Could Your Diet Be the Reason That You Are Depressed?

I feel so bad for my kids

  I was pregnant before we had computers and all the information and resources that are now available to us.  I did what my doctor told me to do. I fed my kids  low fat foods, processed carbs, plenty of juice and Gatorade and nutrient deficient meals and plenty of crap food snacks. 

Even in pregnancy no one told me about eating for the baby’s health. You would think this is common sense but to me in my 20’s it apparently was not.  During my first pregnancy, almost every day for lunch I would eat frozen pizza, a glass of milk and store bought chocolate chip cookies.  When they were born and started to eat solid foods, I did not provide a much better diet for them, I am very sad to say.  

Looking back,  I see how this affected them.  Could it be affecting you or your family member?  Could diet be causing your depression?

Nutrition does affect your mental health. Can it be a root cause for your depression? It very well could be!

Its funny. At least I had an excuse, that I did not have all this information at the tip of my fingers. Today we know much more about food, diet and its health impact.  Yet we eat worse than we did when I was pregnant in the 1990’s! 

Today, we are overfed but undernourished. By this I mean, we have plenty of access to calorie rich foods, but these foods are lacking vital nutrients for our physical and mental well-being. 

Think about it.

If you eat cereal with milk for breakfast, muffin or donut, or maybe just coffee or just skip it because you aren’t hungry or are rushed, then this already sets your brain up for a bad day.  Your brain needs fuel to start the day. This comes in the form of healthy fats, protein, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.  Your brain does not need processed carbs!  If you want a healthy brain, one that doesn’t suffer from depression than you need to feed it the right kind of diet.  

Instead of bread, bagel, donut or cereal, you could start your day with a green protein smoothie, or a slice of frittata or even a chia seed pudding with added protein powder.  It doesn’t have to take a long time to prepare.  

Then lunch time rolls around and it is usually fast food and often eaten in a rushed state or while you are working or studying.  Then add in the processed food snacking that comes before and after dinner time.  Dinner time may be a frozen meal, a meal from a bag or box or maybe you are not even hungry for dinner because you snacked so much. Or maybe you are too tired to make dinner. (are you tired because of your depression or are you tired because of your diet and lifestyle?). 

Where are the whole foods? Where are the fruits and vegetables?  Where are the healthy fats and quality proteins?  Where are your vitamins and minerals? Are they coming from processed foods that added them back in or from whole foods? Or are you eating foods that are void of vitamins and minerals? 

Diet can catch up to you as well. Perhaps through your teen years you consumed a diet of junk foods, sugary and salty snacks and soda and juice. You were fine. But, suddenly in your 20’s or 30’s you are not fine any longer. How can this be when you ate this diet in your teens and felt great?  Nutrient depletion, inflammation, blood sugar dysregulation, intestinal permeability and/or a weak immune system don’t just happen over night but instead over time.  These can all be caused by lack of a proper diet, one that is right for your body, not the diet that is trending right now!

Do You Know What You Are Eating? Keep Track

Often, we think we are eating a whole -foods, plant based diet and not until we start writing down what we eat do we realize that this is only a very small portion of our diet and instead our diet continues to be filled with processed, refined nutrient deficient foods. 

I wasted so much time with my son. I did not know where to start and what to do first or what to buy.  He suffered much longer than he should have.  

Keep a journal for a week to visually see what you are really eating.  Better yet, note your moods around the time you eat.  Be honest with yourself. Often people will start to eat more whole foods when they know they must write it down. While this is great, it is important for this first week to write down what you have been eating and not make changes yet.

Then it is time to make changes. Making changes to the diet is not easy. I don’t recommend a complete overhaul for various reasons and it is best to take baby steps.

You may say that you have no motivation to change your diet, no motivation or desire to eat. That is where the questions below come into play. In the beginning you need one person who can support you and help you with meal prep.  If this is not an option for you and you can afford it, there are many high quality meal delivery services.

Ask Yourself the Right Questions

Here Are Some Important Things to Think About When Deciding to Change Your Diet to Get Rid of Your Depression

  1. Look at your food log-how many of those meals did you prepare at home?
  2. How many meals in the food log were fast food meals?
  3. How are you preparing those home cooked meals (from whole foods, from a bag, box, in the microwave, etc.)
  4. Look at how you kept track of the moods in the journal. Did you notice any patterns such as eating candy make you feel more depressed, or eating a salad gave you more energy, did you feel tired after eating a bag of chips, etc.
  5. If you had someone to cook for you, list the 3 major foods/meals you would want them to prepare for you and why? Do these foods bring up good memories, are they your comfort foods, do you feel good when you eat them?
  6. In the food log, what are the patterns? What foods do you eat repeatedly? Do you crave or reach for the salty foods, the sugary snacks, the carb rich foods?
  7. Count in liquids in the food journal: what are you drinking? A lot of sugary drinks, more than one cup of a caffeinated beverage?
  8. Who in your family will support you if you want to start eating more home cooked, whole foods?
  9. Who will hinder this process, not support you?
  10. Who will help you at first when you are too depressed and don’t have enough energy to go to the store and cook these foods?
  11. Who can you talk to about wanting to take baby steps in changing your diet to rid you of depression?

Getting an understanding of what you are putting into your body and the impact it has on your mental health is a first step in the right direction.  If you are not sure where to start with your diet and what to do with your diet in order to feel better, contact me, Karen Brennan at 303-522-0381.

Sources

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4167107

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2738337/

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0024805