Healthy Diet for Bipolar & Depression

A healthy diet is important to keep a body running as it should both physically and mentally. Despite what many believe, a healthy diet is key to overcoming or dealing with depression. With the proper nutrients, supplements and vitamins, a person can see his or her mood change overnight. It is important to stay consistent with a healthy diet to keep the mood stabilized.

Inhibitors

• MAO inhibitors and tyramine are often prescribed to people who are diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The only problem is that these nutrients often cause high or low blood pressure and diarrhea. It is important to eat foods high in MAO inhibitors, but watch the amount of tyramine being consumed at the same time; this is what causes the problems. Foods like cheese and wine often are high in tyramine because it is found in food that is aged. Other places to find tyramines include yogurt, sour cream, dried fish, liver, game meat, salted fish, lentils, eggplant, snow peas and soybeans.

Omega-3

• Fatty acids do a number of good things for the body. Omega-3 is a fatty acid that helps control mood swings as well as fight diabetes and heart disease. Omega-3 can be found in such foods as avocados, red plums, figs, raisins, raspberries, beer, coffee, colas and tea. Keep in mind that recent reports from BBC have found that it is important to balance the amount of Omega-3 with the amount of Omega-6 consumed to have the best result. Omega-6 is found in many oils like sesame and sunflower oil.

Lithium

• Lithium is often prescribed to bipolar disorder sufferers because it is a mood stabilizer. It controls the ups and downs closely associated with the mental illness. However, it is important to have a balanced salt intake when consuming lithium because it stabilizes the effect lithium has. Consuming too much lithium can be dangerous, often causing kidney problems. Caffeine should also be avoided because it will cause lithium to react differently than it should.