Rebuild from Depression Blog

Last week a new study on Omega 3s was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Four hundred and thirty-two (432) people participated in this 8-week study in which participants received either Omega 3 fatty acids or sunflower oil. After the eight week study period, those treated with Omega 3s did improve on a self-reported depression inventory.

Take Omega 3s today.

However, stay vigilant about the rest of your lifestyle as well. The fact is that over an 8-week period, treatment patients improved by 1.32 points on a scale that ranges from 0 to 84. When they separated out participants with anxiety disorders, those with depression only improved by 3.17 points on the 84-point scale.

These effects are statistically significant but you can see from a scale of 84 points, a change in one point or three points is something, but it is one factor among many. A second important factor is likely time. If these same patients were followed for six months or one year, we would likely see a bigger difference between the treatment and control groups.

The participants took about 1 gram of EPA daily. We recommend 2-4 grams (figuring your budget is topped out in there somewhere). If they had taken a higher dose of Omega 3s, they may have improved as well.

Add to this improvement a B complex vitamin for those who need it or a high-dose B12 particularly for older people with depression, we may see more improvement still. Test all of the participants for vitamin D. Send some out in the sun to improve their levels; give them supplements in the winter. You get the idea.

Better still, have the treatment group take some time to breath and unwind each day. Quit crappy jobs (I know, we're lucky to have any job these days, but you get the idea.)

In any case, a really easy place to start is with Omega 3s. I like this high-dose EPA product by Ascenta NutraSea. You can actually look up the purity test results on their website for the particular batch of oil you have purchased. That's pretty cool.

"Where can I buy coconut oil?"

It's a good question if you're new to the product. There are a lot of extremely high-priced products out there, most of which I have tried. I used to guard it like the gold that it was but then found a great deal and have less need for restraint.

I do love coconut oil. It is a great substitute for shortening in baked goods such as these chocolate cinnamon cupcakes. It is great on a grill for foods such as pancakes or tempura. From the Omega 3/Omega 6 perspective I discuss quite a bit on this blog, it does not actually have much Omega 3 or Omega 6 and so it is basically a neutral oil in the Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio. For cooking, you can buy a refined coconut oil, but I don't actually do that. Basically, I get such a great deal on organic, virgin coconut oil that I use it for everything. I met the vendor at ExpoWest in Anaheim and marveled at their beautiful herb display but said, "It's that coconut oil that gets me." I became an affiliate. You'll even see coconut oil in the sidebar of this blog now.

Coconut oil is great for your skin, including your scalp. Coconut oil is of the class of "dry oils" which means that when you use it on your skin, it will not appear shiny when it sinks in. With everyone in the house apparently not getting any younger, we have come to appreciate good oils and not walking around shiny.

The unrefined coconut oil is also what you are going to want to add to drinks such these kefir smoothies. In warm weather the coconut oil is liquid at room temperature making it extremely easy to add to drinks. When you add it to a smoothie that has frozen fruit in it, little bits of the oils will freeze up too in that smoothie and you will have little coconut bits in your shake. I love the texture it adds. In the winter, add it to hot cocoa where it does float on top, but adds that coconut-flavored tone to your drink.

In any case, check it out. At $37/gallon it's a great answer to the question "Where to buy coconut oil?" When I'm in cooking mode, I get the five gallon container at a bigger discount still.

You have probably noticed that I use a lot of graphs on this site. I actually do a lot of reporting in my day job using data visualizations. If you have purchased either of the digital papers at the Rebuild Market you know they center around these same sorts of data visualizations.

I programmed a couple hundred graphs, focusing on those with a lot of nutrients. Usually I would write the code so that the scale on the graphs would be identical across all of them. In this batch I forgot to add that part of the code and it didn't matter for most anyway.

Except one.

Somehow, margarine made it into this group of nutritious foods. Look at the graph! It looks similar to the mackerel graph I display below it. At first glance I wondered how it had so much vitamin B-12 in it. B-12 is pretty much only found in animal products.

Then I looked at the scale. Look at the two scales. Notice the "percent of RDA" labels for each graph. The scales are indeed a bit different.

Poor margarine. If it were potato chips at least it would be tasty.

Taking a little break from a busy work season, I put together some Hubpages that tie into content here on this blog. In the process, I found a whole world of interesting web content related to food.

First, give a quick eyeball to my works-in-progress:

• Foods for depression


• Phytic acid


• Sourdough recipes


• Natural remedies for depression

With my strange beef liver fascination, I found an interesting hub on liver and kidney recipes. The photos may almost make you forget that the hub is about liver and kidneys.

Oysters are also a favorite around here and I found a site on shucking them. He does caution users on harmful bacteria in the oysters. His recommendation made me think to search for raw milk and I found quite a few hubs discussing its benefits. I read this hub arguing for legal access to raw milk. I agree that we should have legal access to the food of our choice but like the author, I recognize the possible risks of the food (an issue I make at the Ethicurean on raw milk).

I found one writer who has a hubpage dedicated to each of the B vitamins, like this one on B-12.

In the class of fermented foods, there are pages on kefir, kimchi, and pickles.

There's a nice page on the benefits of grass fed beef. Thinking of wild food made me think of trout fishing and, lo and behold, I found trout recipes and how to build a fishing lake. (A fantasy of mine for our property.)

Check out Hubpages if you haven't already. If you have pages there, share them here in the comments and friend me over there so I can find you. In fact, use the tag "traditional foods" if it's relevant so traditional food types can find each other over there.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday.

Is is easy to become low in iron during pregnancy. Our iron requirements in pregnancy are quite high, a key reason prenatal vitamins typically have extra iron. On one hand, our menstruation ceases for a year or more during pregnancy but on the other, we have quite a bit of blood loss with the birth. Nutritionists estimate that we need an additional 1 to 2.5 milligrams of iron per day (and more if we hemorrhage in delivery). The additional iron is primarily to make up for the iron given to the growing baby in utero and the iron we produce in our milk during lactation.

Like many of the nutrients in pregnancy, the largest requirement for iron comes in the third trimester of pregnancy where the fast-growing baby requires on the order of 3 to 4 milligrams of iron each day.

If you are low in iron in pregnancy, I strongly recommend an iron supplement. Floradix may be the best-absorbed iron supplement widely available.

Work to improve your diet as well. I list iron rich foods below (based on data maintained by the USDA). If your diet contains little or no meat, read the information on this site about increasing your absorption of iron (and other minerals) through kitchen preparation techniques. Read more about grains and phytates and phytic acid in beans.

Source: Virgil F. Fairbanks, 1994. "Iron in Medicine and Nutrition" in Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease Lea & Febiger: Philadelphia, p 185-213.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday.