How Foods Are Tested for Depression

What is the science behind the advertising of meals for antidepressant results?

If you go browsing, you possibly can see claims about “coconut water being beneficial for depression,” and research are even cited. You can see it your self in black and white—“Young coconut water ameliorates depression”—as proven at 0:16 in my video Flashback Friday: Coconut Water and Depression. Did they simply make that up? No, in the event you click on on the associated hyperlink, there it is in PubMed, similar to they stated. And, for a restricted time provide of simply $39.95, the writer will allow you to learn the examine, however why waste your time? It says it proper there within the title: “Young coconut water ameliorates depression…” Might as effectively spend that 40 bucks shopping for some coconut water to spice up your temper! Anyway, I’m studying all of the research, so that you don’t should. That’s my job!

So what does the examine truly say? It begins out saying that “plants are frequently tested for its [sic] antidepressant potential.” So far, so good. “Therefore young coconut water, a commonly used plant based beverage, was selected to explore its antidepressant potential.” Okay, nonetheless with you. So, “rodents were selected for this study and forced swim test was conducted to explore antidepressant activity.” What?! 

The compelled swim take a look at is “one of the most widely used test to explore antidepressant activity.” A clear cylinder is full of water to a stage over a mouse’s head, in order that they’re compelled to swim. Then you drop a mouse into the water and see how lengthy they wrestle to maintain from drowning earlier than they merely hand over and float to the highest. Lo and behold, in the event you feed them some coconut water first, they maintain out a bit longer earlier than giving up, “demonstrate[ing] antidepressant activity.” Therefore, “findings from this study can be taken as a lead to use young coconut water in depressive disorders” in folks. What?! It depresses me to even learn such wasted analysis alternatives. Where did they even get this concept?

It was invented by a gaggle of French scientists within the Seventies to mannequin “behavioral despair.” That jogs my memory of the Harlow experiments, which involved vertical chamber confinement that he called “the pit of despair.” It was basically a steel contraption with sloped sides, as you possibly can see at 2:15 in my video. If you lock a child monkey inside it for 45 days, you possibly can produce “profound and persistent behavioral abnormalities of a depressive nature in monkey subjects.” They find yourself curled up within the fetal place, hugging themselves, as you possibly can see at 2:24 in my video. After ten weeks alone within the chamber, they exhibit behaviors just like the “contact cling,” the place they simply come collectively and hug one another for lengthy intervals of time. “It is not yet clear why confinement in the vertical chamber is apparently so effective in producing abnormal behavior…[but] studies are now underway,” so don’t you are worried. I’ll spare you the same analysis that’s been conducted on puppies.

I can see why you’d need to take a look at out new antidepressant medicine, however if you wish to determine if pomegranates have anti-depressant results, why not simply feed folks some pomegranates, fairly than throwing some mice into the deep finish in a compelled swimming take a look at? There are actually hundreds of printed research on meals or meals merchandise utilizing this compelled swim take a look at. They permit the egg business, for instance, to say issues like “whole egg may be an excellent food for preventing and alleviating the conditions of major depression.” Why? Because rats struggled longer after being fed eggs earlier than they have been compelled to swim? In folks, nonetheless, eradicating eggs from the food plan improves temper—although, the researchers additionally eliminated meat from their food plan, so it’s not clear which did what. It’s additionally potential the themes have been simply consuming extra healthful plant meals, like soy. In reality, the soy business is completely satisfied to inform you soy “decreases depressive-related behavior”…in postmenopausal rats, who have been preventing for their lives in one more compelled swim take a look at.

In folks, although, the most effective soy merchandise might be able to do is solely work in addition to medicine like Prozac and Zoloft, as you possibly can see at 3:57 in my video, and everyone knows how little that truly says. I imply, the compelled swim take a look at is simply “a reaction to the acute stressful stimulus of being placed in a container without an escape route, and human depression reflects a chronic subjective emotional state rather than a reaction to an individual stimulus. Most importantly, depression is…[an] internal emotional state and, to date, the subjective internal emotional state of nonverbal species is not knowable.” We haven’t been in a position to ask animals how they’re feeling. You can’t even simply take a look at human conduct and inform if somebody has a despair analysis, so “it is impossible to conclude with certainty that the FST [forced swim test] is a measure or a test of depression, or a ‘depression-like’ state.” The “ease” with which hundreds of scientists try this, nonetheless, is “disquieting” in that it makes an assumption that “discourages critical thought.” In reality, “floating has been a criterion in the past to judge the witchcraft outcome of forced swim, but today it is in use to label a rodent as being depressed.”

Isn’t that unbelievable? Now you understand why I attempt to persist with human research on NutritionFacts.org.

What about Coconut Water for Athletic Performance vs. Sports Drinks? Watch the video to study extra.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Coconut water has been touted as being helpful for despair, however research cited to again up the declare not solely have been carried out on rodents as an alternative of people, however they have been the compelled swim take a look at through which researchers see how lengthy animals wrestle to maintain from drowning earlier than they merely hand over.
• Researchers declare that when mice are given coconut water earlier than being compelled to swim for their lives, they’re able to survive a bit longer earlier than giving up, “demonstrate[ing] antidepressant activity.” Therefore, “findings from this study can be taken as a lead to use young coconut water in depressive disorders” in folks.
• Other questionable animal experiments embrace the Harlow experiments, which use “the pit of despair”—a steel contraption with sloped sides. Researchers discovered that locking a child monkey inside for 45 days can produce “profound and persistent behavioral abnormalities of a depressive nature,” with the animals curled up within the fetal place, hugging themselves.
• Thousands of printed research on meals or meals merchandise have used the compelled swim take a look at. The egg business, for instance, claims entire eggs could also be useful with despair as a result of rats who had been fed eggs earlier than they have been compelled to swim struggled longer within the water. In people, although, temper has been proven to enhance by eradicating eggs from the food plan, although meat was additionally eliminated, so it’s unclear which did what. The soy business additionally claims soy decreases conduct associated to despair–albeit in postmenopausal rats who have been additionally utilized in a compelled swim take a look at.
• Soy merchandise might be able to work in addition to prescription drugs like Prozac and Zoloft in people, however that doesn’t say a lot.
• The compelled swim take a look at is “a reaction to the acute stressful stimulus of being placed in a container without an escape route, and human depression reflects a chronic subjective emotional state rather than a reaction to an individual stimulus. Most importantly, depression is…[an] internal emotional state and, to date, the subjective internal emotional state of nonverbal species is not knowable.”
• “[I]t is impossible to conclude with certainty that the FST [forced swim test] is a measure or a test of depression, or a ‘depression-like’ state.” In reality, “floating has been a criterion in the past to judge the witchcraft outcome of forced swim, but today it is in use to label a rodent as being depressed.”

What about coconut oil? Check out:

I discussed my video Do Antidepressant Drugs Really Work?.

How can we increase temper naturally? See:

In well being,

Michael Greger, M.D.

PS: If you haven’t but, you possibly can subscribe to my free movies right here and watch my stay displays: