Do you notice how you can concentrate, sleep, feel better when you’ve been eating better? Or feel down or anxious when you’ve been eating more UberEats or had a few too many drinks?

It’s not a coincidence. Research shows what we eat impacts our mental health. The amazing team at the Food & Mood Centre in Melbourne went on the search to answer the question, “If I improve my diet, will I improve my mood?”

The team followed a group of people with clinically diagnosed depression for 12 weeks & split them into 2 groups- one group were the control & they attended regular social support group meetings, the changed their diet under the guidance of a dietitian.

At the end of the 12 weeks, 32% of the people who changed their diet had met the remission criteria for their depression, compared to 8% of the those in the control group.

What did they eat?

They ate a modified version of the mediterranean diet, called the ModiMed diet. Below is a pyramid showing what & portions of food. You’ll notice the first two bottom rows ‘eat most’ is plant foods (fruit, vegetables & wholegrains).

The reason for this is these groups are fuel sources for our gut microbes, fruits & vegetables are full of polyphenols and a reasonable amount of fibre, and wholegrains are loaded with fibre…this diet includes 50g/day of fibre (society currently eats around 20g/d compared to recommended 25-30g/d).

You’re probably thinking that’s a lot of carbs-right?!

It’s not, the diet was made up of 37% of energy coming from carbs, whereas it’s recommended 40-60% of our energy come from carbs.

Our bodies don’t digest these nutrients in our small intestine like most foods, instead they go through to nourish the large intestine by feeding our gut microbes so they won’t necessarily affect our blood sugar levels to the same effect as the same amount of carbohydrates from lollies. This is why it’s important to look further at the quality as well as quantity of our food.

We also know that a diverse gut microbiome is associated with good health & eating 30 different plant foods each week is the goal! Loading up on the bottom two rows, should help you get there!

You’ll also notice, this isn’t a vegan or vegetarian diet, because there’s a lot ultra-processed foods (yes, I’m referring ‘no meat’ burgers) marketed as vegan & vegetarian or ‘plant-based’, but that doesn’t mean they’re good for us. There is still meat, but only a small amount & they are lean meats because they’re rich in iron & zinc which is important especially for women & fertility. This isn’t to say a vegan or vegetarian diet isn’t healthy, but it’s important to look at where your food is coming from.

The diet also had a lot of good fats (extra virgin olive oil, nuts/seeds, fatty fish) - 60mL (3 Tablespoons) of extra virgin olive oil (remember it’s got to be extra virgin olive oil, not virgin olive oil or olive oil!). These fats are anti-inflammatory, so many of the foods we eat promote inflammation & low-grade inflammation is terrible for so many reasons.

Now, this isn’t to say, if you eat as per this food pyramid, you’ll cure your depression (although that would be pretty nice), but it’s a good addition to therapy for depression-and get the added benefit of improving your overall health!

Research has shown people with depression have different gut bugs than those without depression however, we are yet to learn if it’s the chicken or the egg scenario, do the different gut bugs cause depression or does what those with depression do (or don’t) feed the gut bugs allowing them to thrive?

Load up on more colourful plants & good fats to eat yourself happy!

If you want to read more about the SMILEs trial study or interested in more information, click here to check out the Food & Mood Centres website. They also do a lot of research in this area if you’re interested or wanting to participate.

For those interested, click here to read the research paper.