The scientific research on how the physiological effects of dietary sugar and refined carbs contribute to depression and greatly influence whether a person can recover successfully over the long term without dependence on medications.
You’ve no doubt seen the television ads warning “this is your brain on drugs”. These public service announcements are designed to be visually shocking thereby discouraging youth drug abuse by comparing the brain to an egg and a fried egg in a pan to a brain on drugs.
The same can be said about the effects of sugar on the brain. In the case of sugar, however, the effects are marked by a high risk of long term mental illness like depression rather than a brief yet dangerous, drug-induced high.
Depression is at epidemic proportions in our modern society. Even children are not immune! Some experts estimate that 1 in every 8 teenagers is clinically depressed.
What’s more, major depression is on track to become the #2 disability in the United States. This is roughly 1/4 of the population who will suffer its devastating impact sometime during their lives.
Are Antidepressant Drugs the Answer?
When the sobering diagnosis of depression is given, the typical remedy given by doctors is a script for antidepressant drugs.
According to Nora Gedgaudas, author of Primal Body Primal Mind, antidepressant drugs only have about a 13% effectiveness rate, just slightly better than a placebo.
Moreover, for the small minority of people for whom antidepressants actually help, 30-40% of them will not find antidepressant drugs effective over the long term.
Bottom line? If you are depressed, don’t look to drugs as the long term solution especially if you want to maintain a normal sex life. Antidepressants are well known to significantly dampen or even completely eliminate libido!
Instead of drugs, look to your diet as the best long term solution to depression.
Are You A Carbovore?
Diet has a tremendous impact on the development of depression and whether or not the sufferer successfully recovers long term. For some unknown reason, however, this basic truth is consistently ignored by most conventional medical authorities other than the possible suggestion of a doctor’s office recommended supplement of industrialized fish oil capsules!
Imbalanced, unstable, surging blood sugar is a common source of depression as well as simple irritability and violent tendencies according to Ms. Gedguadas, a board-certified Nutritional Therapist and Clinical Neurofeedback Specialist.
Doubt that blood sugar plays a huge role in brain health?
Consider that Alzheimer’s patients are notorious for having a voracious sweet tooth. Eating sweets on a frequent basis with the accompanying blood sugar surges depletes magnesium in the body at a rapid rate. This physiological state leaves the brain vulnerable to the ravages of aluminum.
A high aluminum level in the brain is, of course, a hallmark symptom of Alzheimer’s Disease.
How Sugar Destabilizes the Brain
Blood sugar surges actually destabilize the brain via the deadly process of glycation.
In layman’s terms, glycation is the chemical process in the body whereby glucose, proteins, and certain fats become tangled together making all manner of body tissue stiff and inflexible – including the brain.
Glycation is a big free radical problem in the body causing rapid aging. In neurological terms, glycation has the very real potential of actually shrinking brain tissue.
Absolutely nothing is more destabilizing to the brain than surging blood sugar which results in rampant glycation in the body.
Case in point: Have you ever noticed how your temper gets really short after that mid-afternoon candy bar? Similarly, this is why kids get so moody and disruptive when a teacher ironically and misguidedly gives them candy as a reward for good attention.
Ms. Gedgaudas maintains that blood sugar issues are the #1 influencing factor in mental health with depression being one of the most prominent.
Avoiding the devastating effects of glycation upon the brain which can over the long haul, cause mental illness like depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders requires stable, steady blood sugar as much as possible.
Whole Dietary Fats Stabilize Blood Sugar
Surging blood sugar levels caused by overconsumption of grain-based foods, processed sugars, and even alcohol in the diet is the most destabilizing force the brain can experience. In fact, sugar can cause liver cirrhosis just the same as booze.
Conversely, natural dietary fats are the most stabilizing neurological force giving way to clear thinking and stable emotions.
The best dietary fats for blood sugar control are those consumed liberally by Traditional Societies which experienced vibrant health and suffered little to no mental illness or degenerative disease. These are the very same fats that are typically shunned by most people in favor of factory fats like margarine which are not favorable to brain function and should be avoided.
Traditional fats must be consumed liberally in the diet to achieve mental stability, however.
Lowfat Diets = Neurological Instability
Think about the makeup of the brain if this point is concerning to you in any way. Consider that 60-80% of the brain is fat, a full 50% of which is saturated fat!
11% of the brain is arachidonic acid. This nutrient is best found in egg yolks. 25% of the brain is DHA an omega-3 fat best found in oily fish. Flax oil is a poor substitute as it converts very inefficiently to true DHA.
How much of the brain under healthy, normal circumstances is actually composed of highly processed, polyunsaturated fats which are the primary fat in the Western diet?
How about none!
If you want to adopt the wise and time tested strategy of eating properly for your brain’s sake, then you must eat the type of fats that actually comprise the make-up of the brain. Doesn’t this just make sense?
These brain-building fats include:
- Butter
- Cream
- Store-bought or homemade ghee
- Coconut Oil
- High vitamin cod liver oil
- Tallow/Suet/Lard
- Egg Yolks
Interesting that these are the very same fats demonized by politically correct nutrition, don’t you think?
