Research
Mixed
Dietary interventions do not significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety.
While improving your diet can help with depressive symptoms, it is not currently supported by evidence as a primary treatment for anxiety. If you are struggling with anxiety, rely on established treatments like therapy or medication, and use diet as a supportive tool for overall well-being rather than a specific anxiety cure.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
No effect of dietary interventions was observed for anxiety (k = 11, n = 2270, g = 0.100, 95% CI = −0.04 to 0.24, p = .148).
Why this rating
Meta-analysis of 11 RCTs with 2,270 participants.
Source
The Effects of Dietary Improvement on Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Joseph Firth et al. · Psychosomatic Medicine · 2019
DOI 10.1097/psy.0000000000000673
Meta-analysis · 16 studiesCited 542×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Whole-of-dietary interventions significantly reduce symptoms of depression compared to control conditions, with a small-to-moderate effect size (Hedges' g = 0.275).Good
- Female samples experience significantly greater benefits from dietary interventions for both depression and anxiety symptoms compared to male samples.Moderate
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