he most effective diet for mental health appears to be what is called the Mediterranean diet- this is a diet high in vegetables, fruit, legumes, beans, nuts, fish, unsaturated fats like olive oil, and it’s low in processed foods, red meat, and highly processed grains. There have been a lot of studies on this type of diet, an overview of 41 studies involving over 1.5 million health adults found that a diet low in sugar, saturated fat and processed foods can reduce the risk of depression by 24%. Decreasing the inflammatory index was found to decrease inflammation in other studies. And people who were very careful to closely follow the mediterranean diet decreased their risk of developing depression by 33%. A handful of studies show that the Mediterranean Diet can be even helpful for people with bipolar or schizoaffective disorders.