There’s a recent article on the bbc website on the ‘Mediterranean diet’, and depression. A recent study found evidence that those who are on a Mediterranean diet are 30% less likely to experience depression than those not on such a diet. The authors of the study state that more research is needed to confirm the results, but in the meantime this result reminds the importance of eating well. If you don’t eat well, your body isn’t going to be as healthy, and if your body isn’t healthy, it’s difficult to be mentally healthy. So with new years is looming, maybe it’s a good time to consider making a resolution to have a healthier diet?
If you’re looking at changing your diet, there are a number of approaches. The general rules are usually pretty well known; It’s important to get your fruit and vegetables (five plus a day!), and it’s usually a good idea to make sure we’re not eating too many calories, especially from animal fats (like KFC) or high glycemic index carbs (like white bread) – unless you’re an athlete, in which case you can eat a little more. It’s also nice to get some fish in your diet, as fish are a good source of omega-3s, and a good source of protein (especially for people who are uncomfortable eating other meats).
Now, looking the Mediterranean diet in particular, it emphasizes a couple of things:
- High consumption of lots unsaturated fats (generally but not always plant fats), especially olive oil. This is in contrast to saturated (generally animal) fats.
- High consumption of fruits and nuts, cereals, vegetables and fish
- Medium consumption of alcohol (e.g. red wine) and dairy products. Personally, I’d exercise some caution with the alcohol, as a high consumption of alcohol is not a good thing for you physically or mentally – Additionally, alcohol and anti-depressants are a bad combination, so if you’re on antidepressants, I’d be very cautious consuming any alcohol.
- Low consumption of meat
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June 7, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Nathan
Excellent point of clarification, when we see a correlation like this, we can’t conclude that the diet caused depression to get better. One would need some sort of experiment where people were assigned to different diets, and look at how people did after consuming various diets. I’m not aware of such a study (- if anyone does, let me know!), so in the meantime we’re left to deal with correlational research like the above, and are left to draw our own conclusions.
My own thought is that even if a healthy lifestyle (including healthy eating, exercise and the like) doesn’t help mental health, I’d be really surprised if it was harmful to mental health, and it’s going to have a number of other health benefits. So I try to eat healthy when I can.
May 27, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Geoffrey
this was a cohort study so proof it isn’t proof of causation. Just because those that stuck to a Mediterranean diet doesn’t mean the diet caused less depression. It says that those who stuck to the diet were more likely to be male (males are less likely to be depressed), and were more physically active ( higher physical activity is definitely anti-depressive). so it may have nothing to do with the diet. Furthermore happier people tend to look after themselves better than depressed people including eating better. so the causal relationship might be the other way round. the only way we will ever know is by good quality clinical trials.