Foods for depression: Research-based solutions in your kitchen

Brains need vitamins, minerals, and fats to be healthy. If your diet has not been sufficient in key brain-building nutrients, you could end up with depression. Food can fight depression if that food contains nutrients your brain needs.

The question is: What nutrients are you deficient in?

If nutrient deficiency is implicated in your depression, there are some usual suspects: Omega 3 fatty acids and B vitamins top the list. If you are deficient in magnesium or zinc, you are also likely to be depressed. Iron deficiency is fairly common in pregnant and postpartum women and can be implicated in depression in pregnancy and postpartum.

What about foods?

In the book Rebuild from Depression: A Nutrient Guide (available below from Amazon), I examine the nutrients most commonly associated with depression in the peer review scientific literature. From those seven nutrients, I create a list of foods most dense in those nutrients and call them "depression buster foods." I highlight some of these great foods for depression below.

Watch the video below on foods for depression.

About 50% of your brain is made up of fat. Omega 3 fat is an important fat for brain health that is also largely missing in the standard American diet.

Cooking oils are filled with Omega 6 fatty acids, a fat that we simply consume too much of, one which also increases our need for Omega 3 fatty acids. Note in the figure at right the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids. You want to choose oils with a lower ratio -- those with less Omega 6 for the Omega 3 content. Olive oil is a far better choice for your salad than is corn oil. Removing vegetable oils from your diet is one important way to reduce your need for Omega 3 fats and improve your brain health. The video below recommends an Omega 3 fatty acid supplement but reducing Omega 6s will make these supplements even more effective.

The meat we eat, be it fatty or lean, tends to be lower in Omega 3 fatty acids than it was a century or more ago. In the old days, cattle grazed on grass and were fed little to no grain products. They are the original "grass fed beef." Wild game such as deer and buffalo lived on grasses and other forage. These traditional animal diets led to a more positive ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids. Sticking to "grass fed" meats and wild fish and seafood are a good strategy.

Watch the video below for news coverage of Omega 3 and depression.

As with fats, vitamins are critical to your brain health. Research suggests that the family of B vitamins may be most critical. B vitamins are found in meats and whole grains and are generally abundant in foods. However, we tend to use B vitamins when we are stressed. Stress and depression certainly go hand-in-hand. B vitamins and depression can go hand-in-hand as well.

Your doctor can measure your plasma homocysteine level, as an indirect marker of your B vitamin status. Consider a high-quality B complex vitamin as well.

Omega 3 fatty acids and B vitamins are critical in the depression fight. Magnesium, zinc, and iron may be as well.

What foods are highest in these nutrients? Depression buster foods as described in the book Rebuild from Depression are densely-packed with these depression-fighting nutrients. The list of foods range from the common (whole grains) to the bizarre (beef liver), but many tasty foods make the list.

As seen in the foods for depression photo album, many of the foods are high in Omega 3 fatty acids and minerals, including salmon, trout, and clam. Whole grains tend to be high in B vitamins. Lamb and beef are rich in iron and B vitamins. Sesame and flax seeds are rich in the plant-based source of Omega 3.