BLUE Monday on January 19 is said to be the most depressing day of the year, but according to the experts, you can use food to improve your mood.

Alison Clark from the British Dietetic Association (BDA), pictured inset, is on hand to provide nutrition advice to help you beat the winter blues.

“There are many ways that foods can affect how we feel, just as how we feel has a large influence on what foods we choose,” she says.

“Some of the mood/food effects are due to nutrient content, but a lot of effects are due to existing associations of foods with pleasure and reward (chocolate) or diet and deprivation (plain foods).

“Some foods also have religious, economic and cultural significance, which will influence how we feel when eating them.”

So is there such a thing as a feel good diet?

“Feeling good comes from a diet that provides adequate amounts of ‘healthy choice’ carbohydrate at regular times to keep blood glucose levels stable; eating breakfast is a sensible habit. Diets should also contain a wide variety of protein and vitamin and mineral containing foods to support the body’s functions.

“As a rule, plenty of fruits and vegetables and wholegrain cereal foods, with some protein foods, including oily fish, will support a good supply of nutrients for both good health and good mood.”

Missing some vitamins and minerals can affect your mood, and there are foods which you should eat to replenish your body.

Missing mineral: Iron – This results in low levels of oxygen carrying haemoglobin in the blood, resulting in the condition anaemia.

Result: Feeling weak, tired and lethargic all the time.

Best foods to eat: The risk of anaemia is reduced with adequate intakes of iron, particularly from lean red meat, poultry and fish, beans and pulses, fortified cereals.

It may also be helped by avoiding drinking tea.

Missing vitamin: Thiamin, niacin or cobalamin (all B vitamins).

Result: Tiredness and feeling depressed or irritable

Best foods to eat: Fortified foods including cereals, and animal protein foods such as lean meat/fish, eggs and dairy Missing vitamin: Folate.

Result: Increased chance of feeling depressed, particularly important in older people Best foods to eat: Folate is found in liver, green vegetables, oranges and other citrus fruits, beans and fortified foods such as marmite and breakfast cereals

Missing vitamin: Selenium Result: May increase the incidence of feeling depressed and other negative mood states.

Best foods to eat: Brazil nuts, meat, fish, seeds and wholemeal bread.