Eating away the blues
The sun may be shining, but spring is still a distant hope. So shake off the winter glumness by spring-cleaning your diet
“I used to be pretty terrible at breakfast,” says north London mother-of-three Kate Greenfield, “sometimes a chocolate bar chewed on the way to dropping the kids at school, but usually just a black coffee. And dinner was something snatched after I’d fed other hungry mouths.
I struggled with low-level depression for most of the winter months.” Despite her blue days, Kate was resistant to beginning a course of anti-depressants. “I knew my diet was poor, so I decided to try to improve it. Through my GP, I found a nutritionist who created an easy-to-follow regime for me including plenty of oats, brown rice and brewers yeast and ditching the caffeine. Within two weeks I’d found the bounce in my step again.” The beneficial, serotonin-boosting impact of increased exercise on the mood of those struggling with depression has long been understood. The link between diet and depression, however, is a grey area, disputed by many medical professionals. “The impact of diet on our emotional state is suspected, but difficult to prove,” says GP and diet expert Dr Ian W Campbell. “But it does seem possible that dietary deficiencies of trace elements, vitamins, amino acids and some fatty acids may contribute to depression. It’s these elements the body needs in order to produce higher quantities of serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline and endorphins – all necessary for healthy brain function, and hence stable mood.”
For the best chance of buoying your mood Campbell prescribes: “a diet rich in variety with predominantly plant-based foods, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, berries and oily fish.” Alice Sykes, senior nutrition consultant at The Food Doctor clinic in Holland Park, London, also advocates increasing your intake of foods that maintain the brain’s serotonin levels. “Deficiency in vitamin B3, B6, folic acid, zinc and magnesium have all been linked to low serotonin levels. So it makes sense to both eat whole foods, fruits, vegetables and nuts and seeds rich in these nutrients.” Essential, too, says Sykes is eating to stabilise your blood-sugar levels. “There is a direct link between mood and blood sugar balance,” she says. “All carbohydrate foods are broken down into glucose and your body and brain run on glucose. The more uneven your blood sugar supply, the more uneven your mood. Over-consumption of refined carbohydrates (such as white bread, pasta, rice and most processed foods) is also linked to depression as their break down mops up mood-enhancing B vitamins and chromium.”
The best way to maintain blood-sugar levels, claims Sykes, is to avoid refined sugar, caffeine and refined foods, and eat plenty of slow-energy release whole grains, fruits and vegetables. So, you’ve integrated whole foods, fruit and vegetables into your diet. What about taking that extra step and bolstering your diet with supplements? Many supplements lay claim to beneficial effects in combating depression, from St John’s Wort to Omega-3 fatty acids, and, newer to the market, active amino acid SAMe and serotonin precursor 5-HTP. “The mechanism by which St John’s Wort works isn’t known,” says Sykes. “But studies have shown it to be as effective as Prozac in tackling depression.
And it’s obvious that Omega-3 fatty acids, deficient in modern diets and an important constituent of the brain, would be essential to healthy brain function.” 5-HTP, a direct precursor to serotonin, is produced from the amino acid tryptophan and is thought to be particularly effective for seasonal affective disorder (SAD, where low mood is thought to be caused by low levels of sunlight). The equally hi-tech sounding SAMe – an active form of the amino acid methionine – is believed to elevate mood by raising levels of the brain’s messengers, or neurotransmitters, particularly dopamine and norepinephrine. So, if you’re battling winter misery in cake-crumb coated denial, you may have yourself to blame. “It’s amazing the difference a diet makeover can make,” says nutritional biochemist Jeanette Jackson. “I see it every day in my clinic. Recently, a very eminent lawyer came to see me suffering from stress-related depression and anxiety and I put her on some fatty acids, a co-enzyme Q10 for energy, green tea and prescribed a diet high in whole foods.
"She came back six weeks later and told me I had changed her life for the better and for the worst. She felt amazing and her moods had lifted tremendously. However, she decided to put her 86-year-old mother – who lives with her – on the diet too. Her mother used to have an afternoon nap everyday from 2pm-4pm. But since the household has switched diets mum has been as bright as a bean, with no need for an afternoon snooze! No rest for my client…. Good thing she’s got boundless energy too now”
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