Diet and Mental Health: Can What You Eat Affect How You Feel?
Research suggests there’s a connection between your gut and brain, which may play a role in how you feel. Eating certain foods and adopting some dietary habits may help improve your mood.
By Dr. Nicole Washington
January 22, 2025
It’s well-established that diet plays a fundamental role in health and well-being.
But as time goes on, we’re learning more about diet’s important role in social, emotional, and mental health specifically.
Keep reading to learn more about the relationship between diet and mental health, specific dietary patterns that may improve mental health, and steps you can take to support a healthy mental state.
Diet and mental health: Is there a link?
Historically, mental health conditions have been treated with psychiatric therapies like counseling, medication, and sometimes hospitalization.
Today, an emerging field called nutritional psychiatry emphasizes how diet and nutrition affect the way people feel mentally. It aims to support the treatment of mental health conditions with diet and lifestyle changes.
Your food choices may affect your brain through the gastrointestinal system — commonly referred to as “the gut” — because it’s closely connected to the brain.
The gut is home to trillions of living microbes that have many functions in the body, such as synthesizing neurotransmitters that send chemical messages to the brain to regulate sleep, pain, appetite, mood, and emotion.
In fact, there’s such an intricate network of interactions between the two that the gut has been nicknamed the “second brainTrusted Source.” Formally, the relationship between the two is called the gut-brain connection or gut-brain axis.
Some research suggests that the foods we eat influence the health of gut microbe colonies, which subsequently influence our brains and, thus, our mental and emotional health.
Dietary patterns linked with improved mental health
Eating a well-balanced, nutrient-dense diet may be the best dietary plan to help improve your mood.
For instance, some research suggests that eating more fruits and vegetables is linked with improved mental well-being, lower stress levels, and greater life satisfaction.
Consider focusing on eating nutrient-rich whole foods that are high in protein, fiber, and healthy fats.
If you’re not sure where to begin, the Mediterranean diet may be a good place to start. Some researchers and health agencies recommend a Mediterranean-like diet to support gut health and lower the risk of depression.
For instance, a 2019 review found that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes and low in red and processed meats was associated with 10% lower odds of depressive symptoms.
To follow a Mediterranean diet, increase your intake of:
fruits
vegetables
fish
nuts
legumes
olive oil
dairy products
A Mediterranean diet limits:
fried foods
processed meats
sweetened beverages
baked goods
Also consider choosing foods that may reduce inflammation and stress throughout the body, such as:
high fiber foods
fruits and vegetables
unsaturated fats
fermented foods
Choosing an eating pattern rooted in the principles of the Mediterranean diet doesn’t mean you have to give up your cultural foods. For example, learn more about giving the Mediterranean diet a Caribbean twist.
Simple diet tips to support your mental health
Here are some dietary tips to help support your emotional health and well-being.
Remember, the overall quality of your diet is more powerful than any one decision you make in a day. Try to focus on a variety of healthy nutrients rather than just one individually.
Load up on nutrients
Here are some of the nutrients most notably linked with mental health, as well as a few foods they’re found in:
Omega-3 fatty acids: walnuts, chia and flaxseeds, salmon, herring, sardines
Folate: beef liver, rice, fortified cereals, black-eyed peas, spinach, asparagus, Brussels sprouts
Iron: oysters, beef liver, fortified cereals, spinach, dark chocolate, white beans, lentils, tofu
Magnesium: spinach, pumpkin and chia seeds, soy milk, black beans, almonds, cashews, peanuts
Zinc: oysters, chicken, pork chops, beef roast, Alaska king crab, lobster, pumpkin seeds
B vitamins: chicken breast, beef liver, clams, tuna, salmon, chickpeas, potatoes, bananas
Vitamin A: beef liver, herring, cow’s milk, ricotta cheese, sweet potatoes, carrots, cantaloupe
Vitamin C: red and green peppers, orange and grapefruit juice, strawberries, broccoli
Pack in prebiotics and probiotics
Prebiotics are foods that provide nutrition to the bacteria already living in your gut, while probiotics actually contain healthy bacteria themselves.
