159: The Foods That Beat Depression and Sharpen Your Brain | Drew Ramsey, MD

You look at something like zinc—populations that eat less zinc have more depression. You look at people who get depressed—they have, overall and as a population, lower levels of zinc.

When you look at some of the data... 52% of male vegans were B12 deficient ... 23%, additionally, were B12 insufficient, meaning that your level is normal but it's so low that it's not really offering you the mental health and brain benefits that a normal B12 level offers.

I would have no problem loving somebody, being a relationship with somebody who's plant-based or mostly plant-based, but I would not procreate with somebody who was not willing to, at least during the carriage of the pregnancy, consume meat and animal products.

BDNF is the main... neurotrophin. A neurotrophin is a nerve growth factor ... BDNF does a variety of things. It induces the birth of new brain cells ... It also helps brain cells with brain cell resilience.

Choline, like folate, is very much tied to pregnancy outcomes ... The reason folic acid is in a prenatal vitamin is that if you have low folate or folic acid during pregnancy, you end up with what are called neural tube defects.

I love the way that exercise, like food, can really be one of those things... When you see people get better and beat depression, not always—you can beat depression in other ways, but that's usually part of the package that people bring to the table.

Seafood is a really important category. It is where you find these long chain omega-3 fats. You also just find a lot of nutrient density when you look at salmon or anchovies or oysters or clams and mussels.

If you look at all these traditional diets that are really, really healthy for the brain—Japanese diet, a Norwegian diet, the Mediterranean diet—there's just more seafood in there than Americans tend to consume.

Plant-based diets concern me because it's a dietary pattern that requires supplementation.