Eating well makes you happy, or in any case avoids being unhappy. This is the result of a new study according to which a Mediterranean diet leads to a 33% decrease in the risk of depression.
Researchers from Inserm and the University of Montpellier have highlighted the role of food in brain diseases in a study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. According to them, adopting a Mediterranean diet, that is to say a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, fish and grains, leads to a reduced risk of depression.
The researchers conducted their study using data from 36,556 adults. They measured an individual’s adherence to dietary recommendations and the occurrence of depressive disorders, as a result of which they found that adopting a Mediterranean diet was associated with a 33% decrease in risk. of depression. Significant data when we know that depression affects around 300 million people around the world and costs European medical systems a fortune.
Eating poorly increases the risk of depression
Conversely, researchers have shown that a pro-inflammatory diet (that is to say, rich in saturated fatty acids, sugar, and refined products) increases the risk of depression. The chronic inflammation potentially induced by this type of diet could be directly involved in the onset of depression. According to Tasnime Akbaraly, Inserm researcher in charge of the study: “These results support the hypothesis that avoiding pro-inflammatory foods (in favor of an anti-inflammatory diet) helps prevent depressive symptoms and depression”.
These results confirm the positive influence of a diet based on vegetables, fruits and whole grains on depression. Other studies had already shown that a fatty diet could increase the risk of depression by causing inflammation of our intestines, then general inflammation of the body and the brain. For Tasnime Akbaraly: “The results of our study show the importance of our eating habits in the occurrence of depressive disorders and encourage the generalization of nutritional advice during medical consultations”.
Depression is a real brain disease, very common whatever the society and whatever the times. It corresponds to a disorder of the neurological functioning of the brain and manifests itself as a “mood disorder” with sad ideas, lack of pleasure, loss of taste, energy, desire, motivation, which disrupt daily life. Many factors, psychological, biological and environmental, are involved in its occurrence.
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