A diet that includes pre- and probiotics helps maintain a balanced state of homeostasis (stability) in the gut. Some research also suggests they may play a role in the body’s response to stress and depression.
Some foods that contain prebiotics or probiotics include:
Fermented foods: yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, kombucha
Alliums: garlic, onions, leeks
Vegetables: artichokes and asparagus
Fruits: apples and bananas
Grains: barley and oats
Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables
Research suggests that eating more fruits and vegetables is associated with higher levels of optimism and self-efficacy, yet lower levels of depression and psychological distress.
A 2018 review found that the best raw fruits and veggies to boost mental health include:
berries
citrus fruits
dark leafy greens
carrots
bananas
apples
grapefruit
lettuce
cucumber
kiwifruit
Fuel up with whole grains
Whole grains are cereals like rice, wheat, and oats that are left fully intact during processing. Therefore, they contain more fiber and nutrients than refined grains, which have had certain parts of the plant discarded.
A 2021 study including more than 3,000 adults found that a higher dietary fiber intake was linked with lower risks of anxiety, depression, and psychological distress.
Foods and habits that may harm your mental health
Just like there seem to be certain foods that support mental health, there are also some that may hinder it.
Consider limiting the following foods to help manage your mental health:
ultra-processed foods
added sugars
caffeine
alcohol
saturated fat
refined carbohydrates
When we eat throughout the day is also important because it could influence our food choices, circadian rhythm, inflammation, and even the gut microbiome — all of which may affect mental health.
Lastly, not getting enough high quality sleep is associated with mental health conditions like anxiety, stress, and depression. A lack of sleep may also influence gut health and food choices.
How to implement dietary changes to support mental health
Change isn’t always easy, especially if you’re working against habits you’ve formed over the years. However, if you plan ahead, there are some steps you can take to help make change easier.
1. Go easy on yourself
Making any type of lifestyle change takes time, and getting from the starting line to the finish point won’t happen overnight.
Remember that change is a process. If you slip and stumble along the way, it’s normal and OK.
2. Eat mindfully
Paying close attention to how various foods and beverages affect your feelings can be a powerful tool for improving your mental health through eating.
If you think a certain food or beverage is affecting your mood, eliminate it from your diet for a short period to see if you still experience symptoms. Then, gradually reincorporate it to see how you feel.
Learn more about mindful eating.
3. Share a meal with your loved ones
A food’s nutritional value is often a primary consideration, but many other factors can and should influence food choices — including the pleasure we associate with social eating.
Sharing meals among family, friends, and community members is one of the oldest human traditions and may help brighten your spirits when you’re feeling down.
4. Start small
Rather than trying to completely reinvent your entire diet overnight, start with making one small change at a time.
This could be as simple as aiming to have at least one piece of fruit every day or limiting yourself to a certain number of caffeinated beverages per week.
5. Try swapping these foods
Try swapping foods that seem to support mental health for those that may not. Some examples of healthy food swaps are:
whole foods instead of packaged and ultra-processed foods
whole grains instead of refined grains
whole fruits instead of juices
seafood or lean poultry instead of red and processed meats
fermented dairy instead of sweetened dairy
still or sparkling water instead of soda
kombucha or herbal tea instead of alcohol
herbs and spices instead of sugar and salt
6. Monitor your progress
Making a change and sticking with it is a great feeling. But unless you monitor how that change is influencing your big-picture goals, it’s difficult to say whether the changes you’ve made are actually working.
Monitoring your progress can be as simple as journaling about how different foods make you feel or using a checklist to help track the food groups you eat from in a day.
The bottom line
Nutritional psychiatry is a fascinating field with the potential to reshape the way we think about our mental health.
The health of our gut and the bacteria that reside in it may play a significant role in mental health management and emotional regulation.
Eating a balanced, nutrient-rich diet can support gut health, while ultra-processed foods are associated with less favorable outcomes and should be limited.
If you want to make changes to your diet to support your mental health, start with a few small food swaps and build up from there.
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