Research

Hormonal

Female samples experience significantly greater benefits from dietary interventions for both depression and anxiety symptoms compared to male samples.

If you are female, improving your diet may have a particularly strong positive impact on your mood and anxiety levels. While men also benefit, the evidence suggests women may see greater improvements. This highlights the importance of considering sex-specific factors in dietary interventions for mental health.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Studies with female samples observed significantly greater benefits from dietary interventions, for symptoms of both depression and anxiety.
Joseph Firth et al. · Psychosomatic Medicine · 2019

Why this rating

Subgroup analysis of a meta-analysis; likely underpowered for definitive conclusions on sex differences.

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

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