If you want to maintain a positive mental attitude, take a spoonful of cod liver oil every day. Researchers have discovered that it can reduce the risk of depression by as much as 30 per cent.
The oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which also have been found to improve learning abilities in children, and reduces the risk of stroke, heart disease and cancer.
Its positive effects on depression were discovered when a research team in Norway reviewed the health profiles of 21,835 people aged between 40 and 49, and 70 and 74, over a two-year period.
After taking into account other factors that could also impact on depression, the researchers found that depressive symptoms among people who took cod liver oil every day was 2.5 per cent, compared to 3.8 per cent among the rest of the population.
These percentages improved the longer a person took the oil, and especially if he or she took oil every day for more than a year.
(Source: Journal of Affective Disorders, 2007; 101: 245-9).