Welcome to nutrition facts. I'm your host. Dr michael gregor today. We look at ways to mitigate a serious mental health disorder. Depression there's accumulating evidence in brain derived neurotrophic fact may be playing a role in human depression beady. Nf controls the growth of new nerve cells so low levels may explain the atrophy of specific brain areas. You see among depressed patients that maybe one of the reasons exercises so good for our brains. Starting our day exercise regimen within three months you can get a quadrupling obedient. F- reliefs from your brain. This makes sense. I mean anytime. We were desperate to catch prey or desperate not to become prey ourselves. We needed to be cognitively sharp. And so when we're fasting or exercising or an negative calorie balance. Our brain starts churning out. Bvd nf to make sure we're firing on all cylinders. So of course. Big farm as eager to create drugs to mimic this effect. But is there any way to boost enough naturally. Yes i just said it. Fasting and exercise. Okay okay but is there anything we can add to our diet to boost obedient. Well hiring takes dietary flavonoids appear to be protectively associated with symptoms of depression. The harvard nurses study followed tens of thousands of women for years and found that those who are eating the most to appeared to reduce the risk of coming down with depression. Flavonoids occur naturally implants. So there's a statue mountain variety of healthy foods. But how do we know. The benefits are from the flavonoids and not just from eating healthier in general. You don't know until you put it to the test. See some fruits and vegetables have more than others. Apples have more than apricots plums. More than peaches red cabbage. More than white kale. More than cucumbers. So if you randomize people into one of three groups more high flavonoids fruits and vegetables. More low flavonoids fruits and vegetables or no extra fruits and vegetables at all after eighteen weeks. Only the high flavonoids group got a significant boost and obedient f- levels which corresponded to an improvement in cognitive