People who eat a Mediterranean style diet - lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains and fish - appear to be less likely to become depressed, say researchers at the University of Navarra in Spain.
The researchers studied 10,094 healthy Spanish men and women who completed a questionnaire between 1999 and 2005 regarding their dietary habits and how frequently they consumed various foods. They then calculated how closely the participants followed a Mediterranean diet, based upon nine components: high ratio of monounsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids; moderate alcohol intake; moderate dairy intake; low meat intake; and, high intake of legumes, fruits, nuts, cereals, vegetables and fish.
During the followup period, the researchers found that those who most closely followed a Mediterranean diet had a 30% reduction in their risk of depression, compared to those who did not follow this dietary pattern as closely.
How this type of diet could help depression is not entirely understood, but the researchers speculate that it may be that the combination of nutrients found in this type of diet work together to provide protection from depression. A Mediterranean diet is rich in omega-three fatty acids from fish, other unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants from olive oil and nuts, flavonoids and other phytochemicals from fruit and plant foods and folates and B vitamins from whole grains, which are all nutrients which have been associated with lowered depression risk.
The study appears in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
