Does a Healthy Diet Have a Protective Effect on the Development of Depression? – A Review Article
Hanna Ćwirko
Orcid profile, Angelika Szpulak
Orcid profile, Urszula Garlak
Orcid profile, Giuseppe Mirabella
Orcid profile and Karolina Mikołajczak
Orcid profile 
Published Online: Sep 20, 2025
Page range: 391 - 406
Received: Aug 20, 2024
Accepted: Sep 08, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jhsm-2024-0019
Keywords
© 2025 Hanna Ćwirko et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Background
Depressive disorder is one of the most common mental disorders all over the world experienced by 3.8% of the world’s population, including 5% of adults and 5.7% of adults over 60 years old. Depression can be characterized by various symptoms like depressed mode, loss of interest, weight loss or gain, feeling worthless, or excessive guilt. Studies show that depression risk factors may be lowered by following a healthy diet, like the Mediterranean diet, consumption of fish and vegetables, vitamin D3, probiotics, or antioxidants.
Objectives
The purpose of this paper was to summarize known factors with protective effect on the development of depression and possible intervention in daily habits of patients who are suffering from the disorder.
Material and Methods
The conclusions of the article were formulated by analysing the available literature mostly from 2019–2024 in PubMed and Google Scholar database. The articles were selected based on the following search criteria in various combinations: “depression”, “diet”, “antioxidants”, “gut microbiota”, “Mediterranean diet”, “omega -3”, “vitamin D”. 120 articles were considered, where 40 references were chosen and 80 rejected. The selection of articles was conducted according to the subject of the review paper and appropriate search criteria.
Results
In controlled studies, patients with diagnosed major depressive disorder were reported to have low levels of bacteria representing intestinal gut microbiota, vitamin D3, and omega -3 acids. Following the Mediterranean diet, full of vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, and olive oil as a main source of dietary fats, patients were reported to have reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. A correlation was shown between the imbalance of oxidative stress and the antioxidant defence and depressive disorders.
Conclusions
The findings suggest a strong connection between healthy lifestyle, dietary intervention and development of a depressive disorder.