These nourishing, traditional fats are the ones to seek and consume liberally if you wish to put depression behind you for good.
For more details on the healthiest fats to consume and the ones you absolutely can’t do without if you want peak mental fitness, please see this article about five healthy fats to have in your kitchen.
By slaying the sugar monster, you can save your brain too .. and possibly even your life!
References
Primal Body Primal Mind by Nora Gedgaudas
2010 Wise Traditions Conference, seminar by Nora Gedgaudas
More Information
Natural Remedies for Panic Attacks
Fix Childhood Anxiety with Simple Dietary Changes
what an intersting article about sugar and depression- what do you guys think? i’d like to see some scientific… http://t.co/2HsCAsJQ
The science is sourced in Ms. Gedgaudas’ book listed at the end of the post.
Alea,
If you would like to see some scientific evidence about sugar & depression, get the book “Potatoes, not Prozac” by Kathleen DesMaisons. She’s written a few other books, including “The Sugar Addict’s Recovery Program”. I recently devoured both books and with all the other research I’m doing, I know this is me through and through. She also has a wonderful website, http://www.radiantrecovery.com She has a lot of explanations for things that go hand in hand with a lot that has been said here, both in Sarah’s article and some of the comments.
I know in my heart that the only way for me to totally heal is to follow both programs, the one laid out by Dr. DesMaisons and going back to eating Whole Foods. And, like so many others here, I’d love to get off the antidepressants, once and for all, and am NOT looking forward to the withdrawal process….been there and done that!
Mary
I agree wholeheartedly with Mary. Potatoes Not Prozac changed my life. The radiantrecovery website is easy to access and understand. William Dufty’s book, Sugar Blues, is also very informative. It’s at least encouraging that there is more public information about the part hormone balance plays in optimum health. It would be nice if Western medicine would approach health care from a wholistic place instead of symptom treating. Everyone has a unique blood chemistry – even identical twins share differences. What works for one person, may not for another, so I recommend finding a physician that will take the time and energy to develop a health care regiment that is designed for you specifically. Sweeping generalizations can do more harm than good. You and your blood chemistry are unique. So should your plan for optimum health be.
These are great books, and they have helped me a lot over the years. Be forewarned if you get involved in the Radiant Recovery community, though. Kathleen DesMaisons can be a very mean person, unless she’s changed over the last few years.
Another amazing blog today Sarah! For the past 6 months as I have been transitioning from the SAD diet to a tradtional WAP based way of eating, I too notice that when I eat too much sugar or grain that was not correctly prepared, I get irritable and moody. I never made the connection before, but it is amazing how true this article is as I personally can attest to the behaviors in myself as mentioned above.
My kids ALWAYS know when I’ve had a sugar treat. They say “MOM, what DID you eat?” Depression and anxiety are rampant in my family and I know that to stay healthy and not experience what others in may family have, I must maintain stable blood sugar as much as possible. I have no doubt that if I did not eat as I do which focuses on the Traditional Fats that I would probably have some issues with depression myself as my Mother did at my age.
I should also add that you are not a prisoner of genetics here … your choices have profound influence on the outcome of your personal health story.
Manic depression runs on my mother’s side, my grandmother was on lithium for 30+ years. I always felt as a teenager there had to be more to depression than just bad luck in genetic makeup. I watch my grandmother suffer from this ailment and it made me sad, she was a wonderful lady and so much fun to be around when she was having a good day. But she could also be the meanest, hurtful person when you caught her at the wrong time. It makes me sad to think simple diet could of changed her life. Even with the load of drugs she was on she lived to be 84, mind functioning pretty well and about 50% on her physical health, she was obese which caused her some issues of movement, but she still got around unassisted. However, I have always felt she would of lived to be 100 had her diet been different, had she not been on more pills than you could count. Plus many times her lithium would reach toxic levels in her body and the Dr. would have to take her off it to let her body level back out, that was a red flag to me. She would become very “down” when this happened and the look on her face was sad and empty, I hated to see her that way. I wished I would of know this info a decade ago and maybe I could of helped her.
My mom has been scared to death that she would end up like her mom, and I have worried in the back of my mind that I would suffer from the same aliment. Now I know that I can control it with diet which makes me feel better! I have always told my mom that depression can’t just be something that we have no control over, I have always felt that there must be some way to combat it naturally. Thanks for sharing, I’ll be sure to share with my mom who I have already been educating on a traditional diet and she is slowly making the switch, yay!
Re: sugar, Dr. Robert Lustig made national news the other day …
UCSF scientists declare war on sugar in food
“Like alcohol and tobacco, sugar is a toxic, addictive substance that should be highly regulated with taxes, laws on where and to whom it can be advertised, and even age-restricted sales, says a team of UCSF scientists.
In a paper published in Nature on Wednesday, they argue that increased global consumption of sugar is primarily responsible for a whole range of chronic diseases that are reaching epidemic levels around the world.”
