A healthy diet can help to ease the symptoms of depression

A new analysis of almost 46,000 people has found that a healthy nutritious diet that leads to fat reduction and weight loss can help to reduce the symptoms of depression and low mood. 

Dr Joseph Firth, an Honorary Research fellow at The University of Manchester and Research fellow at NICM Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University, collected all existing data from clinical trials of diets for mental health conditions.  The study published in Psychosomatic Medicine, combined data from 16 randomised controlled trials and found that females showed even greater benefits from dietary interventions for symptoms of both depression and anxiety.  Dr Firth said, “We’re not sure why data showed significantly greater benefits from diets for women.  So more research is needed on this and we also need to establish how the benefits of a healthy diet are related to improvements in physical health.  It could be through reducing obesity, inflammation or fatigue all of which are linked to diet and impact upon mental health.  Further research is still required to examine the effects of dietary interventions in people with clinically- diagnosed psychiatric conditions.”