Depression and Nutrition

Featuring Andy De Santis, RD, MPH, Registered Dietician

Duration: 1 minute 26 seconds

Depression is the second most common mental health globally behind only anxiety. In recent years research in the in the nutritional world has found that there's a strong connection between one's dietary choices and the risk of depression as well as the severity of depression symptoms. Certain foods and dietary patterns may protect one against depression. For example, people who drink two cups of coffee a day may have a lower risk of depression. People who consume more flavonoid rich foods, which is a family of antioxidants found in berries, citrus, fruit, soy, and various other types of herbs and spices may also have a lower risk of depression and depressive symptoms.

It is also true that popular supplements like probiotics and omega three fatty acids have some demonstrate potential to improve mental health. From the bigger picture, we also know that following a more Mediterranean style dietary pattern can generally improve mental health as well. Now depression is a very complicated condition and we can't guarantee that changing one's diet is going to make everything better. It almost certainly won’t. What we can say is that optimizing the way we eat and leveraging nutrition science has some demonstrate potential to make things a little bit better and certainly it's an area of inquiry that's worth pursuing.

For more information on leveraging the power of nutrition to improve mental health, contact your local Registered Dietitian.

Presenter: Andy De Santis, Registered Dietitian, Toronto, ON

Local Practitioners: Registered Dietitian