If you have been struggling with anxiety, depression, or a different mental health problem, and if you have seen a psychiatrist, they may have prescribed certain medications. Most likely, they have prescribed SSRIs, because those are of newer generation, and they have undeniably proven to be highly effective for most people. Go here to better understand what they are.

Now, if you have been prescribed these medications, there is no doubt that you have done a bit of research on them already. And, sure, you have found a lot of evidence that they are highly effective, but then you may have also come across some patients reporting that they haven’t responded to them that well. This is completely normal, since we are all different and unique, and there is no doubt that those individual differences will affect how we respond to any kinds of medications, including SSRIs.

Yet, you’ve probably started wondering if the people who didn’t respond to it that well have something in common. That is, if there is a common denominator, a common factor that you can find, and that could possibly be affecting this. That is when you have come across those theories that are connected to our diet and our mental health, and the fact that what we are eating can actually have an impact on the way we respond to medications.

If someone mentioned this a few decades ago, or more, we would have probably dismissed it as false info, and moved on with our lives. Today, though, we are all becoming increasingly aware of the importance of our diet, and the impact it has both on our physical and our mental health, which means that we have undeniably changed the way we view food. So, at this point, the info that food can affect our response to certain medications, including SSRIs, seems pretty correct. But, what we want to do is check before making any concrete conclusions on whether that is true or not.

So, Could What You’re Eating Have an Impact?

Let us, thus, cut right to the chase. Could what you are eating really have an impact on how you respond to SSRIs? The answer is, of course, yes. We have been aware of the fact that processed foods affect our physical health negatively, and it is now time for us to understand that they can also have a negative impact on our mental health. It is time for us to stop ignoring that fact and actually do something about it.

How can the food we are eating affect this, though? Well, Processed Foods and Mental Health are rather connected, and, to put it simply, they don’t go very well together. In other words, when you are eating too much processed foods, you can disrupt the balance of nutrient in your brain, and the balance of certain chemicals in your entire body, which can result in fatigue, irritation, anxiety, as well as depressive symptoms.

But, what happens when you add SSRIs to the mix as well? You would think that these medications could offset the negative effects of the food, right? But, it is exactly the opposite that happens – put simply, when you eat a lot of processed foods, they can lead to you not responding that well to SSRIs, or, better yet, it can lead to those medications not being as effective as you may have expected them to be.

This is, for one thing, because those types of foods, as I’ve mentioned, can disrupt the nutrient balance in your brain, given that they contain very little minerals and vitamins that we need. But then, there is also the fact that it can disrupt the gut microbiome, and the gut is where about 95% of serotonin is produced. So, in few words, processed foods can inhibit the production of serotonin, which is sure to make SSRIs less effective, because they work through preventing the reuptake of this neurotransmitter, and when there is not enough of it, that simply won’t be effective.

What Can You Do About It?

Okay, you probably get by now that our mental health and our diets are undeniably connected. And that the foods we are eating can have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the medications we are taking, such as SSRIs. What you want to know next, though, is what it is that you can actually do about it.

Here’s more on the connection between diet and mental health: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/diet-mental-health-foods 

Well, what you can do is, of course, create a balanced diet plan for yourself. This doesn’t have to mean that you need to cut all the processed foods completely, because we all need some snacks from time to time. But, it means that you should increase the intake of proteins, healthy fats, fibers, and other nutrients that we need in order to function properly, and thus consequently reduce the intake of processed foods. This way, you will have a heathy body and a healthy mind, and your SSRIs are sure to work better.