Olive Oil, Good Fats and Your Mood
The fats in olive oil, fish and nuts don’t just feed your body — a growing body of research links them to the brain and mood. Here is the careful version of a hopeful story.
The brain is a remarkably fatty organ, and the kinds of fat in your diet appear to matter for how it works. Studies of the Mediterranean diet — built on olive oil, fish, nuts, vegetables and pulses — have associated it with lower rates of depression and better cognitive ageing.
What seems to help
The monounsaturated fat and polyphenols in olive oil, the omega-3s in oily fish and walnuts, and a general pattern of whole, unprocessed food. It is the pattern, not any single magic spoonful, that the evidence supports.
Food is not a treatment for depression, and no one should swap care for a salad. But “eat more like the Mediterranean” is rare advice in that it is good for your heart, your waistline and, it seems, your head — with no downside but flavour. A bottle of honest extra virgin is a fine place to start.