The evidence that the right diet can prevent or remedy depression is weak. This is shown in a study by Leiden University, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.
There has been a cliché for years that a healthy diet would help treat depression. However, there was little scientific evidence for this. Employees of the Faculty of Psychology at the university in Leiden, Netherlands, set to work with the current state of science to give us an overview.
50 studies
A total of 50 scientific articles were examined. A distinction was made between literature reviews and meta-analyzes. In a literature review, the author himself selects the studies and articles he includes in the review. A meta-analysis is even more rigorously protocolized and is a statistical summary of all existing research.
As it turned out, a third of the literature reviews came to a strong conclusion about the link between diet and depression, but not one of the meta-analyzes found such a strong link.
“We also did our own meta-analysis,” the Dutch state in their study. “If you take all the experimental evidence together, there is no strong link between diet and depression prevention, or that diet can help treat it.”
“The literature reviews are therefore often too positive about their findings. “And those conclusions do find their way to the public and to practitioners.”
“Used less resources”
The researchers have a number of explanations for this discovery. “We saw that literature reviews included an average of 45 percent fewer studies as a source than meta-analyzes. In addition, an imbalance can easily creep into the selection of sources when an author selects them himself. ”
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