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Central Research
Salad as an antidepressant
The cost of depression to the global economy is estimated at US $1 trillion annually and is estimated to affect 5% of the world’s adult population. This chronic disorder is characterized by mood dysregulation, emotions of sadness, emptiness, or irritability, as well as negative self-evaluation and withdrawal/ isolation behaviors. Depression is responsible for 50 to 70% of suicides worldwide and is the second leading cause of death between the ages of 15 and 29. The average response rate to treatment for depression is 20 to 30%, which has led researchers to consider other modifiable lifestyle factors, such as dietary patterns, for example, to modify depressive symptoms.
The growing scientific discipline known as nutritional psychology or nutritional psychiatry, which recognizes the importance of factors such as physical exercise, spiritual practices, and social support for the promotion of mental health, has been dedicated to exploring how food influences not only our immediate mood but also the modulation of symptoms of depression. anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), among other conditions.
One of the pillars of this area is that “proper nutrition leads to better mental health” because in this way the nutritional needs that allow the brain to function properly are covered. Thus, dietary patterns or diets containing whole foods and various nutrients, such as Mediterranean, Norwegian, and Japanese, can have a positive impact on many conditions, including depression.
Similarly, high-quality vitamin and mineral supplements, as well as amino acids, herbal formulations, and probiotics, also contribute positively. To date, associations between dietary patterns and depression are diverse and exist throughout life, all the way from childhood to adulthood. Findings from a narrative systematic review of 20 studies in children and young adults show that a high-quality dietary pattern is associated with lower levels of depression and that, conversely, a low-quality dietary pattern is associated with higher levels of depression.
Regarding the factor of the quality of a person’s dietary pattern, a study where 496 participants identified as omnivores, vegetarians, or vegans were evaluated, showed that a high-quality plant-based dietary pattern significantly reduces depressive symptoms, concerning those who consume all kinds of foods.
It should be emphasized that the quality of the dietary pattern consumed is a determining factor, as some low-quality foods, such as those high in sugar, saturated fat, and refined grains, are also consumed in plant-based dietary patterns. Therefore, both meat-based and vegetarian diets have the potential to be of high or low quality.
Despite the promising results of several studies and the relationships that have been established between the quality of food with the reduction of depressive symptoms, it is necessary to generate more publications of interventions such as those already mentioned, to fully understand the bidirectional relationship between these two factors and that more doctors focus on improving the diet of their patients, as adjuvant therapy for depression.
Wendy López Romero, PhD
Research and Development Analyst at Drox Health Science. PhD in Innovation in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. Master in Molecular Biology.
References
Walsh, H., Lee, M., & Best, T. (2023). The Association between Vegan, Vegetarian, and Omnivore Diet Quality and Depressive Symptoms in Adults: A CrossSectional Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), 3258. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043258
Organización Mundial de la Salud. (2017). Depresión y otros trastornos mentales comunes: estimaciones de salud global. Organización Mundial de la Salud; Ginebra, Suiza.
Jacka F. N. (2017). Nutritional Psychiatry: Where to Next?. EBioMedicine, 17, 24–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2017.02.020
Khalid, S., Williams, C. M., & Reynolds, S. A. (2016). Is there an association between diet and depression in children and adolescents? A systematic review. TheBritish JournalofNutrition, 116(12), 2097–2108. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114516004359
Baden, M. Y., Liu, G., Satija, A., Li, Y., Sun, Q., Fung, T. T., Rimm, E. B., Willett, W. C., Hu, F. B., & Bhupathiraju, S. N. (2019). Changes in Plant-Based Diet Quality and Total and Cause-Specific Mortality. Circulation, 140(12), 979–991.
