The top five foods for beating depression

After assessing your water intake and making adjustments if needed to avoid dehydration, if you are still feeling depressed, here are some suggestions for food and non-food methods to feel better.

A "Thanks!" to Geraldine for sharing the link to this article reprinted from the NewsTarget.com website. [Please note: I have not verirfied the links included in this article.]

The top five foods for beating depression

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 by: Erin Bates

Drug advertisements and conventional doctors tell the public that depression is caused by an imbalance of a neurotransmitter in the brain called serotonin. This idea makes it seem that drugs that flood the brain with serotonin are the answer to depression, but there is no scientific evidence that drug therapy really works. In studies in which scientists lowered serotonin levels to induce depression, the experiment failed. Other studies found that dramatically increasing serotonin levels in the brain failed to relieve depression. So why do doctors persist in prescribing medications with side effects ranging from mood swings to suicidal or homicidal behaviors when those drugs may not even work?

There are treatment options that can relieve depression without swallowing pills. Many of the symptoms of depression can be directly linked to vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the standard American diet, which is largely comprised of empty carbs, caffeine and sugar. Depression, mood swings and fatigue often have a common cause: poor nutrition. Avoiding depression or recovering from a depressive episode is often as easy as changing your diet and boosting your consumption of key foods that deliver brain-boosting nutrients and help regulate brain chemistry.

The five foods for beating depression

Fish oils: Contain omega-3 fatty acids. Research has shown that depressed people often lack a fatty acid known as EPA. Participants in a 2002 study featured in the Archives of General Psychiatry took just a gram of fish oil each day and noticed a 50-percent decrease in symptoms such as anxiety, sleep disorders, unexplained feelings of sadness, suicidal thoughts, and decreased sex drive. Omega-3 fatty acids can also lower cholesterol and improve cardiovascular health. Get omega-3s through walnuts, flaxseed and oily fish like salmon or tuna.

Another top food for delivering imega-3 fatty acids is chia, and we currently recommend two sources for chia seeds:

Good Cause Wellness
IntegratedHealth.com

Brown Rice: Contains vitamins B1 and B3, and folic acid. Brown rice is also a low-glycemic food, which means it releases glucose into the bloodstream gradually, preventing sugar lows and mood swings. Brown rice also provides many of the trace minerals we need to function properly, as well as being a high-fiber food that can keep the digestive system healthy and lower cholesterol. Instant varieties of rice do not offer these benefits. Any time you see "instant" on a food label, avoid it.

Brewer's Yeast: Contains vitamins B1, B2 and B3. Brewer's yeast should be avoided if you do not tolerate yeast well, but if you do, mix a thimbleful into any smoothie for your daily dose. This superfood packs a wide assortment of vitamins and minerals in a small package, including 16 amino acids and 14 minerals. Amino acids are vital for the nervous system, which makes brewer's yeast a no-brainer for treating depression.

Whole-grain oats: Contain folic acid, pantothenic acid and vitamins B6 and B1. Oats help lower cholesterol, are soothing to the digestive tract and help avoid the blood sugar crash-and-burn that can lead to crabbiness and mood swings. Other whole grains such as kamut, spelt and quinoa are also excellent choices for delivering brain-boosting nutrients and avoiding the pitfalls of refined grains such as white flour.

Cabbage: Contains vitamin C and folic acid. Cabbage protects against stress, infection and heart disease, as well as many types of cancers, according to the American Association for Cancer Research. There are numerous ways to get cabbage into your diet; toss it in a salad instead of lettuce, use cabbage in place of lettuce wraps, stir fry it in your favorite Asian dish, make some classic cabbage soup or juice it. To avoid gas after eating cabbage, add a few fennel, caraway or cumin seeds before cooking. Cabbage is also a good source of blood-sugar-stabilizing fiber, and the raw juice of cabbage is a known cure for stomach ulcers.

Also worth mentioning: Foods like raw cacao, dark molasses and brazil nuts (high in selenium) are also excellent for boosting brain function and eliminating depression. Get raw cacao and brazil nuts at Nature's First Law. Another source for cacao is Navitas Naturals.

