retirement. After a while, he moved from Medellin, Colombia to his own farm, seven hours by bus. His diet only includes chicken, eggs, fruits and vegetables and honey, all organic. I've never seen him better
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Can I just say how much I appreciate sentences like "that's how we think diet affects.." or the clarification on "in these studies, they didn't retest the people until 3 days later"? It makes all the information you provide so much more trustworthy to me, as opposed to videos that present everything as 100% correct facts or don't care for implementation details of tests/studies. Thanks a lot!
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In my early 20's, I decided to give up all junk food during the 6 weeks of Lent, both savory and sweet. It was very difficult for me, but the biggest surprise was that I didn't have any of my usual PMS symptoms related to my monthly period (bad mood, bloating, irritability, etc.). Completely gone!! That was a real eye-opener how much diet can affect the body and a person's mood.
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Brothers and sisters please stay away from fast food, over all process foods and sugar. You can do this! One step at a time. Start with eliminating soda out your daily diet...watch how good you feel. Whatever you process food you like eating, find a healthy replacement. Yup, I deal with depression so diet is everything for me and of course God's grace. I love you for real. Blessings
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I am on this diet and I can see improvements in mood from day 5! Within a month, all cravings for processed foods or sugar stopped entirely.
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I can vouch for this. I changed my diet and noticed, funny enough, about a 30% improvement in my mental state. I’ve been mostly consistent with my diet, exercise and sleep routines and feel like the effects have compounded and I generally feel better. And now when I notice my depression return, I just assess where I’ve fallen behind and can often trace my mood changes back to an unhealthy meal or skipping days of exercising. And when I do succumb to my symptoms, they don’t feel as intense and unshakable as before. Been doing this for about 2 years and I’ve also been consistently loosing weight, which is just another mood booster and motivator. I strongly recommend anyone with depression to consider changes in their lifestyle and be conscious of their intake and see what works best. You might unlock that willpower you didn’t know you had. Ps. This is just my experience, everyone is different, and in no way do I intend to belittle the struggle with mental health. Just wanted to share in hopes it can help someone else.
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I can totally attest to this dietary advice to reduce anxiety and depression along with regular exercise. It works! My problem is that the American Bad Food Culture is everywhere, including my church. I have to be fiercely resistant to it, and I often make people mad because I put my health first. 😩
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I definitely believe this, when I eat good I feel good.
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"Eat foods as close to their original state as possible" Just start attacking chickens and eating them on site.
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My mother understood about fish helping with clearer concentration. During finals week when I was in high school, mom would make a lot of baked fish. Dad would ask "Why are we having fish so much this week?" I would say "Dad...it's finals week"🤣🤣
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"talking about books is not therapy"... Me and my coping skills are exposed !!!
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This is so true ..depression paralyzes me from doing basic things like eating. I incorporate “Boost” or “Ensure” drinks and wishing a few days I’m feeling much better .
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I feasted on tv dinners and processed food when I was younger. No wonder I was such a depressed little girl
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You have almost become a new religion for me lol. I love your videos and predict a brighter future for an old, homeless man that once had given up on the hope of life. You have pretty much single handedly saved my life and I will not only listen to the advice, but employ it. I'm convinced that doing that can only add to the improvement thus far. Thanks for being you, Doc
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CORRECTION - I omitted the fish recommendation on the MediMod Diet handout. I corrected it and if you are on my email list, I resent it it you already. If you downloaded it from my website - I've uploaded the corrected version on Sept 26th and you can go and download it here: markspsychiatry.com/the-depression-diet/
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I, like many other in the comments section can vouch for this. I went from a terrible diet (Standard American Diet) to a 100% raw vegan plant based diet and not only did I reverse every single dis-ease I was dealing with, my mood is drastically better. I actually have moments of bliss where I feel high off life and almost have happy tears. Your gut and your lymphatic system are everything.
