Every year in January, I do a Daniel fast for three weeks. The idea for a Daniel fast comes from the Old Testament book of Daniel. It basically is a vegan diet. I do the fast for spiritual reasons. The first year I did a Daniel fast was in 2020. Two months after I did my first Daniel fast, lockdown began. The fast helped me prepare for something I had no idea was coming.
This year, I am determined to beat depression. It is something I have suffered from since I was a young child. It is something I am being treated for by a doctor. I started taking an antidepressant (Celexa) last April. While the medication has tremendously helped with anxiety, it hasn’t touched the depression. A week and a half ago, I started taking an increased dose. I won’t know for weeks if it will help. And even when it does, I know it is not a magic pill.
There are other things I can do to help myself beat depression. I can continue practicing tapping and meditation. I can exercise. And I can eat healthily. This year, I am using a Daniel fast as a springboard for eating more healthily. I aim to use food as medicine. Yes, food is yummy but it is also fuel for our bodies.
I did some research on nutrition and depression. Here is what I found:
Researchers looked at the diet of 330 depressed patients. They found that those who ate healthy diets had significantly lower odds of developing depression, while those who ate unhealthy diets had higher odds of developing depression.1
Dietary improvement may help support the treatment of depression.2
Restoring intestinal lactobacillus levels in mice reduced depression.3
Antioxidants help people with depression.4
Eating broccoli sprouts could prevent or minimize inflammation that leads to a relapse of depression.5
Diets low in carbohydrates tend to precipitate depression, while diets rich in complex carbohydrates provide immediate but temporary relief.6
Antioxidants lessened anxiety among study participants.7
Leafy greens, lettuces, peppers, and cruciferous vegetables help with depression.8
The Mediterranean diet is associated with a reduction in depressive episodes.9
The Western diet (high intake of red meat, refined foods, and sugar) was associated with a higher BMI and that was associated with depressive symptoms.10
People who ate more fruit and vegetables had a lower risk of depression.11
Iranian women who ate more fruits and vegetables had lower instances of depression.12
People who ate a wide array of vegetables for three months had reduced depression symptoms.13
Clearly, we see that nutrition can play a role in the treatment of depression. Gathering all of the above information, we see a pattern. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in processed foods and added sugar helps with depression. I am making an effort to eat more fruits and vegetables. I add fruit, usually strawberries, to my muesli. I eat vegetables with lunch and dinner. I eat fruit after dinner for dessert.
My prayer is that I will learn to use food as fuel and medicine and not as comfort. Somewhere in my childhood, I learned to use food as comfort. The trouble is that I use sugary and salty foods as comfort. They are the foods that worsen depression and worsening of depression is not what I need.
I am on a journey for life is a journey and so is recovery from trauma. I approach changing my eating habits with grace and mercy. I extend compassion to myself just as I extend it to others.
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I've been vegetarian since q
1969 vegan for the last 10 years I've found that it's helped not just with my depression but has kept my health better as well
Love and peace ✌
Sal