Does what you eat cause depression?

[Siúil a Rúin]

Does 1/8 of a thin crust pizza really have 200 calories? Because if it does then that makes me a little depressed.

*continues eating pineapple, green olive, and tomato thin crust pizza*

 

[Peter Deadpan]

Does depression cause what you eat?

 

[The Cat]

Does depression cause what you eat?

Delicious flavor does.

 

[Peter Deadpan]

Delicious flavor does.

Sadness never tasted so good.

 

[Hermit of the Forest]

If the body doesn't have the nutrients it needs then it may cease to function normally. Though not all "healthy" food will supply what's needed if there are deficiencies involved.

 

[The Cat]

Video - But I need these monies to buy nutrients. | Fiction Foundry | FANDOM powered by Wikia

 

[Tomb1]

I do love a good rack of ribs but only 12 to a full rack is depressing. I get to the end of the rack and am like damn, just warmin' up here. I could eat 50 more.

 

[Yuurei]

Yes, because 80%of what I can eat is carbs and I’m gaining weight I literally worked my ass off to loose. Excercising every day too.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Directly probably not, but indirectly through socio-economic issues such negative impact is actually quite possible.

 

[Lark]

I do still wonder about this topic, I think it's impossible to know whether or not everyone is being slowly poisoned one way or another but I do think that the human bion and gut bacteria are significant and maybe the whole gut and brain and body and brain chemistry idea deserves more attention than it gets.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

If it tastes bad enough, yes.

 

[theablekingedgar]

yes, it can.
Diet can cause depressive symptoms, if it affects hormone levels. There is a theory that bacteria in the gut can cause depression.

 

[J. Starke]

Deficiencies of some essential nutrients can cause depressive symptoms. But you'd have to have a really terrible diet.

 

[Red Memories]

A lot of vitamin B deficiencies, especially B12, can create depressive symptoms. But as stated, your diet would have to be a total trainwreck. But it is true that vitamin deficiencies can cause issues.

 

[Mole]

In prosperous and free societies, most of us have a nutritious diet, yet the greatest number presenting to the doctor are the depressed.

So it. is unlikely diet is the cause of depression in prosperous societies, in fact it looks like focusing on diet as the cause of depression is a neurotic way of avoiding the cause of depression, which is impoverished meaning.

And how ironic is this? In physically prosperous societies, we are impoverished in meaning.

We dare not face the cause of our depression because it makes us meaningless, and as meaning creating animals, we need meaning as much as we need air or love.


So we will fiddle around with super foods, and the latest diet, while Rome burns.

 

[jennaauthor]

A lot of vitamin B deficiencies, especially B12, can create depressive symptoms. But as stated, your diet would have to be a total trainwreck. But it is true that vitamin deficiencies can cause issues.

Agree with this. However, eating too much may probably be a symptom of depression too.

 

[chuwariwap]

When you stick to a diet of healthy food, you're setting yourself up for fewer mood fluctuations, an overall happier outlook, and an improved ability to focus

 

[Burning Paradigm]

It can aggravate or relieve symptoms of it, but I have a hard time believing it to be the root cause of clinical depression. If modifying what you eat "cures" your depression, then it seems more like a temporary emotional state than depression in the clinical sense. Intuitively, I can't help but think depression is more a product of either genetic predispositions or successive experiences that affect neuroplasticity. It could obviously be intertwining factors between the two, but I don't have enough neuroscience knowledge to comment further on it. If anyone does, please send me some good resources to educate myself further.

Fun story/disclaimer: I was contacted for an internship last summer with a foundation that advocates nutrition therapy for mental illness. I looked more into it, and the guy had a history of quack claims discredited on the basis of methodology and exaggerated results. This might skew my view a bit on the subject.

 

[Red Memories]

It can aggravate or relieve symptoms of it, but I have a hard time believing it to be the root cause of clinical depression. If modifying what you eat "cures" your depression, then it seems more like a temporary emotional state than depression in the clinical sense. Intuitively, I can't help but think depression is more a product of either genetic predispositions or successive experiences that affect neuroplasticity. It could obviously be intertwining factors between the two, but I don't have enough neuroscience knowledge to comment further on it. If anyone does, please send me some good resources to educate myself further.

Fun story/disclaimer: I was contacted for an internship last summer with a foundation that advocates nutrition therapy for mental illness. I looked more into it, and the guy had a history of quack claims discredited on the basis of methodology and exaggerated results. This might skew my view a bit on the subject.

Good nutrition helps mental health.

good nutrition cannot cure mental health nor is bad nutrition the direct causation of mental illnesses.

 

[Frosty]

Theres a theory that the gut microbiome is important in bipolar. That changes in it can cause the swing from depression to extreme mania.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/probiotics-for-bipolar-disorder-mania-2018062514125

So yeah. Its not as simple as “eat better it will solve all your problems” but potentially- dismissing the possibility might not be completely correct either

I am part of a study, the heinz prechter study for bipolar related disorders, and thats something that they are looking into. I think its interesting