Mediterranean diet Low depression

The Mediterranean diet is a diet involving eating lots of fruits and vegetables, beans and nuts, healthy grains, fish, olive oil, small amounts of meat and dairy, and red wine. In Sweden, a study which started in 1992 and last more than 20 years. shows that a higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet at middle age was associated with a lower risk of depression later in life among Swedish women.

Later, the researchers at the University of Technology Sydney observed seventy-two men aged 18-25 over 12 weeks.

Some were put on the Mediterranean diet and the control group was given befriending therapy, in which they were provided social support. Assessments were taken at the start of the study and after six and 12 weeks.

The young men on the Mediterranean diet measured “significantly higher” on the Beck Depression Inventory Scale and a quality-of-life measurement: They were less depressed than the control group. Jessica Bayes, the lead researcher said the aim for the Mediterranean group was to eat more fresh foods and less fast food, sugar, and processed meats.

“There are lots of reasons why scientifically we think food affects mood. For example, around 90 percent of serotonin, a chemical that helps us feel happy, is made in our gut by our gut microbes. There is emerging evidence that these microbes can communicate to the brain via the vagus nerve, in what is called the gut-brain axis,” she said.

“To have beneficial microbes, we need to feed them fibre, which is found in legumes, fruits and vegetables.”

The Mediterranean diet is known to have many benefits, such as lowering a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and other conditions.

Source: Mediterranean diet and depression: a population-based cohort study (Weiyao Yin)

The effect of a Mediterranean diet on the symptoms of depression in young males (the “AMMEND” study): A Randomized Control Trial (Jessica Bayes)