Mediterranean Diet for Mental Health

It’s clear that the Mediterranean diet is good for your heart and your waistline. Researchers now suggest that it may also help reduce the risk of depression. According to a report in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, there’s a lower prevalence of mental disorders among residents of Mediterranean countries than of northern Europeans, perhaps as a result of the abundant use of olive oil in the Mediterranean diet.

Researchers studying more than 10,000 Spanish adults explored their adherence to the Mediterranean diet based on nine components, including “a high ration of monounsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids, moderate intake of alcohol and dairy products, low intake of meat, and high intake of legumes, fruit and nuts, cereals, vegetables and fish.”  After 4.4 years of follow-up, those with the greatest adherence had a more than 30% reduction in the risk of depression than did those who did not closely follow the diet. Researchers can’t yet say whether the results are due to the omega-3 fatty acids and other benefits of olive oil and nuts but suggest that the benefits are likely to be linked to the combination of that are abundant in the Mediterranean.