January 13, 2015
Clinical depression can be the result of not only a chemical imbalance in your brain but also a poor diet. If you are feeling depressed, the best you can do is not to worsen it by not eating or just eating unhealthy foods. I am sure that you have noticed how consuming a meal, that makes you feel bloated, can change your mood. In general, if your gastrointestinal system is not well, you can go from feeling in a good mood to bad mood very fast. For this reason, it is important that you keep track of the foods that your gastrointestinal system does not seem to handle very well. If you are feeling depressed and you eat foods that give you gastrointestinal discomfort your depression is not going to get any better.
The nutrients in your food can also play a role on whether your depression is going to get worse. One of the food ingredients that is important and you should monitor is the sugar. The main food of the brain is sugar. When the brain is deprived of sugar, a person that is feeling depressed is bound to feel worse.
A person does not need to go into a starving mode for the brain to feel deprived of sugar and for his depression to be affected in a negative way. If his meal is heavy in refined sugar his mood swings can be significant. The reason for that is that refined sugar can trigger a sugar high but at the same time there will be a significant increase in insulin. The insulin will cause the sugar in the blood to be used up very fast, which will cause the brain to feel shorthanded. This will cause the body to go into a fasting mode and can cause the depression to worsen.
On the other hand, if a person balances his diet with a combination of fat, proteins, and sugar his depression will not worsen, which is what the main goal is for a person that is feeling depressed. His insulin levels will not go as high, which will allow the brain to get the sugar that it is used to receive and will give the fats and proteins time to be converted to the energy sources that the brain can use if it needs to.
I know that when a person is feeling depressed it is hard to think about healthy habits. However, if you are feeling depressed, why make it harder for yourself? Give yourself a chance by taking care of yourself and doing what you need to do to live another day.