Doing it as safely as possible

Published 19 October 2026 · DepressionDiet.co.uk · 7 min read

This article assumes you have read the risks, spoken to a doctor, and decided to try this anyway. It is not an encouragement to start. It is harm reduction for people who have already decided.

If you have not done those things, do them first.

Variety is the whole game

The difference between a reasonably nourishing version of this diet and a badly deficient one is almost entirely variety.

• Eat offal. Liver once or twice a week covers vitamin A, copper, folate and B12 generously. Kidney and heart add others. This is not an optional refinement; it is the main defence against the deficiencies the research flags.
• Eat fish, including oily fish and shellfish. Iodine, selenium, omega-3, vitamin D. Tinned sardines with the bones in contribute calcium.
• Do not live on steak. Muscle meat alone is the version most likely to leave you short.
• Eggs, regularly. Cheap, and nutritionally one of the most complete things available.
• Keep dairy if your version allows it. It makes calcium and iodine much easier.

Salt and fluid

When carbohydrate falls, the kidneys shed sodium and water. Most of what people call the first-fortnight slump is this.

Drink to thirst, and salt your food properly rather than avoiding it. Cramps, headache, light-headedness on standing and fatigue are the usual signs of getting this wrong. If you take blood pressure medicines or diuretics, this is a conversation for your prescriber rather than something to adjust yourself.

Fat is where the energy comes from

Lean meat alone leaves most people under-eating badly, which on a site about mood matters: under-eating reliably makes mood worse. Keep the fat on the meat, cook in butter or tallow, and eat enough.

There is no calorie target here and nothing to weigh. If you are hungry, eat more.

What to watch, and when

• Week one to two: headache, fatigue, cramps, irritability. Usually electrolytes. Should settle.
• Month one: bowel habits settle into a new pattern. Energy usually returns.
• Month three: repeat lipids. Discuss the result with a doctor rather than a forum.
• Ongoing: any unusual bruising, bleeding gums, poor wound healing, numbness or tingling, or persistent exhaustion deserves a medical opinion rather than a dietary adjustment.

Signs to stop and see someone

Chest pain. Fainting. Persistent vomiting. Confusion. Any symptom of low blood sugar if you take diabetes medication — shaking, sweating, confusion, palpitations. Mood getting worse rather than better. Any sense that eating has become something you are controlling rather than something you are doing.

Stopping is not failure. Fewer than one in ten participants in the one randomised depression trial were still following the diet once study support ended, which tells you how hard it is to sustain even with professional help.

Keep your treatment going

Whatever you do with food, keep taking prescribed medication unless your prescriber tells you otherwise, and keep your therapy appointments. This way of eating has not been shown to replace either, and the one trial that tested it in depression tested it alongside existing treatment, not instead of it.

Where to go next

• Talking to your doctor about it
• What the evidence shows