Did you know that a healthy diet is associated with an approximately 30% reduction in the risk for depression and a 40% improvement in your thinking? There’s been a growing body of research showing an association between diet, inflammation and depression. Recently two Australian studies show that eating a Mediterranean style diet actually improved depression symptoms. That’s only two studies, so we have a ways to go to get to where we can rely on this as an official protocol. But even with what we have, the results are consistent enough to recommend this as an intervention for depression.
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.
Here’s a guide to following the Medimod diet. Click to image to download.
Depression and Neuroplasticity Video
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 get downloads automatically as soon as they are published? Join my email community and they will be sent to directly to your inbox. No need to come to my website to get it.
Your videos are amazing. I keep watching them. You make them so good. I am sure inventions in gene therapy can help treat diseases related to brain, diabetes t-1, t2 and many other tomorrow. I am sure that will happen. Looking to the development of SGLT2 inhibitors from 2013 to 2022 and the thrilling results I see today in my acute diabetes shifting from HbA1C 7.9 to 5.7 in normal range within 45 days consistently ( of course with insulin and meds) is an outstanding research. I had never thought of it in last twenty years to be able to maintain blood sugar so well. It improved mood like anything.
Similarly, I took rTMS therapy in 2018 in Texas for MDD since 1983, the results were so astonishing, that I stopped antidepressants Venlaflexin 150mg altogether. But my family members who had seen too bad days insisted the Psychiatrist to continue lowest dose of antidepressant Venlaflexin 37.5mg. My health development has made life very comfortable in many respect, making married life better, including getting a professional job at 62 in US with overseas qualification and overseas experience in chemicals manufacturing after struggling a lot for give years of immigrating. I think I should attribute 90% to the role of meds and doctors who supported me in the lawsuit. I am made able to plead my civil lawsuits on my own as a Pro Se. My outstanding contributions in environmental impact reduction and chemical process developments are all due to the best doctors. I highly recommend all people suffering from mental illness or not to see the Psychiatrist or doctors regularly and get better health to see better days.
I’m so encouraged to get my gut healthy and appreciate your videos so much! Thank you!
That’s awesome! I’m glad, and you’re welcome. ?
This seems like a fairly straight-forward Mediterranean diet. I guess I’m missing what the modification is.
could you show what one days meals would look like?
I Thinks this is what I needed.
Hi Maam
I am from India. Your videos have been immensely helpful.Is there any connection between high CRP and Depression. My wife has been suffering from sever depression since last 1 and half months and is on medications. She had an extremely low Vitamin D 2 months back and is taking supplements for that. Her CRP was 16 two months back and 30 now. She is also on antihypertensive and thyroid medications. Both blood pressure and thyroid parameters are normal now.
Hi Manas
I don’t know what the literature shows on this specific protein. I know there’s a definite link between depression and inflammation and CRP is measure of inflammation.
Thank you Dr. Marks. I learned a great deal about depression and related treatments and remedies over the last few months.
My daughter has depression and your videos have been very helpful in preparing me to deal with the challenges. I appreciated you taking the time to share your knowledge !
You’re welcome Vincent. Thanks for letting me know. You are who I make the videos for.
Hello Dr.
It is amazing how you simplify information and keep us tuned and wishing the video doesn’t come to an end.
You are really awesome.
Genuine thanks to you an a lot of appreciation to your efforts.
Mona Sayegh
Thanks so much Mona. I really appreciate it. Keep watching to the end! ???
Dr. Tracy, I love your videos! I have learned to manage depression pretty well without meds in the last few years. The side effects were terrible, so I had to. My son is now starting meds and a big concern is the weight gain because he has deteriorating discs in his back. Any tips? Thanks so much for doing what you do!
Thanks Betty. Not everyone gains weight with antidepressants. Wellbutrin is weight neutral and one to bring up with your son’t doctor. Here’s a video I did on how these meds cause weight gain https://youtu.be/S-NukJp_Nbs
It will be very important for him to watch his food intake because one mechanism of weight gain is making people crave carbohydrates. Good luck and all the best.
Your videos are excellent and of immense help to common people like me. I am going to thank you personally someday. You speak so well and in a lucid manner. You are exceptional among Psychiatrists. We family members love to listen to you and see your videos. Each video is superior in quality. You are my role model.
Oh thank you so much! I really appreciate that. Best wishes to you and your family and stay well.
I am an Indian. I love your videos. My son has borderline personality disorder as per a psychologist report. He doesn’t speak much. He doesn’t like to take medications since he believes medications cannot bring desired change in biology. He prepares for entrance exam to medicine ! But, we know understand him and try to adjust to him to avoid conflict. Earlier, we didn’t understand. Thank you Dr. Tracey Mark’s.
Vikram Shah
Hi Vikram. Thanks for watching my videos. I’m so glad they are helpful. I’m also glad you’re better able to understand him now.
Hello, I’m a psychologist in Brazil and love your videos, they are very informative and easy to understand. Would you mind if I use and translated version of the information in my work?
I work in the public health system and my patients would benefit from the way you explain things. I will credit you.
Hi Renata. Thanks, I’m so glad you find the videos helpful. You’re welcome to use the videos played from the Youtube platform either by sharing links, embedding to a website (using the Youtube embed code) or playing in a program. As for the translation, Youtube is discontinuing the community contributions at the end of this month. That system made it easy for you to translate through the platform. Without that, you would need another way to save the translated caption to an .srt file that I would upload on my end. If that’s what you had in mind, you can email me at drmarks at markspsychiatry dot com to coordinate this.
where is the food list , I can’t find it
Hi Md Romman. Scroll up from the comments and click on the image of the Medimod Diet. It’s just above the Depression and Neuroplasticity video
Thank you for helping me understand my daughter’s bipolar moods. She doesn’t talk much to me about it so I have to research for myself. She does see a therapist and other doctors so I’m thankful that she is getting help.
You’re welcome Andrea. These videos are designed to help people understand the disorders. That includes family and friends understanding as well. Keep watching. I have a couple more bipolar disorder videos coming up in March.
Being a bioplar mania patient. jave suffered alot from 2004 till now
My meds are bupropian 50 mg twice a day and divalproex 500 mg twice a day and also i take 50 mg of trazodone. After taking meds for 16 years, i came off completely. I am diabetic and hypertensive. What. would you advise a person like myself to do asap. Maybe ,you can do a video on this situation. Thank you so much your videos are very informative and refreshing.
Thanks Patricia for watching my videos. If you’re not taking medications currently, it’s still good to be under the care of a psychiatrist for monitoring in the event things change quickly and you need to start back on something. Checking in every 3 to 4 months it’s a good frequency unless you tend to cycle less frequently than that. But you probably wouldn’t want to go more than six months without checking in
I live in a third world country and it literally has no psychiatry help. Your videos are what help me survive through war and difficult times.
Hi Mariam. I’m sorry you don’t have access to help. I’m glad though the videos are helpful for you. This is a huge reason why I make them.
I admire how you distill all the meaningful information in an easy to comprehend way. And you present in a way that I trust. Thank you for making your videos and articles to help people.
You’re welcome Shakira! I’m so glad the videos are helpful.
I can’t find the food list/guide