MEDITERRANEAN DIET CUTS DEPRESSION

The monounsaturated fatty acids found in olive oil - which is used abundantly in Mediterranean cooking - is thought to lower the rates of severe depressive symptoms.

Researchers from the University of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria monitored the diets and moods of 10,000 volunteers for six years, getting each to write down what they consumed on a daily basis.

The data was used to work out how much people adhered to eating foods from the nine facets of the diet, which include the fatty acids, fruits, vegetables, nuts, cereals, fish and low meat consumption.

After just over four years the scientists found 480 new cases of depression in 156 men and 324 women but those following the Mediterranean diet were 30% less likely to be struck by the black dog than others.

Even after the figures were adjusted to take other mental health affecting variables into account such as being married the link remained.

Reporting their findings in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, the scientists wrote: “The specific mechanisms by which a better adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern could help to prevent the occurrence of depression are not well known.

“However, the role of the overall dietary pattern may be more important than the effect of single components."