"This raises the possibility that making changes to diet can act as a therapy to improve depression symptoms," she told Reuters Health by email. Francis and colleagues studied 76 people who scored high on two depression and anxiety scales - indicating moderate or high depression symptoms - and who also scored high on a questionnaire about dietary fat and sugar consumption.
Participants were randomly assigned to a diet-change group or a habitual-diet group for three weeks. The diet-change group received instructions from a registered dietician through a 13-minute video, which they could re-watch as needed.
The program also recommended daily consumption of three tablespoons of nuts and seeds, two tablespoons of olive oil, and one teaspoon each of turmeric and cinnamon. After three weeks, average depression scores had dropped into the normal range in the diet-change group, while remaining elevated or severe in the habitual-diet group - and the improvements were maintained three months later, the research team reports.