Get a Mood Lift With Fish

By April Clarkson, June 13th, 2013 | Health | 0 Comments

Feeling blue? Perhaps a plate of fish is just what the doctor ordered.

A study from Finland suggests eating fish may help reduce the risk of depression, particularly for women. Researchers from University of Kuopio in Finland studied 3,204 randomly selected adults, asking them about their fish consumption and their moods.

Those who ate fish less than once a week showed a 31 percent higher risk of mild to severe depression than people who ate fish more often. Among women, signs of depression appeared in more than one-third of the group who reported eating fish less than once a week, while the depression rate was 27 percent among women who ate more fish. For men, the difference was 30 percent vs. 28.5 percent.

This isn’t the first study to connect creatures of the sea to mental health. Previous research has suggested omega 3 fatty acids, found abundantly in fish, can reduce depression. Other studies also have found countries with high fish consumption have lower rates of depression.