I was lucky enough last night to be a part of the local Mental Health Practitioners Network and the topic was Food & Mood. I was presenting information on the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University and I thought that the information on the research and resources is worth sharing here!
A few years ago I was in a very new, very stressful job and I experienced significant gut issues….I was so grateful to have the support of a naturopath/nutritionist on what to eat, how to lower my stress, and how to improve my mood!
Research
The research is very conclusive about the impact of food on mood and of the impact of mood on food!!! A circular feedback loop! Feel bad, eat unhealthy, then eat unhealthy and feel bad, rinse and repeat. Yet it is sooooo complex and difficult to change our food habits, partly due to the intricate and complex mind-gut relationship, once it is out of balance it is difficult to get it back into balance, without some professional help.
Here is a summary of the research:
More info on the research available is here:
- A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the ‘SMILES’ trial)
- https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-017-0791-y
- Seventeen Research Studies in progress:
- https://foodandmoodcentre.com.au/our-research/
- Food & Mood in Adolescents:
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43180450_Associations_Between_Diet_Quality_and_Depressed_Mood_in_Adolescents_Results_from_the_Australian_Healthy_Neighbourhoods_Study
- Diet and Mental Health by Felice Jacka:
- https://foodandmoodcentre.com.au/2016/07/diet-and-mental-health/
Resources
So if we know that our diet affects our mood, what are some simple steps to improve our diet to improve our mood – this information handout has some good tips but I would highly recommend seeing a nutritionist or dietitian to improve your diet and tailor it to your needs.
Food & Mood two page resource here: https://foodandmoodcentre.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/129/2022/12/Food-and-Mood-MH-Consumer-Guides.pdf:
Three Week Course on Food & Mood (free) here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-and-mood
For more information on Food & Mood click here: https://foodandmoodcentre.com.au/
Deep Heart Wisdom 