NOT only can we improve our mood with food, researchers believe yoghurt may be able to help depression.
In the new study, researchers from the University of Virginia School of Medicine found that feeding yoghurt - or the live bacteria found in yoghurt, lactobacillus - to mice with "depressive-like behaviour" or "despair behaviour," reversed their symptoms.
As research into the gut/brain axis grows, evidence shows that what we eat can influence our mood and mental health by changing the balance of bacteria in our bellies. Additionally, research has found that a poor diet is a risk factor for depression.
Based on this understanding the researchers of the new study, published in Scientific Reports, looked to the microbiome to explore its link with depression.
"Depressive disorders often run in families, which, in addition to the genetic component, may point to the microbiome as a causative agent," they said.
"In chronically stressed mice displaying despair behaviour, we found that the microbiota composition and the metabolic signature dramatically change. Specifically, we observed reduced lactobacillus and increased circulating kynurenine levels [a metabolite in the blood known to drive depression>[/embedp>
