Research suggests that cutting processed foods can reduce inflammation, ease medication side effects, and offer a powerful new way to stabilize your mood.
For years, Carol’s diet revolved around a single ingredient: refined sugar.
“Whenever I felt anxious or depressed from my bipolar, I reached for candy bars, desserts, baked goods — anything that had high amounts of sugar,” she says.
They were her comfort foods and made her feel better, but only for a while. “As soon as the sugar crash hit, everything got worse, and my mood swings became more severe,” says Carol, who’s in her sixties and lives in Riverside, California. “But I couldn’t stop the cravings.”
Carol knew she needed to transform her diet if she had any hope of managing her bipolar symptoms. Since she, in essence, had a sugar addiction, she turned to a 12-step program to create more balance and moderation in her food choices.
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It took about six months of continuous work and support, but the program helped her cut out all added sugar and adopt a diet based on whole foods in their natural state, a balanced approach that some refer to as “clean eating.”
“For the first time in a while, I was more mindful about what I ate and how it affected my condition,” says Carol. “I began making more meals and reading food labels to check for added sugar and other similar ingredients.”
The effect on her bipolar was life-changing. “I was not cured by any means, but my mood swings were not nearly as dramatic,” she says. “I had more energy and was able to keep my moods on a more even level.”
Defining ‘Clean Eating’: Whole vs. Processed
The term “clean eating” is trendy nowadays.
A quick search for clean eating on Amazon reveals more than 7,000 results.
But what does clean eating mean exactly?
“There are a lot of different interpretations, and no one fixed definition,” says Pamela Fergusson, PhD, a registered dietitian and consultant in Toronto. “But generally, it refers to eating less processed foods and more whole foods.”
That means food in its natural or near-natural state, with minimal or no added chemicals, additives, or refined sugar. Ideally, what you eat should not be processed, allowing it to retain high amounts of vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients.
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One way to approach clean eating is to skip anything that comes in a box, can, or similar packaging.
But there are exceptions.
“For instance, beans come in cans that may add a little extra salt for flavor and preservation, but they are still beans, which are a nutritious whole food,” Fergusson notes.
You can identify processed foods as those that undergo changes from their natural state: think instant oatmeal instead of steel-cut oats, or French fries instead of whole potatoes.
Sound simple?
For the most part, it is.
“Clean eating encourages eating more of the right kind of foods without thinking about low-fat, low-calorie, or low-carb,” says Fergusson.
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If you follow a particular eating plan — including a vegetarian, vegan, or Paleo diet — you can still incorporate clean eating into your regimen. Just make a point to avoid processed staples.
For instance, vegetarians may enjoy frozen veggie burgers, but they don’t meet the guidelines of clean eating. Vegans may opt for soy cheese, but that’s often made with additives and preservatives.
The Science: Stress, Sugar, and Inflammation
Balanced eating can positively impact your mood. Indeed, research has begun to demonstrate how our food choices — not just what we eat, but what we don’t — can influence our thoughts and feelings.
Stress plays a big role in how the brain and body respond to food. When you’re under stress, your body activates its “fight-or-flight” response, releasing hormones like adrenaline and cortisol to help you handle the situation. In the moment, this can suppress your appetite because your body is focused on dealing with the stress, not digestion, according to Cleveland Clinic.
But when stress sticks around for a long time, it’s a different story, say researchers at Harvard Medical School. Constant exposure to stress hormones like cortisol can cause inflammation and affect your mood, often leading to anxiety or depression. Over time, chronic stress can take a toll on your physical health too, increasing the risk of heart problems and metabolic issues.
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“The worse someone feels, the more likely they will seek comfort,” explains Eva Selhub, MD, author of Your Health Destiny, The Love Response, and Your Brain on Nature.
“Food can act as that comfort, which is why we call foods high in fat and sugar ‘comfort foods.’”
While it can make people feel better in the short term, comfort food serves only as a temporary fix, Selhub warns.
“You find yourself craving more feel-good foods to help fight the stress,” she says. “High amounts of these saturated fats and high-sugar foods can further flame inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain, which creates more mental fog and depression.”
And on the flip side, shifting to a more whole foods approach includes many foods with abundant amounts of antioxidants, which help soothe inflammation, reduce oxidative stress, and help lift your mood.
Research on Diet Quality and Bipolar Depression
Science has begun looking more closely at this connection between diet and mental health, and especially at how food may affect certain symptoms of bipolar.
For instance, a small study presented in 2018 at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress in Barcelona, Spain, showed an association between diet quality and bipolar depression.
