Dietary flavonoid intake and risk of incident depression in midlife and older women.

Habitual intake of flavonoid-rich foods, such as citrus fruits, may lower the odds of suffering from depression in middle-aged and older women.

This study investigated the correlation between the consumption of dietary flavonoids and the likelihood of suffering from depression in women. Using validated food frequency questionnaires, researchers collated and analyzed data on the dietary flavonoid intake of 82,643 women between the ages of 36-80 years and with no previous history of depression.

The team of researchers observed that regular intake of foods rich in flavonols, flavonones, flavones, and proanthocyanins decreased the risk of developing depression. On the other hand, increased consumption of diets high in flavan-3-ols was found to have no significant effect on depression risk in this study. The findings of this study reveal that high dietary ingestion of favonoid rich foods may protect middle-aged and older women against depression.