http://www.care2.com/greenliving/afraid-of-winter-depression-go-mediterranean.html
Afraid of Winter Depression? Go Mediterranean
By Zachary Shahan, Green Options
The Mediterranean diet is not only good for its more well-known reasons — protecting against heart disease and cancer. According to a new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the Mediterranean diet, rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, nuts, and fish, may decrease risk of depression.
Spanish researchers reported that 30 percent of patients who followed the Mediterranean diet (high in monounsaturated fats such as olive oil and low in saturated fats from meat and dairy products; including moderate intake of alcohol, and high intake of legumes, fruits, veggies, nuts, and grains) were at a lower risk of mental illnesses compared to populations who did not adhere to such a diet. It also showed that the main followers of the Mediterranean diet are males, ex-smokers, married people, and elderly individuals.
“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,” the researchers report. To explain how exactly the Mediterranean style of eating links to protection against depression, however, more studies have to be performed.
The researchers do think it is not individual components on their own but the whole diet combined that is important for protecting against depression. Almudena Sanchez-Villegas, the lead researcher of the new study, says:
The role of the overall dietary pattern may be more important than the effect of single components. It is plausible that the synergistic combination of a sufficient provision of omega-three fatty acids together with other natural unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants from olive oil and nuts, flavonoids and other phytochemicals from fruit and other plant foods and large amounts of natural folates and other B vitamins in the overall Mediterranean dietary pattern may exert a fair degree of protection against depression.
These optimistic findings can lighten up a society touched heavily more and more by depression.
The Mediterranean diet is well known for helping to reduce a person’s weight, improve mental sharpness and reduce the cholesterol, which can harden the arteries. Moreover, it is becoming a popular green style of eating due to the fact that its followers consume little amount of meat (which increase carbon emissions). Here is one more reason to try out the Mediterranean.
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add your comment »i grew up in an italian household -- my adopted father was sicilian -- so we ate the mediterranean diet every time we went to my aunt's -- which was several weekends a month for YEARS, and then my adopted mom and i lived with my aunt and uncle for a whole year when my dad was stationed in korea.
all in all, i realize how fortunate i was to have that diet through my childhood and into mid-adulthood.
several years ago i realized how much i missed all the antipasto and olive oil and once again began incorporating them into my daily life.
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Sorry, to burst your bubbles, I eat all these stuff every day. Study was prompted by earlier research that showed the Mediterranean Diet helped reduce the risk for depression.
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Heh, heh! I reckon it's the red wine. :)
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It already does not look good in the produce section. I tend to go to the frozen section this time of year.
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"It also showed that the main followers of the Mediterranean diet are males, ex-smokers, married people, and elderly individuals."
This made me chuckle--as in the Mediterranean, there are a lot of smokers, and ex-smokers, as well as married people, elderly individuals, and males.
That said, don't discount the obvious--if you're in the Mediterranean, you have more sun and are outdoors more, hence would be less likely to suffer from SAD. While the diet itself is great, it's not necessarily cause-effect (eat the way of those in a sunny, salubrious climate and you'll be as happy and healthy as them while bundled up and house bound in the frigid weather of the northeast!).
In the winter, a hearty bowl of soup makes me happy during the winter, as do snowball fights and playing with our dog (or watching the cat attack the wall). I would like to believe that diet has something to do with it, but am wary of a lot of claims.
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