Things to avoid

If you feel you are depressed or at risk for depression, you also need to avoid certain foods and substances. Some commonly prescribed drugs -- such as antibiotics, barbiturates, amphetamines, pain killers, ulcer drugs, anticonvulsants, beta-blockers, anti-Parkinson's drugs, birth control pills, high blood pressure drugs, heart medications and psychotropic drugs -- contribute to depression. If you are taking any of these, don't quit them without talking to your doctor; but be aware that they may be contributing to your condition by depleting your body of depression-fighting vitamins and minerals.

You should also avoid caffeine, smoking and foods high in fat and sugar. Keeping your blood sugar stable and getting B vitamins is important for stabilizing your mood. Cacao can be good for mood because it releases endorphins in the brain, but watch out for milk chocolate and candy varieties high in sugar.

Other non-food things to do

• Get plenty of sunshine. Natural sunlight is a proven cure for depression.
• Engage in regular exercise at least three times per week. Exercise lifts and mood and alters brain chemistry in a positive way.
• Experience laughter. It's good medicine.
• Take a quality superfood supplement to get even more natural medicine from the world of plants.

Today at the market....

I had an experience today that is just the epitome of why so many people are unhealthy:

I was shopping in a warehouse market where they hire people to dispense free samples of foods and other products. There was a very pleasant, friendly young fellow handing out samples of the latest in super-vitamin, just-add-water, powdered-juice products.

I tried a little cupful just to be friendly, and another woman came up beside me and tried a sample, too.

The flavor was okay, it was a little fizzy and tasted like orange. I happened to ask about color additives; the demonstrator guaranteed me there weren't any...orange was its natural color.

I glanced at the ingredients on the package. It was hard to tell what was in it unless you are a chemist. I'm not, so I put it back on the shelf.

The woman beside me, without looking at the package herself, asked the young man if the drink were safe for children. Now, keep in mind this young man was hired to demo the product and probably never saw it before this morning.... He very quickly assured her it was perfectly safe for children.

She bought it!!! Without looking at the label herself, without doing any sort of research or at least a little homework, she bought the product and intends to give it to her children. She handed the health and welfare of her children over to a young man (I don't think he was a chemist, either) being paid minimum wage to demo products in a warehouse market store.

And we wonder why people are unhealthy. Could it in part be because we hand over responsibility for our health to people who know even less about it than we do??

(I hope that woman at least gets online when she gets home and researches the product before she serves it to her family. Or, maybe her husband is a chemist! :-) )

Stressed and depressed, or dehydrated?

When you are depressed, some of the things you may feel are headache, stiff or sore muscles, and lethargy. You may experience a reduced alertness and ability to concentrate, and begin to feel anxiety, fear, and depression. If this goes on for any length of time, you could find yourself suffering various mental and physical problems such as digestive system problems, insomnia, impaired memory function, even chronic fatigue syndrome.

When you are dehydrated, some of the things you may feel are headache, stiff or sore muscles, and lethargy. You may experience a reduced alertness and ability to concentrate, and begin to feel anxiety, fear, and depression. If this goes on for any length of time, you could find yourself suffering various mental and physical problems such as digestive system problems, insomnia, impaired memory function, even chronic fatigue syndrome.

Repetitious? Yes! Many of the symptoms of chronic dehydration parallel the symptoms of stress and depression. While I tend to read exaggerated claims with a critical eye, (i.e. “drinking water will relieve depression”) I must admit that the dehydration/depression link has a lot of merit. I have sifted through a great deal of technical information over the past few days, and will be sharing more of that in the future.

“Depression or dehydration” is one of those topics that again drives home the point that your symptoms must be evaluated in the context of your life and lifestyle. Never should a health-care professional come to a conclusion about your symptoms or complaint, or worse prescribe medications, without examining you through a holistic lens.

This is exactly what has happened in the case of stress, depression, and dehydration. A person suffering from chronic dehydration is incompletely assessed: without asking about diet, exercise, or lifestyle, the doctor goes over a list of approximately twenty symptoms of depression, and if the patient nods “yes” to as few as six of those twenty symptoms, the medical professional happily prescribes anti-depressant medications.

Anti-depressants are known to exacerbate dehydration, and the individual is being led further down the road of illness because her true condition of dehydration is being made worse by the medications, she is receiving treatment for the wrong condition, and now she suffers side effects by taking a medication that is completely wrong for her complaint. After another trip to the medical professional, her true condition remains undetected, but she comes away with another prescription to alleviate the symptoms caused by the first prescription. Now, new side-effects come to the surface. And so it goes…..

