Can Changing How You Eat Ease Depression?

This was the first randomised trial to test whether improving diet could treat depression itself. Sixty-seven adults with moderate to severe major depression were assigned either to seven sessions with a dietician supporting a modified Mediterranean diet, or to a matched programme of social support, over twelve weeks. The dietary group showed a substantially larger fall in depression scores, and about a third reached remission, compared with far fewer in the social support group. The study was small and could not be fully blinded, and a later trial in young men did not reproduce the effect, so it is best read as a strong early signal awaiting larger confirmation. For a woman whose mood has flattened, it offers evidence that what she eats belongs alongside therapy and medication as part of care.