Take your Meds: benefits of the Mediterranean diet

The famous Mediterranean diet makes you happy as well as healthy.

Happy? Confident? Dealing with stuff? It may be the psychotherapy, or the drugs. Or both. But it might just be the capsicums, olive oil, pine nuts, whole grains, fish, zucchini and eggplant you’ve been eating by the pallet for the past 10 years. And the user-friendly red you’ve enjoyed too.

No, I’m not making light of depression. That’s serious stuff. But more evidence has emerged that for sufferers, supplementing their daily medication with an anchovy on toast and a couple of green olives may not be such a dumb idea.

The latest contribution to the ongoing discussion “Does the Mediterranean diet help with depression?” is an Australian study, by Deakin University’s Food & Mood Centre, that adds weight to the already proven benefits of the Med diet: improved cardiovascular health, reduced risk of diabetes and increased longevity.

“We already know that diet has a very potent impact on the biological aspects of our body that affect depression risks,” Professor Felice Jacka told the ABC. “The immune system, brain plasticity and gut microbiota seem to be central not just to our physical health but also our mental health. And diet, of course, is the main factor that affects the gut microbiota.”

Jacka emphasises the study was not based on a traditional Med diet; it included red meat and dairy, which are part of the Australian Dietary Guidelines. “So the emphasis should be on a healthy diet, not a Med diet per se,” she says.

Not surprisingly, the subjects of the study who showed the most positive response to a Mediterranean-ish diet in terms of wellbeing were those who improved their nutrition the most, not those who had the worst diets to start with. They had cut out processed foods and a lot of sugar. A better diet, Jacka said, helped with their motivation to adhere to the new regimen.

The research follows a 10-year study published in 2015 by a Spanish academic, Dr Almudena Sanchez-Villegas, who concluded: “These diets are all associated with physical health benefits and now we find that they could have a positive effect on our mental health. The protective role is ascribed to the foods’ nutritional properties, where nuts, legumes, fruits and vegetables, all sources of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals, could reduce the risk of depression. Even a moderate adherence to these healthy dietary patterns was associated with an important reduction in the risk of developing depression.”

Vegetable tagine for breakfast, bouillabaisse for lunch and souvlakia with Greek salad for dinner every day is no guarantee of mental wellbeing, although it sounds pretty good to me.

An earlier study by Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center tracked about 400 adults in their 70s for three years. The brains of those who ate diets closest to the Mediterranean – ample servings of vegetables, beans, nuts, olive oil and whole grains, moderate servings of fish and dairy, low servings of red meat – experienced less shrinkage over the three-year period.

So. Depression sucks. Good nutrition is a foundation for dealing with life, but there’s a vicious nexus between motivation and consumption. Make sound choices if you possibly can.