Summary of ZOE Science And Nutrition Podcast Episode: How food can improve your mood
— Description —
Food has a significant impact on mental health, with studies showing that changing diet can lead to complete remission of severe depression in a third of participants The gut-brain axis plays a crucial role in mood and behavior, with the bacteria in our gut directly impacting our mood To improve mental health, it is recommended to increase the intake of plant foods, whole grains, and legumes, while avoiding ultra-processed foods and reducing alcohol consumption
There is a strong link between diet quality and the risk of developing depression, independent of other factors, and efforts have been made to break down the stigma around mental disorders and make the discussion more open, especially during COVID Felice Jacka, a professor in nutritional psychiatry, conducted groundbreaking studies showing that changing diet can lead to complete remission of severe depression in a third of participants The latest science indicates a strong relationship between food and mental health, and Felice provides practical advice on improving mental health through diet.
How food can improve your mood
Key Takeaways
Food Impacts Mental Health Dramatically
Mental Health: Breaking Barriers, Open Discussion
Diet's Impact on Mental Health
Diet Quality and Anxiety: What's Clear?
Psychiatry's Neglect of Physical Health Impact
Gut Bacteria Directly Impacts Mood
Revolutionize Health with Personalized Nutrition
Key Takeaways
- Food has a significant impact on mental health, with studies showing that changing diet can lead to complete remission of severe depression in a third of participants.
- The gut-brain axis plays a crucial role in mood and behavior, with the bacteria in our gut directly impacting our mood.
- To improve mental health, it is recommended to increase the intake of plant foods, whole grains, and legumes, while avoiding ultra-processed foods and reducing alcohol consumption.
- There is a strong link between diet quality and the risk of developing depression, independent of other factors, and efforts have been made to break down the stigma around mental disorders and make the discussion more open, especially during COVID.
Food Impacts Mental Health Dramatically
- Food can indeed determine how we feel, even impacting major mental health problems like depression and anxiety.
- Felice Jacka, a professor in nutritional psychiatry, conducted groundbreaking studies showing that changing diet can lead to complete remission of severe depression in a third of participants.
- The latest science indicates a strong relationship between food and mental health, and Felice provides practical advice on improving mental health through diet.
Mental Health: Breaking Barriers, Open Discussion
- When we talk about mood, we're mainly talking about depression and anxiety, which are very common and account for a huge burden of disability.
- Psychological distress affects everyone at different stages and it's distributed in the community, especially during COVID.
- There was a stigma around mental disorders, but efforts have been made to break down those barriers and make the discussion more open, especially during COVID.
- Traditionally, psychiatry only concerned itself with what happened from the neck up, but now there's an understanding of how our immune systems and inflammation can affect our mental health.
Diet's Impact on Mental Health
- Felice Jacka discusses her groundbreaking research in psychiatry, focusing on the impact of diet on mental health. She highlights the lack of literature on the subject and the skepticism she faced when she started her research.
- Her studies revealed a strong link between diet quality and the risk of developing depression, independent of other factors. The SMILES trial, which involved guiding people with depression to change their diet, showed remarkable results with a third of participants experiencing full remission of their depression in just three months.
- Jacka emphasizes the affordability and simplicity of the dietary changes, debunking the notion that eating a better diet is elitist. She also stresses the importance of food quality over calorie count, and the significant impact of the gut-brain axis on mood and behavior.
Diet Quality and Anxiety: What's Clear?
- The relationship between diet quality and anxiety is far less clear. Observational data shows a link between better diet quality and lower anxiety up to a certain point, then it kicks right up.
- Running large trials with people with mental disorders to evaluate whether diet and exercise support is at least as effective as psychotherapy. Super aware of being careful around people with eating disorders coming into these studies.
- All diets associated with reduced depression risk after taking into account all other factors. Increase intake of whole foods, unprocessed foods, and plant foods, and reduce intake of unhealthy processed foods.
- No food should ever be forbidden. It's about the total combination of what you eat. Be careful not to go to the other extreme with anxiety around food and body image.
- Increase the amount of plant food in the diet, including vegetables, fruit, whole grain cereals, legumes, and diversity. Avoid ultra-processed foods and consider adding fermented foods like kombucha, kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi.
- Menopause profoundly affects sleep, mood, eating behaviors, and health. Avoiding alcohol can have a benefit to physical and mental health. Personalized advice for different mental health or mood situations is still under development.
- When upset or stressed, people seek short-term comfort, which may include food. Industrialized food system deliberately interacts with reward systems in the brain, triggering short-term comfort but leading to long-term negative impact.
- Ultra-processed foods seem to bypass natural systems for controlling appetite and are designed to give a boost to keep people coming back for more. Only about 5% of adults adhere to dietary guidelines in Australia, showing the influence of the industrialized food system.
Psychiatry's Neglect of Physical Health Impact
- Historically, psychiatry only looked at what happened from the neck up. So there was very little study of the impact of food or really anything else happening to the body on mental health.
- You've then done these amazing studies and seen this huge impact from changing diets on depression.
- 30% of people had no symptoms after three months of following this intervention.
Gut Bacteria Directly Impacts Mood
- There's a very tight link between the gut and the brain, and the evidence shows that the bacteria in our gut can directly impact our mood.
- Nutritional psychiatry has informed profound changes to clinical guidelines in psychiatry, addressing diet, physical activity, sleep, and smoking.
- To improve mental health, increase the amount of plant food, vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and legumes, and avoid ultra-processed food. Consider reducing alcohol and be cautious about pushing towards disordered eating with too much control.
Revolutionize Health with Personalized Nutrition
- Felice Jacka and Jonathan Wolff discussed the importance of personalized nutrition and improving health through understanding the right food for each individual. They also mentioned ZOE's at-home test and the world's largest nutrition science study. To learn more about ZOE, visit joinzoe.com/podcast for a 10% discount on the personalized nutrition program.