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Improving Mood Through Diet

The purported role arachidonic acid plays in brain inflammation could explain why eliminating chicken, fish, and eggs may improve symptoms of mood disturbance, depression, anxiety and stress within two weeks.

September 29, 2011 |
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Improving Mood Through Diet, 4.8 out of 5 based on 12 ratings

Sources Cited

Beezhold BL, Johnston CS, Daigle DR. Vegetarian diets are associated with healthy mood states: a cross-sectional study in seventh day adventist adults. Nutr J. 2010 Jun 1;9:26.

Esposito G, Giovacchini G, Liow JS, Bhattacharjee AK, Greenstein D, Schapiro M, Hallett M, Herscovitch P, Eckelman WC, Carson RE, Rapoport SI. Imaging neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's disease with radiolabeled arachidonic acid and PET. J Nucl Med. 2008 Sep;49(9):1414-21.

Fisher M, Levine PH, Weiner B, Ockene IS, Johnson B, Johnson MH, Natale AM, Vaudreuil CH, Hoogasian J. The effect of vegetarian diets on plasma lipid and platelet levels. Arch Intern Med. 1986 Jun;146(6):1193-7.

Actis AB, Perovic NR, Defagó D, Beccacece C, Eynard AR. Fatty acid profile of human saliva: a possible indicator of dietary fat intake. Arch Oral Biol. 2005 Jan;50(1):1-6.

Beezhold BL, Johnston CS, Daigle DR. Preliminary evidence that vegetarian diet improves mood. American Public Health Association annual conference, November 7-11, 2009. Philadelphia, PA.

Acknowledgements

With kind appreciation to Dr. Beezhold for sharing her poster and paper.

Transcript

In one of my videos last year, I reported on the finding that vegetarian men and women had  significantly better scores on the Depression, Anxiety, Stress scale. Why were vegetarians significantly less depressed, anxious, and stressed than even healthy meateaters in this study?  “Negligable arachidonic acid intake may help explain the favorable mood profile observed with vegetarian diets.  As I talked about last year, this arachidonic acid stuff in our diet produces inflammatory compounds which may inflame our brain.

 The omnivores ate 9 times as much arachidonic acid than the vegetarians, which is not surprising, given that arachidonic acid is not found in plants.  That’s why vegetarians and vegans, have significantly lower levels of arachidonic acid flowing though their bloodstream. In fact  you can even measure it right out of saliva. They found significantly lower levels of arachidonic acid in vegetarian drool.

 This was a landmark study, but it was also just a cross-sectional study, a snapshot in time. What you need to do to prove cause and effect is do an interventional study.  So in a follow-up study presented at the annual American Public Health Association conference they took a bunch of meateaters and split them up into three groups.  The control group maintained regular intake of flesh foods  The second group ate fish, but no other meat,  and the third was put on a vegetarian diet with no eggs. The whole study only lasted two weeks, but what do you think they found?

If it was primarily the saturated fat inflaming the omnivores' brain, then the moods of both the veg and fish groups would presumably improve. If arachidonic acid was the culprit then presumably only the veg group would feel significantly better.

 This is the amount of arachidonic acid in blue consumed per day by the end of the study. The fish eaters, though, were eating a lot more of those long chain omega 3’s, though, EPA and DHA, so maybe they were protected? Or, more like nothing would happen in such a short time frame—just two weeks.

 In terms of psychological benefits, the egg-free vegetarian group significantly improved, meaning greater reductions in both the depression, anxiety, stress scale and the Profile of Mood Staes a measurement of mood disrturbance. Though the no-poultry fish group did marginally better than the control group, the difference was not statistically significant.

 Conclusion: “The complete restriction of flesh foods significantly reduced mood variability in omnivores….  Our results suggest that a vegetarian diet can reduce mood variability in omnivores. Perhaps eating less meat can help protect mood in omnivores, particularly important in those susceptible to mood disorders.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. For information on the role that plant-based diets can play in improving mood, check out my other video Plant-Based Diet & Mood. Also, there are 1,449 subjects covered in my other videos–please feel free to explore them!

Also, be sure to check out my associated blog posts: Harvard’s Meat and Mortality Studies, Inflammation, Diet, and "Vitamin S", The Most Anti-Inflammatory Mushroom, How To Boost Serotonin Naturally, Treating Crohn’s Disease With Diet, Top 10 Most Popular Videos of the Year, and  Saffron vs. Prozac for Depression

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. For information on the role that plant-based diets can play in improving mood, check out my other video Plant-Based Diet & Mood. Also, there are 1,449 subjects covered in my other videos–please feel free to explore them!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/KarenLaVine/ Karen LaVine

    I wonder about meat intake and the higher rate of depression for people with diabetes… Yet another reason to try the PCRM plant-based diet for people with diabetes? Cool it only takes 2 weeks to affect the mood – that’s LOTS faster than SSRI’s.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/jordanelizabeth/ Jordanelizabeth

    This video has perfect timing, I have suffered from depression and have been trying to stay off medication. This is week 2 of my vegan diet, for other reasons completely, but I have not felt any sadness or anxiety despite working full time and going to school full time! And I had three exams this week!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joanne-Dunn/733080025 Joanne Dunn

      Happy to hear. I see your post was written a year ago. How are you now, still well?

