“Failure to eat a balanced diet can increase the risk of depression and anxiety,” says Rachel Daddio, MS, RDN, a registered dietitian with Penn Medicine Princeton House Behavioral Health. “The biggest problem is a diet that is heavy in refined sugars and processed foods, which are pretty common in most people’s diets.”
Both refined sugars — found in everything from sweet desserts to savory baked goods like breads and pastas, as well as salad dressings, and even tomato sauce — and processed foods impact the production of serotonin in the body. And serotonin is key in regulating your mood and sleep. Reducing or eliminating refined sugars and processed foods, while eating proteins such as lean meats and nuts, as well as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, helps encourage the production and absorption of serotonin in the body.
A Sign of a Bigger Problem
“Often, a person does not think to bring up diet when seeing their doctor, but it should be a part of any conversation when it comes to mental and physical health,” says Daddio. “Understanding a person’s dietary behaviors can help determine if their depression and anxiety is related to or being made worse by eating behaviors. This will help in the treatment of those conditions.”
“Making lifestyle changes, including a nutritionally balanced diet, exercise, and proper sleep, will serve as additional ways to improve your mental health,” she adds. “They provide more tools in the process of treating depression and anxiety.”
Individuals who enter treatment at Princeton House are regularly evaluated by a dietitian and provided with the tools to make lifestyle changes to help improve mental health. Princeton House’s Women’s and Adolescent Programs have an emotional eating track, which helps many understand the connection between emotion dysregulation and eating behaviors, while offering alternative coping strategies and healthier life skills.
For more information about the emotional eating track (also available to teens), go to princetonhouse.org/women, or call 888.437.1610 option 2.