A good diet is your best friend. A new study by Almudena Sanchez-Villegas et al found that those eating a Mediterranean-style diet were 30 per cent less likely to suffer from depression, compared to those who had the lowest Mediterranean diet scores. That seems to be a substantial benefit.
The so-called Mediterranean diet is rich in cereals, wine, fruits, nuts, legumes and whole grains, fish and olive oil, and low in dairy, meat, junk food and fat. Other resaerch has already linked the dietary pattern to longer life, less heart disease, and protection against some cancers. The diet’s main nutritional components include beta-carotene, vitamin C, tocopherols, polyphenols, and essential minerals.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of Navarra, Pamplona in Spain. The results were published in Archives of General Psychiatry, Volume 66, Number 10, Pages 1090-1098.
The researchers analysed dietary information from 10,094 healthy Spanish participants and calculated their adherence to the Mediterranean diet based on nine components, including the ratio of monounsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids, moderate alcohol and dairy product intakes, low meat intake, and high intake of legumes, fruit, nuts, cereals, vegetables and fish. After an average of 4.4 years of follow-up, depression had been documented in 156 men and 324 women. Close adherence to the Mediterranean diet, indicated by higher Mediterranean diet scores, was associated with a 30 percent reduction in the risk of depression, compared to people with the lowest scores.
The researchers claimed that the specific mechanisms by which following the dietary pattern worked are not well understood. They acknowledged that “the role of the overall dietary pattern may be more important than the effect of single components” adding that “It is plausible that the synergistic combination of a sufficient provision of omega-three fatty acids together with other natural unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants from olive oil and nuts, flavonoids and other phytochemicals from fruit and other plant foods and large amounts of natural folates and other B vitamins in the overall Mediterranean dietary pattern may exert a fair degree of protection against depression.” It is good to see some less particularistic and more holistic thinking.
Tags: depression, mediterranean diet, Nutrition