Researchers recruited people diagnosed with bipolar depression who took medication and recorded their usual diets. After 16 weeks, they found that those who followed high-quality diets that were rich in whole fruits and vegetables — a trademark of clean eating — had small improvements in their depression symptoms compared with those who ate lower-quality diets that relied heavily on refined carbohydrates and saturated fats, often found in processed foods.
The researchers noted that the study needs to be repeated in a larger trial before any conclusions can be made, but the initial finding supports the broader theory that diet choices may play a bigger role in managing some bipolar symptoms.
Breaking Free From Food Cravings
Another advantage of clean eating is that it can expand your palate, so you’re not always stuck in a food rut.
“Clean eating is more about what you can have rather than what you can’t have,” says Rebecca Katz, MS, author of The Healthy Mind Cookbook. “You’ll discover that when you eliminate a lot of processed ingredients, you’ll add more fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats that can turn into technicolor meals full of bright greens, reds, and yellows.”
This change can affect not only your mood but also your taste buds. “Once I made the switch and broke free from my sugar cravings, I discovered the many wonderful natural flavors of whole foods,” says Carol. “I didn’t need a lot of sugar for food to be sweet and satisfying.”
Combating Weight Gain and Regaining Control
Weight gain is a common side effect of many medications, and that’s what Hakeem Rahim experienced. He found that balanced eating and increasing his intake of whole foods helped him manage it.
“The medication changed my eating habits,” says Rahim, a mental health speaker, consultant, and founder of I Am Acceptance, Inc. in New York. “I would reach for the closest sugary or high-carb food and even caught myself grabbing food off the plates of my friends when we ate out.”
Committed to changing his diet, he embraced clean eating through vegetarianism and later veganism.
“My new diet and a change in medication helped me lose the extra fat and give me the mental clarity and energy I needed to adopt healthier habits, like lifting weights and doing yoga and qi gong,” he says.
Perhaps the greatest advantage of Rahim’s diet change was giving him a sense of control with bipolar disorder. “There are so many factors that are not within your power with bipolar disorder that you have to embrace what you can control,” says Rahim. “Food was one thing I could change and manage that directly contributes to my ongoing wellness.”
Practical Steps to Get Started
Here are some tips for making the move into clean eating from Katz:
- Begin with breakfast. It’s a smaller meal and easier to prepare. Replace processed cereal with oatmeal made from steel-cut oats or a smoothie made with almond milk, greens, and frozen fruit.
- Plan your meals. Organize and prep your meals for the week over the weekend. Have your fruits and vegetables chopped and stored in a container ready to go. It’s easier to reach into the fridge and grab what you need than to feel overwhelmed trying to prepare an entire meal from scratch.
- Make a sweep of your kitchen. Get rid of processed foods lurking in your cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer. “This frees up space for you to add healthier alternatives that make cooking much more efficient,” says Katz.
Whole Food Staples to Stock Up On
Balanced eating focuses on consuming more whole foods in their natural state, says Katz. When in doubt, read the label.
“The ingredient list should be short and recognizable,” says Katz. “If you can’t say them, don’t eat them.”
Examples of food staples that make up a whole food approach, according to Katz:
- Healthy fats such as olive oil, grass-fed butter, and coconut oil
- Fresh fruits — or canned, frozen, or dried fruit with no added sugar
- Fresh vegetables — or canned or frozen vegetables with no added sauces or salt
- Canned beans and legumes with little or no added salt (rinsing can reduce sodium by 35 percent)
- Nuts like almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, and walnuts
- Unrefined grains, like whole-grain wheat bread and pasta, non-microwave popcorn, steel-cut oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice, and whole-wheat flour
- Plain yogurt
- Plain nut butters
- Unsweetened almond or cashew milk
- Organic or grass-fed meat, including beef and chicken
- Organic or “vegetarian” eggs
- Fresh or frozen fish, including Pacific cod, salmon, and tilapia
- Herbs and spices such as turmeric, basil, rosemary, cinnamon, and ginger
Cooking Tip:
How you prepare your food can also help you eat clean. Stick with flash-cook methods like stir-frying and steaming, which lock in more vitamins and minerals. Avoid high-fat cooking techniques, such as deep frying or stewing your food in vegetable oils.
Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking
- What Is the Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn Response? Cleveland Clinic. July 22, 2024.
- Understanding the Stress Response. Harvard Health Publishing. April 3, 2024.
- European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Diet and Weight May Affect Response to Bipolar Disorder Treatment. ScienceDaily. October 7, 2018.
UPDATED: Printed as “Cleaner Eating,” Summer 2019