No.
There are no Rx drugs that safely and reliably combat it either, though.
I think you can improve mood by diet, but whether or not the results will satisfy you depends on how much improvement you want. You might be talking about getting out of the occasional doldrums, but on the other hand you might want a cure for serious, incapacitating chronic clinical depression. If it’s the first, then you have some hope. If you have the second or something close to it, then you may find that you need some strong response.
Diet surely can affect mood; just ask people about coffee or chocolate! With the help of a healthy, balanced diet you can have better energy, less physical discomfort, and a more satisfied feeling. After I went on Weight Watchers my mood definitely improved, in part because I felt that I was in control and not food.
I haven’t seen any striking evidence that non-Rx foods or drugs reliably and continually combat serious clinical depression. Others on this thread have cited the various suggestions put forward for this. From years of experience both for myself and for others who self-identify as being severely depressed, I know that none of the suggestions work as well as prescription medications.
Having said that, not all prescription medications work for all people. Nobody yet knows exactly why. We’re all in the dark about depression, IMHO.
I see several movements in modern American society that affect our perception of medication and depression:
[ul]
[li]Scientologists, of course, think that all of psychiatry (including medication) is evil. Could be. I can only speak for myself; medication works for me.[/li][li]Some people criticize a society that seems to be overly dependent on “pills”. We are, but that doesn’t mean that all pills are bad. We have to be more careful. I am not in favor of non-psychiatrists prescribing medication for depression.[/li][li]Some people feel that natural is better, that allopathic (ie Western) medicine is out of touch, etc. Also could be. My response is “do what works.” If medication works, I will easily take it over something that doesn’t work, thank you![/li][li]Some people want an inexpensive alternative to prescription medication. I sympathize, and yet I am not convinced that non-prescription medications are the way to go. The problem is that by going in that direction, you may be shutting yourself off to alternatives that will work. Before you assume you can’t afford prescriptions, try working something out with a hospital, psychiatrist, etc. You are probably not the only person who has faced the issue.[/li][/ul]
I can speak only from this experience: I have chronic severe depression that has forced me into a pyschiatric hospital for an extended stay. I got a good diagnosis only late in life; many other times I should have been hospitalized and wasn’t. When I started taking SSRIs, my life started improving substantially. Medication was not, by any means, the only reason, but medication helped me get to a point where I could do other work.
For this reason, I always caution people about the pluses and minuses of non-prescription medication for depression. I would hate to see anyone follow a path that wastes their life for no good reason.
Medication does not always work. I know this only too well. It is only one of many paths you can take to getting healthy. I always recommend that you take whatever (healthy, safe, and responsible) action you can. Only you can run your life; in the end, only you can ensure your recovery from depression.
Last point: regardless of what happens, please do not take prescription medications unless a doctor prescribes them for you, and please do not not stop taking them unless your doctor knows you plan to do this. Medications for depression are not like aspirin! They do have known, specific physical and mental side-effects that you should learn.
TCOY.
:smack: Yes, Chocolate, great idea, I should have thought of it. Also, Popcorn, oddly enough. It’s nothing in the corn, AFAIK, just that eating it makes dudes happy.
633squadron, well done!
And AHunter3 is right. Nothing is totally reliable.
Depression is serious business. Don’t let it get out of hand to the point that it affects your judgment and you do nothing. That is happening to a member of our family and it has torn the family apart.
Dr. Daniel Amen has written quite a bit about the neurochemisty of the brain and how it’s affected by things like exercise and food. I suggest 'Change your Brain, Change your Life by him but he has other books and recommends books by other authors like this one
He’s a Distinguished Fellow of the APA so you needn’t worry about oil squoze from snakies 
I can also attest that his info helped me do battle with PMS. I pretty much never suffer from mood swings, now.
