Which foods make the cut in fighting depression?
I’ve been taking a deep dive into mental health over the last few months. It feels like a coming home of sorts, especially when I think that I originally started practice by renting space in a psychiatrist and clinical psychology office. And, now, with our collective mind-body being stressed from many directions, caring for our whole health, in mind, body and spirit seems as relevant as ever.
I wanted to share an exciting study that came out last year that was the first to name an Antidepressant Food Scale. What’s super cool about the study is that it was able to break down the top foods that can help with depressive disorders.
Curious who made the cut?
First, a brief explanation of how the list was created. The study identified 12 Antidepressant Nutrients. These are the twelve nutrients that have evidence to be affecting depressive disorders. From there, they evaluated plant foods and animal foods to identify which ones had the greatest density of these brain-healing nutrients.
The 12 antidepressant nutrients were:
Folate
Iron
long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA)
Magnesium
Potassium
Selenium,
B vitamins: Thiamine, vitamin B6, vitamin B12
vitamin A
vitamin C
Zinc
Ok, so the top animal foods were:
Oysters
Liver and organ meats
Variety of seafood
The top veggies were:
Watercress
Spinach
Dark leafy greens and cruciferous
Peppers
The researchers also organized the foods into categories in order to make it easier to extract relevant clinical data.
In other words, the category with the highest antidepressant food score? Vegetables!!
Need a little inspiration to up your veggie intake? How about this kale salad, this arugula salad or these peppers. Or go the fermented route with this cabbage, ginger sauerkraut.
They’re literally good mood brain food.
To see the study you can head here.
Warmest,
Dr. Antonella
