Mental illness is among the leading causes of disability.

Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy, such as antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapy

are cornerstones of treatment.

However, they avert less than half of the disease burdens, suggesting

that additional strategies to prevent treatmental disorders are needed. A new field of nutritional

psychiatry provides evidence for diet quality as a modifiable risk factor for mental illnesses.

Cited mechanisms include chronic low-grade inflammation that's been

implicated in the development of depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, oxidative stress,

free radicals may also be relevant to mental illness. And then there's compelling evidence,

though predominantly from animal studies, indicating the gut microbiome can affect the brain.

What kind of compelling evidence?

Fecal transplant studies found that feeding rats' feces from depressed people induces

depressive depression-like behavior.

Now, if I got forced-fed feces every day, I might be depressed too, but rats fed feces from non-depressed people

didn't act as depressed.

How might we sow the seeds of good mental health through our microbiome?

Dietary factors that help our good gut bugs include eating more Mediterranean, more plant-based,

fruits and vegetables, fermented foods, nuts, fiber, and other prebiotics more plant-based, fruits and vegetables, fermented foods,

nuts, fiber, and other prebiotics, plant-based proteins, predominantly plant-based fats,

and polyphenols, which are also plant-based components.

Bad for a microbiome is the Western diet, animal protein, saturated fat, which is concentrated

in meat, dairy, and junk, and sweeteners and emulsifiers, which

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