A 3-week diet intervention to improve mood and inflammation in young adults with depressive symptoms

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There has been a rapid global shift in dietary composition, from diets high in complex carbohydrate and fibre, to the Western diet, high in saturated fat, sugar and processed foods. This was highlighted recently by Australia’s largest ever diet survey, the CSIRO Healthy Diet Score, 2016, which showed of 86,611 respondents, only 20% were compliant with Australian Diet Guidelines (Hendrie et al, 2016). Consumption of Western diet has been accompanied by considerable adverse health consequences, with the effects on the brain now increasingly recognised. Unhealthy diet patterns are associated with increased risk of depression e.g. a meta-analysis of 20 observational studies showed healthy diet was associated with reduced odds of depression (Lai et al, 2014). But these studies were carried out in community populations so reverse causality cannot be ruled out. Experimental manipulation of diet is the next step in determining a cause-effect relationship. Given diet is one of the few modifiable risk factors for depression, this would offer a low-cost, low-risk, evidence based therapeutic and preventative strategy. However, treatment studies investigating diet as an effective adjunct treatment for depression are scarce. This study aims to investigate whether a 3-week diet intervention can improve depressed mood in young adults. Eighty four participants will be allocated to receive a diet intervention or maintain their diet as usual. Participants in the diet intervention group will be instructed to increase intake of fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, natural diary and wholegrain cereals, and decrease refined carbohydrate, sugar, fatty or processed meats and soft-drinks. Recommendations are based on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating , personalised feedback from CSIRO diet score, incorporate BeyondBlue behavioural tips for eating well, and administered by a registered dietician face-to-face and on video to re-watch as needed. They will be provided a sample meal plan and recipes. Those in the diet as usual group will be instructed to continue their diet as usual. Participants will attend the laboratory at baseline and after 3 weeks to complete measures of mood, memory, food questionnaires, body measurements, photospectrometry, and a urine sample. If shown to be effective, this type of intervention could provide an adjunct treatment strategy for improving depressed mood in an at risk population - young adults.

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