What foods to eat to relieve depression

Currently, no food can directly alleviate or treat depression, but daily intake of foods rich in nutrients such as Omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium, and probiotics can indeed help stabilize mood to a certain extent and serve as an auxiliary adjustment method in addition to drug treatment and psychological counseling. Many people also think that food has little impact on mood. This is actually true. If you have reached a state of severe depression where you can't even eat, the effect of food supplements can be basically ignored. Only when you are mildly depressed or in the recovery period of standard treatment can you see the effect of adjusting your diet.

I once met a post-95s girl who was newly diagnosed with mild depression. She used to rely on takeout fried chicken and iced milk tea every day to survive. Later, she was advised to eat steamed salmon or sardines 2-3 times a week. If she was hungry in the afternoon, she would not eat puffed food. Instead, she would eat about 10 almonds and a small handful of cherry tomatoes. About 20 days later, she told me that the low feeling that suddenly struck her and would sink into her for a long time was reduced by almost a third, and she would not break down in tears because of trivial things. Omega-3 fatty acids in deep-sea fish are originally an important component of our brain nerves. Sufficient amounts can help "happy transmitters" such as serotonin and dopamine to transmit signals normally. To put it bluntly, it is like patching up the road surface for emotional signals. The signals will not get stuck, and the emotions will naturally not get stuck in the dead end of low emotions.

Oh, by the way, don’t just focus on eating deep-sea fish. When I’m in a bad mood, I will deliberately cook more dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach and broccoli. Occasionally, I use oats and quinoa instead of white rice as staple food. The magnesium in them can also help soothe tense nerves, just like giving a rest to the spinning nerve cells. Gentle massage. A reader who works in Internet operations told me that she worked overtime until 12 o'clock every day for three months in a row. She was so irritable that she would quarrel with her colleagues over the smallest things. Later, she added a small portion of stir-fried spinach to lunch every day for more than a week, and she felt that she was not so easily offended. But I have to say here that I have also seen the opposite research conclusion, saying that magnesium supplementation alone has no significant effect on improving mood. It must be combined with the overall diet and work and rest adjustments to be effective. If you stay up until two or three o'clock every day, even eating spinach will have no effect.

If you are prone to flatulence and have a bad gastrointestinal condition, drinking some sugar-free yogurt and eating fermented kimchi and natto will also be helpful. Now many studies have mentioned the role of the brain-gut axis. The intestines and the brain are actually connected. When the intestinal flora is stable, the emotional state of the brain will also be stabilized. I used to have irritable bowel syndrome and diarrhea until I was irritable. I drank a small bowl of unsweetened Greek yogurt every afternoon. After about half a month, my gastrointestinal comfort was relieved, and my mood swings were not that big. However, the current research in this area has not yet completely unified the conclusion. There are also many people who feel nothing at all after eating fermented foods. There is no need to eat things they don’t like in order to so-called "relieve depression". Instead, they will make them feel bad.

Oh, by the way, don’t believe the saying “eat sweets when you’re in a bad mood”. Eating high-sugar foods such as cakes and milk tea will indeed bring you short-term happiness, but the rapid rise and fall of blood sugar will actually aggravate the feeling of fatigue and depression, which is not worth the gain. All in all, adjusting your diet is only a small part of improving your mood. If you are really depressed for a long time and have no interest in anything, you should first go to the hospital to see a professional doctor for evaluation. Don't just carry it on, and don't expect to get better just by eating. What eating can do is to help you while you are being treated properly.