Eating in autumn: what food does and does not do for your mood
Around this time of year I hear it often: 'I eat much more than in summer, especially bread and sweets, and I don't feel better for it.' That is not a lack of discipline. As the light fades, your body changes with it, and eating is part of that. At the same time, a lot is claimed about food and mental health that is not true. In this article I set out what the research really shows, what food cannot do, which supplement is genuinely worthwhile in the Netherlands, and how to eat in autumn in a way that helps carry your mood.
Why you eat differently in autumn
Less daylight turns your body clock down, and you notice it in your appetite. Many people get hungrier, especially for carbohydrates: bread, pasta, biscuits, chocolate. That is no coincidence. Carbohydrates give quick energy and briefly influence your mood, and in the dark your body seeks exactly that.
Behaviour adds to it. It is cold, it gets dark early, you feel less like shopping or cooking, and warm, heavy food feels like comfort. Very understandable, and now and then perfectly fine. It only becomes a problem when eating becomes your only way to get through the day, or when you notice it actually makes you more sluggish and gloomy.
What I often tell people: do not judge the craving, but look at what you do with it. The question is not whether you eat differently in autumn, because you do. The question is whether your eating pattern supports or undermines your energy and mood.
What the research does show
Serious research has been done in recent years on the link between food and depression, and the conclusion is cautiously positive. The best-known study is the SMILES trial by Jacka and colleagues from 2017. In it, people with depression received, alongside their usual treatment, twelve weeks of guidance to eat more Mediterranean: more vegetables, fruit, legumes, wholegrains, fish, nuts and olive oil, less processed food and sugar.
The group that improved its diet recovered clearly more than the comparison group that received social support only. More than a third of the participants in the diet group had recovered by the end of the study, against fewer than one in ten in the other group. A large review by Lassale and colleagues from 2019 found the same pattern in the general population: those who eat more healthily, particularly in a Mediterranean pattern, have a lower chance of depressive symptoms.
How you read this matters. These studies show that food can be a solid pillar of support, alongside treatment. They do not show that food cures depression, and certainly not that a good diet lets you skip treatment.
What food is not
A lot of nonsense circulates about food and your head. There is no food that removes depression, no 'superfood' for your mood, and no supplement that replaces treatment. If someone promises you that, with a jar to go with it, be suspicious.
Strict diets and cutting out whole food groups rarely help your mood either. Those who eat too little, too irregularly, or are constantly preoccupied with what is and is not allowed become irritable and tired. For people vulnerable to low mood, an eating pattern full of rules is more a risk than a support.
What I see working in practice is not spectacular: eating regularly, eating enough, and more of the things found in almost every healthy eating pattern in the world. Vegetables, legumes, wholegrains, fish, nuts. No miracle, but a difference you notice after a few weeks.
Vitamin D: the one supplement that matters here
If there is one supplement worth taking in the Netherlands, it is vitamin D, and especially in autumn and winter. From October to March the sun here is too low to make vitamin D in your skin, and you get only a small part from food. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre, following the Health Council's advice, therefore recommends a supplement of 10 micrograms a day for certain groups; over 70 that is 20 micrograms.
Who are those groups? Among others, people with darker skin, people who are rarely outdoors or cover their skin, pregnant women, children up to four, women from fifty and everyone from seventy. For a large share of our clients the advice is therefore simply: take it, all year round. It is cheap and safe at the recommended dose.
Honesty requires saying that the evidence that vitamin D directly improves your mood is weak and mixed. It is not an antidepressant. The advice is about your bones, muscles and general health, and a deficiency is something you want to avoid in any case. See it as getting the basics in order, not as the treatment.
The autumn plate: what works in practice
Autumn is a good season to eat more healthily, because the produce is there. Pumpkin, cabbage, beetroot, leek, pears, apples, mushrooms: all cheap and at their best. Think in warm, filling meals: soup with legumes, stews with plenty of vegetables, oven dishes, a hearty salad with lentils or chickpeas. Nourishing, comforting and exactly what your body wants in the cold.
A few fixed anchors help more than strict rules. Breakfast, even with little appetite, to head off the mid-morning dip. Oily fish once a week, such as mackerel, herring or salmon, as in the Dutch dietary guidelines. A handful of unsalted nuts. And with the craving for sweets: eat something, but combine it with something filling, so you are not back at the biscuits an hour later.
Two things that quietly undermine mood: skipping meals, so your energy and temper collapse over the day, and alcohol, which disturbs your sleep and makes the next day gloomier. Precisely in the dark months these are the two habits that make the most difference when you tackle them.
Food is home
For many of our clients, food is more than fuel. It is family, memory, caring for each other, the taste of where you come from. The good news: the cuisines many of our clients grew up with, from Turkey, Morocco, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, are already close to what the research points to as beneficial. Plenty of legumes, vegetables, olive oil, herbs, eating together. You need not trade that for 'Dutch' advice. It is a strength.
What often falls away in autumn is not the healthy kitchen but the together. Those who live far from family, eat alone, or cannot be bothered to cook for one lose not only nutrients but a moment of connection. Eating alone in the dark is one of the quietest forms of loneliness.
So a suggestion that has nothing to do with nutrition science: cook together. With a housemate, a neighbour, someone from the mosque or church, or over a phone call with your mother while you make her recipe. A pot for two is not much more work than a pot for one, and it does something no supplement can.
When is it more than appetite?
More appetite in autumn is normal. Do take note if the change is large and comes with other signs: persistently feeling gloomy or empty, enjoying nothing, eating and weighing much more or much less, and that for longer than two weeks. Food becoming your only comfort, or appetite disappearing altogether, deserves a conversation with your GP.
Do you sometimes think it all need not go on? Do not wait: call your GP or the out-of-hours GP service, or 113 Suicide Prevention on 0800-0113.
Food is a pillar of support, not a treatment. If your mood sinks for longer, there is good help for that, and it works better when your body is nourished and rested in the meantime. Not sure whether your symptoms fit with us? Feel free to get in touch, and we will think along with you.
Sources
- Jacka e.a. (2017), A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (SMILES) — BMC Medicine (PubMed)
- Lassale e.a. (2019), Healthy dietary indices and risk of depressive outcomes — Molecular Psychiatry (PubMed)
- Voedingscentrum — vitamine D: wie heeft extra nodig?
This article is informative and does not replace personal advice from a care provider. In doubt, or do you have questions about your own situation? Feel free to contact us.
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