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4 Foods To Lower Your Risk Of Depression And 3 To Avoid At All Costs
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We now want to turn our attention to the three things that you should avoid like the plague. Many people have reported that their depression became worse or started after they began consuming the following three foods.
1. Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup
Whether you are consuming refined white sugar or high fructose corn syrup, consuming anything more than the tiniest amount causes most of our Western medical problems, including diabetes, obesity, tooth decay, and depression. There are more than 100 health problems that have been shown to be either caused by sugar or made worse by the consumption of sugar. Depression is one of these. If you suffer from depression, this is perhaps the first thing you should eliminate from your diet.
2. Aspartame
On the other end of the scale, many people, when they try to cut sugar out of their diets, turn to artificial sweeteners such as aspartame. This is a huge mistake. Aspartame is one of the most toxic substances on this planet. We will only discuss its effect on depression in this article. In one study, which involved more than 264,000 adults and was conducted over a 10-year period by the National Institutes of Health, found that there was definitely an association between the consumption of sugary sodas, diet soda, and sugar-free fruit drinks and the instances of clinical depression. This study found that:
- Drinking 4 or more cans of regular sugary sodas each day increased the risk of depression by 22 percent
- Drinking 4 or more cans of diet soda each day increased the risk of depression by 31 percent
- Drinking 4 or more cans of diet fruit-flavored drinks increased the risk of depression by 51 percent
It’s fairly obvious that aspartame is terrible for those suffering from depression or for those who hope to avoid depression in the future. If you are consuming any artificial sweeteners in sodas, drinks, or “diet” candy, stop eating them immediately and throw them out or dump the soda down the drain.
3. MSG
Monosodium glutamate, known to most of us as MSG, can cause various health problems, such as behavior problems, neurodegenerative diseases, endocrine disorders, and brain damage. If these are not enough to convince you that MSG should be removed from your diet, then consider this: MSG blocks the serotonin receptors in the brain, which leads to depression.
RELATED: The Best Herbs For Fighting Depression
Extra Tip:
Your gut health is also essential to your physical and mental well-being. About 80 percent of our serotonin is produced by the digestive system. When there is an overgrowth of the fungus Candida, it will deplete the serotonin levels, which increases depression, headaches, and feelings of anxiety. This is another issue that you should address by consuming herbs that kill Candida and adding plenty of probiotic foods to increase the good bacteria in the gut.
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