Reliably is a bit of a trick question in that different people have different causes for depression, and thus different treatments. I, for example, had a Really Bad Experience with SSRI’s. I have done much better with the dopamine/norepinephrine pathway. Wellbutrin worked great for a year, pretty good for the next and then wore off. Lately I’ve had good luck with supplementation of the precursors phenylalanine and tyrosine. Not very expensive, but the juries still out on whether it will last. I got these recommendations from a book by Braverman MD. I’m not sure what to tell you about this book, the info that I can examine is solid medicine, but some of his pronouncments peg my snakeoil meter. I’ve approached it cautiously and it seems to be working, at least in the short run, YMMV
and as always, I am not a doctor and cannot advise you
If you’re totally at the bottom try a complete change of location,scenery ,people,ie go on holiday .
if you cant do this for various reasons try doing something that will scare the shit out of you like a parachute jump or a bungy jump ,if you think this wont do any good at all do it anyway you’ve lost nothing and you may well be surprised .
Increased light levels can help S.A.D. seasonal depression .
Never use alcohol to alleviate your depression ,any very temporary relief will be out weighed by its longer term negative effects.
Clinical depression is a self perpetuating condition that affects your judgement,try the above even if you think its pointless,just do it without any hope of relief even if its just to prove me wrong ,particulary the scaring the shit out of yourself remedy.
A previous posters suggestion about excecise is also very good.
How about really spicy foods? There is nothing like a little pain to get the ol’ endorphines and adreneline pumping.
I recommend two books:
5-HTP: The natural way to overcome depression
and
Potatos Not Prozac
5-HTP seems to help me. I will also say that once they discovered my Vitimin B12 defficiency both my mood an energy inproved.
If you’re looking to reinforce the effect of your prescription meds, the best bet, as 633squadron mentions, is a healthy, balanced diet. Bad eating habits can make depression worse. Healthy eating habits and exercise give you the best platform, so to speak, for improvement. It’s not nearly as easy as a simple “eat more of this stuff” directive, but it’s probably the best thing for you.
I’ve been taking St. John’s Wort during my period of grief, & it does seem to help.
I don’t know how much sunshine you get on the other side of the door 
but here is some info from the Mayo Clinic about Seasonal Affective Disorder:
Any excersise even if it seems marginal can help and as goofy as it may sound the ammount of sunlight that you recieve may help as well.
My MiL is an expert in suppliments, atleast she knows more than anyone else I’ve ever met, and she suggested Holly (The plant, not the porn star) would give a more positive outlook on things.
It might not quite be what you had in mind, but I find when I eat alot of vegetables and low-fat meats (say, a club sandwich) instead of my usual TV Dinner, I have more energy. When I have more energy, I exercise more. When I exercise more, I have better moods.
However, that’s probably one more step than the OP meant.
There’s also psychotherapy. That doesn’t answer the OP, but it is helpful for many people.
I assume by “holly”, she means Yerba maté, or Ilex paraguayensis. It is not an antidepressant, but a stimulant, mostly due to caffeine. It’s approved in Germany for “mental fatigue”, but I hesitate using that term synonymously with clinical depression. It’s more traditional uses are for suppressing appetite, increasing energy and gastric upset. I suppose if those are some of your symptoms of depression, it could help with those.
But please don’t go munching on Ilex opaca, or American holly. It’s a great laxative and emetic (meaning it’ll make ya lose your lunch from both ends at once, pardner), but the berries are toxic in relatively small doses. It does not have any great stimulant properties.
Just one more lesson in why common names can be hazardous to your health.
Foods can definitely effect how you feel. Along with my depression I constantly felt tired all the time. I would sleep through my classes or work day and then get very stressed out about missing work/school and would fallen into a deeper depression. I was tested for anemia and took lots of iron supplements but it never seemed to help. I found out I was hypoglycemic about 2 years ago and the difference has been night and day. I never realized how much low blood sugar was impacting my moods. I still have depression but it’s not as severe as before. I get by fairly well despite not taking any medications. Try eating a diet that keeps your sugar levels regular. Even if it doesn’t alleviate your depression you will be much healthier.