I noticed that I started not to be so hungry after I drink the protein drink. I now take a hot drink of water and molasses. The molasses perks me up. Now I feel like I could improve my nutirition some more and so help my depression.

Is there anything else I could try? Also what do you take to fall asleep and stay asleep?
Shirley
P.s. what other improvements did you notice as a result of changing your diet?

Thanks for your comment and welcome to the blog. If you take a peek around you’ll see that the diet you follow (Weston A. Price inspired?) is very close to what I recommend for everyone.

The only place we may not be in full sync is regarding the omega-3 fatty acids. I wrote an article a while back explaining why I think we need to moderate our intake of these polyunsaturated fatty acids. What is most important, I believe, in promoting general health and treating conditions like heart disease and depression is dramatically reducing our intake of omega-6 fatty acids. Since omega-6 fatty acids interfere with the absorption of omega-3s, if we significantly reduce our intake of omega-6 we will simultaneously begin absorbing more of the omega-3 we eat.

Too much of any polyunsaturated fat, including omega-3s, can promote oxidative damage – which is a primary contributor to many conditions including heart disease and cancer.

Nevertheless, I’m very glad you were able to successfully treat your depression through diet. I follow a very similar diet myself and have also been more or less “depression-proof” since I’ve eaten such nutrient-dense, traditional whole foods.

As you point out, your diet has not only relieved depression it is also contributing greatly to your physical health and longevity.

The timing of your post is serendipitous. Tomorrow I will publish the first in a two-part series on drug-free treatments for depression. I will cover diet in the second part, though I won’t be able to go into as much detail as I wish for this particular series. Perhaps in the future I’ll write an article focused on nutritional treatment of depression.

Thanks again for sharing your valuable experience.

Early March 2008 I changed my diet completely:

–eliminated all processed foods

–eliminated all white foods; most important, eliminated sugar, which is the “white devil”

–eliminated all foods containing soy and corn; so I don’t eat the meat of animals that have been fed grains

–two years prior to March 2008 I stopped drinking sodas/soft drinks

–only meats that have been traditionally raised; meat from ruminants that have been grass fed; chickens that have been pastured (I get them with the head and feet); meat from pigs that have not been raised in confinement (I know the people who “produce” the pork that I eat–they feed their pigs food that is in season and local, and they allow their pigs to be pigs, and never slaughter them before their time)

–eliminated all the bad fats

–added good fats: coconut oil, palm kernel oil, [raw] butter from grass fed cows, lard (from the pigs described above), beef bone marrow fat (from grass fed and pastured cows), olive oil

–eat a tin of sardines (with the skin and bones) weekly

–eat wild Alaskan salmon weekly

–cut out grains; although, occassionally, I have a jones for those carbs, so I’ll eat some brown rice; sometimes I’ll have a bowl of steel-cut oats, which I have soaked overnight, and when I eat it, I add lots of butter and raw cream to it

–stopped eating out; I cook all of the meals that I eat

–only eat raw milk cheeses

–eggs from hens that have been pastured

–drink this mixture daily: raw milk, raw cream, 4-6 raw egg yolks, some unsulphured organic blackstrap molasses

–daily supplements of: cod liver oil, evening primrose oil, wheat germ oil, kelp powder, dessicated liver

–vegetables and fruit

–drink only when thirsty

–stopped wearing sunblock/sunscreen lotions; get out in the sun daily for 20-plus minutes

–exercise daily; I ride my bike everywhere (I live in San Francisco) or I walk

I have written the above to let you know, that I conciously increased my intake of omega-3 fats, which has totally eliminated depression from my life. There are times when I try to be depressed–through the years I have relied upon it to disenable me from “living” or to run away from problems that I did/do not want to face. With these dietary changes (and let me tell you that I do not miss the way I used to eat, which was the Standard American Diet) I am unable to go to being in a depressed state. Also, my physical health has improved, quite dramatically, too.

Thank you for posting my comment.

To website owner: If you wish to speak with me, to learn more what I have done to eliminate depression from my mind, feel free to email me.