Following a healthy diet reduces the risk of suffering from symptoms of depression, according to a study

Eating well and healthily can have a protective effect against depression, according to a study led by the Hospital del Mar Research Institute. The study followed people from the Girona Heart Registry to evaluate the impact of four types of healthy diets on the risk of suffering symptoms or receiving a diagnosis of depression. The study involved researchers from the CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition and the CIBER of Cardiovascular Diseases and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). The diets followed were the Mediterranean, another to prevent hypertension, a third vegetarian and a final one recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

All these diets agree on certain food groups, such as fruit, vegetables and legumes and the limitation of red and processed meat intake, but there are differences in relation to the weight of fish, dairy products, or sugar in their food intake recommendations.

More than 3,000 people have been taken into account, on whom information was available about their diet and they were followed for six years. At the end of the period, they were subjected to a questionnaire to determine if they presented symptoms of depression. 6% (184) had them and less than 2% suffered from severe depression.

The data from the study show that better adherence to any of the diets analyzed is a protective factor against depression. The Mediterranean diet is the one that obtains the best records. Thus, increasing adherence to the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of suffering symptoms of depression by 16%. The researchers point out that it is the equivalent of going from not complying with one of the diet recommendations to incorporating it. This is a factor independent of others such as lifestyle, body weight, health or sociodemographic level of the participants.

On the other hand, a second analysis of the data with nearly 5,000 people, from the Data Analytics Program for Health Research and Innovation (PADRIS) of the Agency for Health Quality and Evaluation of Catalonia (AQuAS), allowed a direct association between diet and diagnosis of depression, identifying 5.45% of new cases in a twelve-year follow-up. In this case, the risk was 19% lower if the healthy diet proposed by the WHO was taken into account.

The researcher at the Hospital del Mar and resident physician at the center's Preventive Medicine and Public Health Teaching Unit, Gabriela Lugon, stated that modifying the diet will not end depression but added that "it can play an important role and be an intervention factor, together with others".

With these results, the authors of the study ask mental health professionals to take this factor into account when addressing the situation of people with a diagnosis of depression. Specifically, they point to the need for public policies that facilitate access to a healthy and balanced diet for the entire population. At the same time, they ask that the fact of suffering from a mental disorder not be attributed to the patient's behavior to avoid stigmatizing them.