Posted on 05/12/2021 12:35:04 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A healthy diet promotes a healthy gut, which communicates with the brain through what is known as the gut-brain axis. Microbes in the gut produce neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which regulate our mood and emotions, and the gut microbiome has been implicated in mental health outcomes.
The first major trial to shed light on the food-mood connection was published in 2017. A team of researchers wanted to know whether dietary changes would help alleviate depression, so they recruited 67 people who were clinically depressed and split them into groups. One group went to meetings with a dietitian who taught them to follow a traditional Mediterranean-style diet. The other group, serving as the control, met regularly with a research assistant who provided social support but no dietary advice.
But the diet group made big changes. They replaced candy, fast food and pastries with whole foods such as nuts, beans, fruits and legumes. They switched from white bread to whole grain and sourdough bread. They gave up sugary cereals and ate muesli and oatmeal. Instead of pizza, they ate vegetable stir-fries. And they replaced highly processed meats like ham, sausages and bacon with seafood and small amounts of lean red meats.
The diet benefited mental health even though the participants did not lose any weight. People also saved money by eating the more nutritious foods, demonstrating that a healthy diet can be economical. Before the study, the participants spent on average $138 per week on food. Those who switched to the healthy diet lowered their food costs to $112 per week.
The recommended foods were relatively inexpensive and available at most grocery stores. They included things like canned beans and lentils, canned salmon, tuna and sardines, and frozen and conventional produce, said Felice Jacka, the lead author of the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
With all the “diets” I’ve endured over the years, the Carnivore Diet is the best for mood and inflammation. I love it.
Grow your own
And ferment it
Interesting article. Thanks for posting it.
Lard.
I’d be depressed without bacon.
Like this is news.
The 1980s and the war on fat set our health back immeasurably. I remember my mom letting us eat all the gummy bears and candy we wanted growing up, because the Surgeon General said fat is making us fat. She replaced Hellman’s with Miracle Whip, butter with margarine, and sugary cereal was perfectly fine with skim milk.
Decades of dietary science is now showing how wrong that was, and heart disease, obesity, and concomitant cancers are soaring. Meanwhile, everyone’s on Atkins or keto or paleo or carnivore diets and seeing dramatic effects while we continue with crickets from our government health overlords about reversing the stupidity of the food pyramids and Michelle Obama’s garbage plate.
I’ve never had a sweet tooth. I can say no to a chocolate eruption cake the size of my head, but you put a box of wheat thins and a hunk of cheese in front of me, and I’m having trouble on the throne the next morning. I’ve seen the benefits of Atkins/keto dropping over 100 lbs in just over a year, but that dopamine feeder bar is so easy to tap at like a rat in an experiment when it comes to carbs and my weight has slowly gone up.
If we could rid the public of this sugar infatuation, we’d see soaring health advantages, but that’s not going to help big sugar, is it? I wish this stuff was fed to the public via the MSM, but it’s expensive to eat healthy. It doesn’t fit a narrative. That makes me sick.
Eat shitty food, feel shitty.
Amazing, New York Times. Well done.
I will have ten chocolate sundaes says Q
https://youtu.be/SJp6AIBFMEs?t=47
One of the smartest things I ever did — enroll in culinary school.
Not because I wanted to be a chef — I’m not. But good food is one of the great pleasures in life.
I just wish there was a sex school, too…
depressed without bacon.
—————and a good whiskey, two rocks.
“I just wish there was a sex school, too…”
You need someone to show you how it’s done?
Where does Beyond Meat fall on the scale of processed foods?
No, but you know how in art school there's the model that the other students use to perfect their craft?
I wanna volunteer...
True true true
Angel hair pasta with clams and red sauce...spicey, please...and I am a happy mofo
There is and and you can pay for one on one instruction.
Try to get an instructor with all her teeth.
Yikes, I don’t want to do that, nobody wants to see it but you go for it stud, get it boyyee! Yikes!
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