Perhaps it’s not the winter blues getting you down – but the type of fat you eat.

The six year European study followed more than 12,000 people and discovered those who ate more olive oil and less butter and man made fats were more likely to have better mental health.

At the beginning of the study, none of the participants had been diagnosed with depression but by the end, 657 of them were diagnosed with the illness.

Head Almudena Sanchez-Villegas, PhD, told WeBMD…

“The participants with an olive oil consumption higher than 20 grams a day (about 0.7 ounces) had a 30% lower risk of depression than those without consumption or with a very low consumption of olive oil.

The trans-fat intake in the participants was fairly low, Sanchez-Villegas says. Those in the highest intake group took in about 1.5 grams daily, and it was in that group the researchers found the 48% increased risk of depression.

Consumption of trans-fats in Europe represents 0.4 percent of the “total energy ingested.” However, in the U.S., this percentage is six times that amount, registering in at roughly 2.5 percent of total energy ingested.

Those who consumed healthy oils like olive oil and fish oils had a “lower risk of suffering depression,” according to the study.

The study also suggested that cardiovascular disease and depression “may share some common nutritional determinants related to subtypes of fat intake.” Researchers say that lack of healthy oil consumption and excessive consumption of unhealthy oils continues to increase rates of both depression and cardiovascular disease around the world.

Photo: Thanks to Klynsis on Flickr.

Find out more

Read:

Our Food File – Fat Buster: Understanding different fats.

The full study from the University of Las Palms de Gran Canaria.

Huffington Post and ABC on the study.

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