How Your Food Makes You Depressed

We all know that a well balanced diet is important to keep us in shape and prevent disease. However, diet might also do more.. the food we eat can impact our mood and mental health. How does our diet impact our mental health? Let's find out!

For a long time, people have been interested in various forms of diets. Especially in the past centuries, many diets have been established including the vinegar diet or the mediterrenean diet. Over the past decades scientists started to understand, however, that diets are not only important for our fitness but also for our mental health. Some forms of diet are associated with depression and anxiety disorder while others (especially the Mediterranean diet) seems to improve mental health. But how?
Everytime we eat our food travels through the body into our gut. Here we find highly diverse bacteria (gut microbiome) which break down the food and release amino acids and vitamins. These molecules are then taken up by the body and travel to the brain where they are used to build brain structures and neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are especially important for our mood as they are used as a form of communication between brain cells. If we do not eat properly the gut microbiome might be disturb and inflammation in the gut might result. Stress signals are send to the brain and our mental health might become worse.
Researchers are finding more and more links between diet, the gut microbiome and mental health. Especially if the gut microbiome is less diverse and unbalanced we might be more inclined to develop mental disorders. Other bacteria, which might be harmful in the gut are more abundant in patients who suffer from depression. Especially the two bacteria Morganella and Klebsiella seem to have a causative role in the development of depression.
So what is considered good for our gut microbiome? Which diet is good for our mental health? Food which is often part of the so-called Western Diet is generally bad for our mental health. The Western Diet is defined by processed food. We often find food high in saturated fats, refined sugars, salts, and low in fiber in the Western diet. The Western diet is linked to an increased risk to develop anxiety, depression, and ADHD. Contrary, the Mediterranean diet looks like the most promising form of diet to prevent depression. A Mediterranean diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, olive oil, whole grains, and lean protein such as chicken and fish, and low in red meat and unhealthy fats. Especially avocadoes, nuts, olives, and vegetable oils contain unsaturated fatty acids and polyphenols. It was found that the Mediterranean diet reduce the risk to develop depression by 42%.

00:00-00:50 Intro
00:50-3:20 Scientific History of Diets
3:20-8:37 How Our Food Impacts Our Mood
8:37-13:19 Which Diet is the Best?

References:

Images:
Looping Volume Graph by Videvo, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bifidobacterium adolescentis by Y tambe, CC BY-SA 3.0
Morganella by Maryrose94, CC BY-SA 4.0

Music:
Title: Black heat by Ross Budgen (CC BY 4.0)
Title: Filaments by Scott Buckley d (CC BY 3.0)
Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod (CC By 4.0)
Title: Buddha by Kontekst
Genre and Mood: Hip Hop & Rap + Bright
About Clemens Steinek:

CLEMENS STEINEK is a PhD student/youtuber (Sciencerely) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.

[sophiemandese]

I had anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts as a teenager. I was exercising pretty frequently but my diet wasn't great. The little bit of therapy I got barely felt like it helped anything. I got some medication for it which helped but it was just putting a bandage on the wound rather than healing it. Now I'm 21 and off the medication. I'm a bit of a hermit and I don't exercise nearly as much as I should, but I've improved my diet, gone vegan and have been taking probiotics. My mood is significantly better and more stable now! From what I've observed, a healthy diet doesn't cure the negative effects of trauma, but it gives me the mental resilience to address it and not be bothered by it on a daily basis. Now if I could only get into the habit of exercising as well...

[MonsieurDean]

Logic just follows that the performance of your body depends on how you fuel and maintain it, and of course, that your brain and mental health are part of that. A healthy body promotes a healthy mind, and vice versa.

[phdplays]

I eat very unhealthy foods like chips and candy and almost eat nothing healthy I also struggle with ocd and terrible anxiety this video is very informative thank you

[altinhajdari]

Sometimes just knowing you are eating healthy food makes you somehow more satisfied and reduces guilty conscience.

[hejnielsen]

The way the comment section is so nerdy I love it 😂❤

[summersalix]

Since the microbiome and the various roles that the intestines have are so integral to mental health, how is mental health impacted for those who don't have a colon (due to IBD, cancer, or other disorders/diseases that required removal)? Since over 80% of serotonin is made in the colon, some t4 is converted to t3 in the colon which can impact mood, b vitamins and scfa are often made in the colon, resorption of water, and much more... The lack of a colon seems like it could lead to a variety of issues. Can u expand upon the ways removal of the colon can impact mood?

[MultiSciGeek]

Underrated tip for anxiety: cut down on coffee

[yuliarechevskiy]

Your channel is amazing! Thank you for your work!

[angeladavies]

Excellent video, diet food and mood via the gut-brain-axis is vital to daily take careful consideration. I follow a Mediterranean style diet which will be my long term diet. Losing weight I would only eat smaller portions. The cards we all are dealt in life is the hard part, plus grief, pain, hurt. Worth eating nutritious food, physical activity, sleeping well to reset your battery for best mental health.

[gJonii]

None of the studies listed you mentioned if they were controlled, and if they were looking for correlation or causation. People who bother to eat what's supposedly healthy would be expected to be less depressed even if that food caused depression, simply because depressed folk wouldn't hold onto such diet.

Also, regarding diet question, personally I started doing much better once I started eating a lot of saturated fats.

[prapanthebachelorette]

I find healthy food delicious by default (thank my parents for building habits and lead by example), but through some trauma that leads to mental illness makes me more secluded to the point where eating junk is still better than eating nothing at all 😭. When I mustered enough energy to get my ass off my bed, dress decent, and get out of my room, eating out at Asian or Mediterranean food stand is the greatest feeling in several days. 😅🎉

[umartdagnir]

Very interesting, thanks. I kinda knew part of this, but it is always to have a reminder to pay more attention to what I eat.

[christopherellis]

Eating carbs will feed your depression.

[tyrian_rets]

I think it's important to note that one's microbiome doesn't just get fixed with better food . If diversity is the problem, one somehow needs to introduce the initial "seed" bacteria before it can colonize your gut and reproduce. There is some research from Stanford that's suggesting that just eating good food doesn't do much. They found that eating fermented foods (like kimchi, kefir, kombucha) had much more of a positive impact, but the mechanisms are unclear.

From personal experience, I would say that removing certain known intolerances (which I didn't think I had - such as dairy and gluten), and adding a lot of fermented food has SIGNIFICANTLY improved my mood, energy levels, and completely stopped my IBS flare ups.

[MyFirstHandle]

This doesn't make any sense to me. I eat vegetables and meat but I'm still sad and depressed. It does makes me feel mentally healthy but there are still mental issues going on around me. I DON'T do smoke, drugs, or even drink alcohol. I guess I just didn't like my life right now. The world never gave me what I wanted.

[adeleaviv]

How can we know if the mental health problems are affected by the unhealthy diet, and not that people who have mental problems gravitate towards unhealthier food?

[Pebblebrook]

Me and RL have the same issue, I only get a proper meal until dinner. I get angry and am in a bad mood all day.

[kpiii]

Survey studies are the worst possible studies to derive data from

[_TravelWithLove]

Excellent video !! Scientific and intelligent content !! Thank you very much !! ✌️😎💕

[GsPeter]

Where can one begin their deep dive into researching good nutrition and a healthy micro biome