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/EricNeeds/ Eric Needs

    this is amazing as usual

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/BenjaminStone/ Benjamin Stone

    I suspect there are other studies that would evidence psychiatric metrics improving with statistical significance with higher consumption of n3 long-chain fatty acids (from fish). Dietary lipids seem to present many paradoxes.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/vegemarian/ VegeMarian

    I’m so glad to see this study. I have direct of experience of seeing someone who went vegan and, after 4 years, has not had any bouts of depression which had been frequent for her previous to going vegan. It wasn’t something she was expecting but a fantastic side benefit!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/AllisonGrose-Reece/ Allison Grose-Reece

    I went on a rawfood/vegan diet 2 yrs old, and many health issues went away. But the nice thing was my mood/depression that went away. If I added bad foods back on in my diet, I quickly started to feel depressed. Now, this video explains it. I’m NOT crazy after all! Woo-hoo! I’ll stay on raw foods/vegan for life. Oh, my thyroid med was dropped from a high 180 mcg (amour) to 40! Yay!
    Allison
    NC

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/TanTruong/ Tan Truong

      Wow Allison, great to hear — especially about the thyroid!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/LanceStrish/ Lance Strish

    Is Golden algae oil free of Arachidonic acid? Let us know… and maybe that could be one advantage over fish oil.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/wickedchicken/ wickedchicken

    That is so interesting, and impressive. I wish I had been at that conference to hear the reaction of the medical attendees. I wonder… would giving up meat etc lead to decreased guilt over eating animals, and increased moral contentment [subconscious or not] and this be a mechanism for the improved mental health, rather than just physical and chemical body changes. I suspect it might be ..both!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/gabrielg/ GabrielG

    Interesting but it seems biased. You can read many reports on the web of people eating a paleo diet (which includes meat and animal fat) and better health and mood.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      Hello Gabriel,
      You can read all about the harms of the paleo diet here on Micheal Greger’s free E book, “Atkins’s Exposed”. It has over a thousand references from studies and more.
      http://www.atkinsexposed.org/

      • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/gabrielg/ GabrielG

        Thanks Toxins but paleo is not low carb like Atkin´s AFAIK

        • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

          The paleo diet advocates high meat intake as well as vegetables and rejects complex carbohydrates such as beans and grains. Perhaps you have hybridized it. Nonetheless, high meat intake is by no credible standard healthy.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

      I think you’ll find you can find just about anything online. That’s why controlled studies like this, and the field of scientific inquiry in general, are so important.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/gabrielg/ GabrielG

    It would help if you put links to the studies.

    If fish eaters also improved, it is not the meat but maybe the fat that is a problem. If I understood correctly there is a mention of saturated fat increasing arachidonic acid. So the problem is not sure to be animal protein.

    Also, how is “flesh food” defined? Lean cuts, pastured animals, cow, poultry, free range, sausages, hamburgers with french fries, fast food, fried food using corn or other high omega 6 oils?

    I want to know more this issue of inflammation is very important. Thanks for pointing it out

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      Gabriel Check out the sources cited section, all the studies are hyperlinked.

      Also, omega 6 gets converted to Arachadonic acid so perhaps the higher omega 3 content of fish balances this out.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/bes/ BES

    Is it important for vegetarians to have omega 3 EPA supplements? My son’s doctor has recommended he take an EPA supplement to help with mood, but the studies cited in this video seem to imply that EPA is important mainly to counteract the arachodonic acid. If this is the case, would EPA be critical to the mood of someone who is vegetarian?

    Thank you so much for all the information you provide on this website!

  • Barbarasavedoff

    My 12-year-old son’s doctor has recommended that he take a supplement with EPA (and DHA) to help with mood issues. I have found an expensive supplement derived from yeast that provides the suggested amount of EPA, but I was wondering if it is likely to help my son.   Your video on mood shows that EPA is important to counteract arachidonic acid in meat-eaters, but is it likely to affect mood in vegans or vegetarians as well?  Would high dose EPA supplements be unnecessary for vegans and vegetarians since they do not have the same build-up of arachidonic acid?

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    For some context, please check out my associated blog post Harvard’s Meat and Mortality Studies!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joanne-Dunn/733080025 Joanne Dunn

    How do I click on the stars to rate your videos? I appreciate the content but don’t know how to rate!

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/ Michael Greger M.D.

      You just have to login first (upper right hand corner). Registration, like everything else on NutritionFacts.org is and always will be free.

  • albert

    those guys who switched to vegan diet were just high from knowing they are real vegans now. adventists are high all the time from being adventists (only half joke here).

  • Liz

    Hmm, I eat plant based, but still have ocassional meat and eggs. I will try complete vegetarian for 2 weeks, see how I feel. Hope my teeth don’t suffer, since eating fats and animal foods help avoid carb rich foods like rice, tubers, bread and corn. This will mean upping my fruit intake, as well as my rice and tuber intake. I dont get full on green vegetables alone.

  • Gisèle

    Hi,I suffer of Fibromialgia and am always in pain…. any suggestions? Thanks Gisèle

  • Appel

    I am one of the most stressed people I know and suffering from depression all my life , and I have been a vegetarian all my life and since five years a vegan. So I don’t know if this is true. I have been thinking to start eating fish again for the omega 3

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