Combat depression with healthy lifestyle, not nutritional supplements: study

The rising awareness about depression has lead to a lot of good things. More and more people are coming out clean about suffering from it and getting the necessary treatment for it. You will find that it has also lead to more research studies about combating depression.
A recent study revealed that nutritional supplements are not beneficial keeping depression at bay. It instead suggests a regular lifestyle and good eating habits to combat any major depressive disorder.

For the study, over 1,000 participants who were overweight or had obesity and were diagnosed to have an elevated case of depression but who were not currently depressed, from four European countries -the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain, took part in the study.

Participants were randomized to either take nutritional supplements containing folic acid, vitamin D, zinc, selenium or to a pill placebo, and half of the participants also received a behavioural lifestyle intervention intended to change dietary behaviours and patterns."

Behavioural therapy to encourage a healthy dietary behaviour and improve diet was not effective at preventing depression overall, there was some evidence during the research that it prevented depressive episodes in those participants who attended a recommended number of sessions. This may suggest the food behavioural therapy only works if the participants get sufficient exposure and are able to sufficiently improve their diet and dietary behaviour.