Thanks,
Mark
I must say, I disagree with his stance on how to deal with sugar. Look at what happened with alcohol during prohibition. Or the high tax rates on cigarettes. Some people will starve themselves to pay for their smoking habit. The answer is personal choice which comes through education. Hi, my name is Lisa. And I am not only a carbivore, I am seriously addicted to Mt. Dew. It is very much like a drug addiction to me. I have tried weaning off and going cold turkey. Neither has worked. And yes, depression is a problem for me right now. However, since learning about the WAP lifestyle and reading this article, I am more hopeful than ever that relief is around the corner. Blessings.
How do you get off of being on prozac for 19 yrs? DH tried removing them slowly by weaning but had a terrible episode of depression when confronted with stress at work. any recommendations? He will be seeing a wapf naturopath next week to help him this time around. His mother was a type 1 diabetic so maybe sugar is indeed the issue. Thanks for the timely article.
K check out http://www.theroadback.org/ for your husband. It has tons of information. and of course products they want you to buy to help and after 19 yrs he may need some but it has a lot of other information too. I was finally able to wean myself off my antidepressants after being on them for 10 years.
Hope it goes well.
Depression: Your Brain on Sugar http://t.co/aKBczpHx
It still shocks me that the conventional mental health field isn’t aware of this basic fact! They still act as if mental illness and diet have nothing to do with eachother. Along with the fact that most the neurotransmitters involved in mental health are made in the gut so it would only make sense that if your gut is damaged then you can’t make these vital transmitters.
Oh, they’re aware of it; there’s just no money in it.
Just like the people running this site is not interested in making money?
Just like there is no money in endorsing this type of solution?
Oh they are interested in making money, but they seem to draw the line when it comes to killing people or permanently disabeling them. Unlike pharmecutical companies who is more then willing to shove a diet pill that will eat a hole in your heart. Remember ephedrine in its natural form. Stacked with caffeine was the best weight loss product on the market. Expecially when zenadrine came along with its pharmacutical grade stack. Let one retard baseball player eat a handfull and die and they baned all sales of it in the US. But you could still by phen-phen which wasnt nearly as effective and killed or mutilated the hearts of thousands. Somebody got paid to sell out your health but it wasnt sites like this one.
I have noticed the connection of sugar interrupting with my children’s ability to do school work! We home school and there are no longer any sugar things before we are done for the day!! Things turn very difficult if we have. It is an amazing thing to watch the children transform before my eyes, and a little scary.
This is so true. We know a young man who was a vegetarian, eating mainly processed carbs and lots of sugar while avoiding fat like the plague. By the time he reached nineteen, he was losing his short term memory, and suffering from periodic depression, though he had a loving family, great girlfriend, and many friends.
The doctors, said it was depression, and sent him to a Psychiatrist, who put him on anti depressant drugs. Things improved a bit for two weeks, then got much worse, with a lot of suicidal thoughts. In desperation, his family went to an alternate physician, who took him off all sugar and grains, and put him on a diet containing plenty of natural animal fats, and grassfed meat, and took him off the drugs. Within two weeks, every trace of depression was gone, and his short term memory returned. He has been fine for six months, and there is no indication that the depression will ever be a problem again, as long as he stays on this diet.
It was that simple.
Anecdotal evidence is not proof.
He changed his diet, and depression went away in a short time. And his doctor took him off the anti-depressants. How much more proof do you need?
Awhile back, my husband had a hard time with depression and was put on anti-depressant drugs. He was irritable and moody while he was on them and it didn’t help his depression as much as he wanted. After we read that one of the side effects of anti depressants was a higher likelihood of suicide, he got off of them. His doctor had to help him slowly transition off, though. The longer you’ve taken anti-depressants, the slower you need to come off. Health Practitioners can (and should be able to help with that). Coming off of anti-depressants can have side effects, as well.
To help his depression, my husband got out on his road bike more. We lived in Monterey, along the Pacific Coast, so it helped him to go on long rides on the coastal highway.
I have a family history of depression and of sugar addiction (when, you look at brain scans in relation to how addictions are affecting the brain, a sugar addiction affects the brain similarly to the way cocaine affects the brain), I have wrecked my health and am working hard to restore it. Eating more healthy fats this week has helped and I haven’t had any cravings for sugary or high-carb foods. 🙂 So… eating more healthy fat really does work in combating sugar cravings. Bring on the butter!
Sorry, Beth – but when you live in Monterey, you don’t have a right to be depressed!
Just kidding!…..all the best to you —
I agree! 😉
All the best to you too!
18 years on anti depressants. With fish oil, good foods and a faithful husband I was able to come off. 6 months before the HORRID side effects wore off. Still angry and depressed, I finally found a UK study about this. Came off ALL sugars including grains, honey, everything. After sooooo long struggling with depression, I am finally a new woman- me! It’s only been 3 months now but I will never go back. Thx for this article- we have to get the word out! Food not pharma is the answer!