The Link Between Depression & What We Consume

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David worked long hours and as he lived alone, ordered a take away most evenings on his way home from work. On the evenings he didn’t get a take away, he ate very little. He has suffered with depression in the past but believed the worst was behind him yet he still suffered with mood swings, violent outbursts and irritability.  David confessed to a coffee, crisp and fizzy drink addiction. He found it hard to concentrate and his energy dipped every afternoon. The other issues that concerned him were his constant fatigue, trouble waking, lack of concentration, bleeding gums and bowel urgency. He bruised and scarred easily and was easily stressed and often down.

His diet consisted mainly of processed foods, take away’s, over cooked mushy vegetables, poor quality canteen food and a lot of salt. He snacked constantly during the day on crisps, coke, coffee and confectionery. I wondered if he had ever eaten properly and if his health problems were all a result of serious lack of minerals and vitamins growing up.

David had never looked on food as anything more than just a way of making him full or happy and was very skeptical that food could affect his moods or energy.

Link Between Depression and Foods

We discussed the link between depression and food and I asked him to reduce his processed foods. I gave him some recipes for some freshly prepared meals instead.

I asked him to reduce his coffee also but totally avoid dairy and potatoes (including crisps!) and recommended he take a multivitamin with high strength Zinc and Vitamin C, along with Vitamin D and to increase his fish intake and / or supplement with Omega 3 capsules.

“Full of life the minute I wake up”, moods are “100 times better!”. Lost 1 stone in weight!

When we met up 4 weeks later, I couldn’t believe the difference in David! He said he feels “full of life the minute I wake up” and his moods are “100 times better!”. Not only had he lost over a stone in weight, and dropped a jeans size, he was waking naturally, was less agitated and irritable and his stomach cramps and diarrhoea were all GONE!

I recommended he continue with his good work. I asked him if he was happy to remain off the foods we had tested or if he would like further clarification that these foods did not agree with him. He chose the later!

Another 4 weeks later, David returned with visible bags under his eyes. He explained how he had stopped his new eating plan when he had improved, thinking now that he was better, he no longer needed to keep it up! When he reintroduced potatoes, he felt bloated to the point of either getting sick or feeling sick every time. He started comfort eating again, came off all supplements, was easily stressed, irritable, craving sweet things, energy had dropped, his nose was blocked again and he felt the depression slipping back.

His motivation was the lowest I had seen it since we started, so I tried to remind him of the many complaints we had removed at the start and give him some motivation to get back to where he was.

When we met up another 3 weeks later, he had reverted back to our original eating plan and had noticed a decrease of at least 50% on stress levels, not to mention waking in better form and not feeling as depressed as he had 3 weeks previously.

David is probably a typical person today – sceptical that food could possible affect his moods, energy or indeed could be adding to or causing her depression.

David’s story really shows the power of food!

Does this sound familiar?

With food intolerance tests from as little as €165, isn’t it a small price to pay to Get Your Life Back?!

Why suffer any longer?  Make an appointment today!

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