Depression is a mental health disorder that affects your mood, your motivation and your ability to accomplish your goals. Depression can manifest in different ways and can take a significant toll on your life. While diet and exercise can play a role in treating your symptoms of depression, they should not be used as your sole form of treatment unless that is the recommendation of your doctor.
Foods to Avoid
Eliminating certain foods from your diet can help you relieve some of your symptoms. Avoid alcohol use. While alcohol can help your mood improve initially, it is a depressant and can have a negative effect on your mood, causing your symptoms to worsen. Also, when you are depressed and drink alcohol you may be tempted to drink too much and too often to cover up your depression symptoms. This can lead you to develop an addiction.
Refined carbohydrates and sugar rich foods can worsen your depression symptoms. They cause your blood sugar levels to spike and then quickly decrease. This rapid change in blood sugar levels can contribute to the worsening of fatigue and irritability.
Helpful Foods
Increase the amount of foods rich in omega-3 in your diet to at least two servings per week. Omega-3 can help keep your mood stable. Eat foods such as walnuts, flaxseed, olive oil and fatty fish to increase the omega-3 fatty acids in your diet.
Stick to foods that contain whole grains such as brown rice, whole grain pasta, whole grain cereals and whole grain breads. Whole grains digest slowly, which helps keep your blood sugar levels stable and your mood elevated.
Adding B vitamins to your diet can also help to raise your mood. A lack of folic acid and vitamin B-12 can contribute to symptoms of depression. You can increase your B vitamins by eating foods such as citrus fruits, beans, green leafy vegetables and eggs. B vitamin supplements are available, but talk with your doctor before taking these.
Role of Exercise
Exercise can affect your mood. When you are depressed, it may be hard to be active, but doing so can help relieve some of your symptoms. Exercise increases mood-boosting endorphins and neurotransmitters and relieves stress. For some people, regular exercise is more effective than or equally effective as antidepressant medications, and the effects can last longer than medications, according to the Harvard Health Publications.
How Much Exercise
Exercise has to become a routine habit to have a significant effect on your depression, but it does not have to be hard. According to the findings of a study published in 2005 and cited by the Harvard Health Publications, moderate and mild symptoms of depression were relieved in people who went on a 35-minute fast walk for five days out of each week and in people who walked for 60 minutes for three days out of the week. Fit regular exercise into your day to increase your mood.