Most of the time, it is assumed that someone suffering depression has low levels of the neurotransmitter (a brain chemical that relays electrical signals between cells) serotonin. Whether this is true or not is a topic for hot debate among medical professionals. (Click to read “Serotonin and Depression” in Adobe Acrobat format)

What you need to know is this: anti-depressants are known to cause dehydration, and they are known to interfere with normal digestive system function. This is important because serotonin is created by an amino acid called tryptophan which you ingest through your foods. Tryptophan is absorbed through your digestive system. If your digestive system is not working properly, your body won’t absorb the tryptophan properly, and the tryptophan won’t be carried to the brain to make serotonin. Of course, this is the simplified version, but it shows that any malfunction in the body or override of natural bodily function (which is exactly what many medications do) can affect many and varied other body systems. It should also be noted that tryptophan is also converted into niacin (Vitamin B3), and niacin deficiencies can also mimic clinical depression: headache, apathy, fatigue, impaired memory function, digestive and nervous system malfunctions.

To understand how dehydration mimics depression, and how to tell whether you are depressed or dehydrated, you need to know a little about water and the body.

The water in your body has many functions. It helps your body digest food, and it carries wastes out of your body through sweat, urine, and feces. Water also controls your body temperature, and provides nutrients and minerals. It helps to cushion your joints, and it moisturizes the soft tissues of eyes, ears, nose, and throat. I’m sure you can see how a deficiency in water could upset the balance of several of your body systems.

I know that all of you have some idea of the composition of the body and how much of your body is water. It is important that you be aware of the breakdown of the water content in various parts of the body, especially the brain and the blood.

The numbers vary from source to source, but on the average the percentage of water in the various body parts is:

Human body: young people – 75%, older folks – 50%
Blood: 87%
Brain: 75%
Muscle: 75%
Lungs: 90%
Fat: 30%
Bones: 22%

Blood is responsible for carrying nutrients all around your body and removing many waste materials such as carbon-dioxide. If the blood is unhealthy and cannot properly carry out its function, your body will be deprived of nutrients while being unable to disperse wastes and toxins.

The brain will suffer quite quickly from just a small reduction in water. If you suffer from dehydration, the level of energy generated in the brain is decreased which can cause an inability to concentrate, and feelings of fear, anxiety, insecurity; in short, depression. A chronic lack of water in the brain can actually cause the brain tissue to shrink just as skin that is too dry will shrivel.

Dehydrated muscles will quickly lose strength and tone which will cause aches and pains, and adversely affect circulation.

I have already written about the importance of breathing properly, so will only add that if lung function is impaired due to dehydration, almost every other body system will be affected.

Through various bodily functions, you lose about 2.5 quarts, or 2.4 liters of water daily. You must replace that water in order to be healthy. Drinking water is one way to replace the loss, and the best thing about water is that it has no calories! The more water you drink, the more toxins will be flushed through your body and removed from your system.

How much water should you drink? I have to admit, I don’t care for the one-size-fits-all, “drink two quarts of water no matter who you are” advice. One source recommends one-half ounce for each pound of your body weight. I like that because it is tailored to the individual: divide your weight by 16 and that will be the number of eight-ounce glasses of water you should drink daily.

Of course, there are other options to replenish the moisture you need. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables; many are very high in water content. Drink milk and fruit juices. Avoid self-dehydration by staying away from caffeine, carbonated drinks and alcohol…they all rob you of vital moisture.

Here is another good idea: put a slice of lemon or a little lemon juice in your water. It adds a bit of flavor, is very refreshing, and lemon juice, even though it is an acid, has an alkalizing effect in the body which works to reduce excess acidity caused by dehydration, and by stress.

If you are taking prescription medications for any condition and think you may have been misdiagnosed, continue to take your medications, but do discuss options with your physician as soon as possible.

While researching this article, I did discover a book that has a great deal of worthy information: Water: For Health, for Healing, for Life: You're Not Sick, You're Thirsty! by F. Batmanghelidj, M.D. Some of the ideas may appear to be a little “over the top” at first, but on the whole, this author’s research seems to be sound and his conclusions valid.

Overall, I have found this to be a good book about the curative effects of water not only on depression, but on many diseases. Not every cure works for every person, but every person certainly needs water. If paying attention to the amount of water you drink can effect a cure, I say “Go for it!” See my review of this book at “manuscripts, movies, & music” my online store.