Almudena Sánchez-Villegas and Miguel Ángel Martínez-González. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Researchers from the universities of Navarra and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have shown that the intake of trans fats and saturated fats increases the risk of suffering depression and that olive oil, on the other hand, protects against this ailment.

per diem expensesThis has been verified after studying for six years 12,059 volunteers from project SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra), who were analyzed at the beginning, during the course and at the end of the study project, their lifestyle and the diseases they suffered at the beginning, during and at the end of the study. This confirmed that although no volunteers were suffering from depression at the start of the study, 657 new cases had been detected by the end of the study.

Of all of them, participants with a high consumption of trans fats subject -fats present artificially in industrial pastries and fast food, and naturally in some full-fat dairy products- "presented an increased risk of depression of up to 48% when compared to participants who did not consume them," says Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, first author of work.

The study also found a dose-response relationship, "so that the more trans fats were consumed, the greater the harmful effect they caused in the volunteers," says the expert.

On the other hand, the team, led by Miguel Ángel Martínez-González, Full Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Navarra, also analyzed the influence of polyunsaturated fats -abundant in fish and vegetable oils- and olive oil on the presence of the disease: "In fact, we discovered that this subject of healthier fats, together with olive oil, are associated with a reduced risk of suffering depression", emphasizes the researcher, director of the project SUN.

150 million people in the world are depressed . million depressed people in the world
In this sense, the results of the study corroborate the thesis higher incidence of the disease in northern European countries compared to southern countries, where a patron saint of per diem expenses Mediterranean prevails. However, experts warn that in recent years the incidence of the disease has increased, reaching 150 million people affected in the world, where it is already the main cause of loss of years of life in countries with a high per capita income average.

This is due, according to Almudena Sánchez Villegas, "to a radical change in the sources of fats consumed in Western diets, where we have substituted some types of beneficial fats - polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats from nuts, vegetable and olive oils and fish - for saturated and trans fats - from meats, butter, industrial pastries or fast food".

In addition, the research, published in the medical journal PLoS ONE, was conducted in a population with an intake leave of subject trans fats, as they accounted for only 0.4% of the total energy intake of the volunteers. "Despite this, we observed an increase in the risk of suffering depression of close to 50%. Hence," concludes Miguel A. Martínez-González, "the importance of taking this into account, especially in countries such as the USA, where the percentage of energy from these foods is around 2.5%.

Finally, the analysis, led by the University of Navarra and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, suggests that both depression and cardiovascular disease are similarly influenced by per diem expenses and share a similar mechanism of origin. This is supported by numerous programs of study that point to the harmful effect of trans fats and saturated fats on cardiovascular risk.