Top 12 Antidepressant Foods
Day two of the Integrative Medicine Congress this year was focused on mental health & opened with a shocking statistic: 23% of young adults are self harming as a result of being “depressed”.
Anxiety and depression is ultimately caused by inflammation / disruption in pathways OUTSIDE of the brain. So why are we bombarding the body with mood changing medications that alter brain chemistry?
One of many studies shared investigated which foods are the most nutrient dense sources demonstrated by the scientific literature to play a role in the prevention and promotion of recovery from depressive disorders.
The top Twelve Antidepressant Nutrients are: Folate, iron, omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), magnesium, potassium, selenium, thiamine, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin C, and zinc. The highest scoring foods :oysters and mussels, various seafoods, and grass fed meats for animal foods. The highest scoring plant foods were leafy greens, lettuces (not iceberg!), peppers, and cruciferous vegetables.
When we think about how adulterated our foods have become, with “man-u-factured" foods representing 80% of the supermarket shelves, they are devoid of these antidepressant nutrients, replaced with anti nutrients: additives, colourings, sweeteners & contain significant less quality protein amino acids. It's little wonder that we are becoming more inflamed, anxious, agitated and depressed.
How do we break this junk food cycle ? There are amazing people doing incredible work to change our food chain practices, health, community & ecosystem as a whole for the better. Patrick Holden’s Feeding Britain from the ground up report offers a template for the UK to transition to sustainable & regenerative farming practices - swipe to see more.
Patrick Holden’s Feeding Britain from the ground up report offers a template for the UK to transition to sustainable & regenerative farming practices that would produce:
Double the amount of fruit and vegetables.
Grain production would halve due to a phase out of chemical inputs and less land being used for intensive crop production.
Much less grain would be fed to livestock and intensive livestock production would be phased out, resulting in a 75% decline in pork and chicken production.
We would produce double the amount of pulses (peas and beans).
Beef and lamb, reared mainly on grass, would continue to be produced at similar quantities as today and would become our staple meat.
By aligning our diets to WHOLEfoods vs MAN-u-factured & eating according to the recommended intake of calories (yes we have to eat less!) and key nutrients, we CAN swing the health trajectory away from chronic metabolic disease towards a happier, healthier connected community.
You can and please do read the full report at https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/ or listen to my podcast with Patrick Holden, CEO of The Sustainable Food Trust here.