Research

Mixed

Higher adherence to the PURE diet score is significantly associated with lower odds of depression and anxiety in adults at high cardiovascular risk, with the association being statistically significant in women but not in men.

Focus on adding fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, fish, and whole-fat dairy to your daily diet. This pattern, known as the PURE diet, is linked to lower risks of depression and anxiety, especially in women. You do not need to strictly eliminate animal products or dairy to see benefits; the key is overall dietary quality and nutrient density rather than extreme restriction.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
In the overall population, higher PURE diet scores were significantly associated with lower odds of both depression and anxiety after adjustment for potential confounders... In sex-stratified analyzes, these inverse associations were significant among women... but not among men
Noushin Mohammadifard et al. · Health Science Reports · 2025

Why this rating

Cross-sectional design prevents causal inference; results are adjusted but subject to residual confounding and recall bias.

Source

Association Between PURE Diet Score and Mental Disorders in Patients At‐Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: Findings From the Iran Premature Coronary Artery Disease (IPAD) Study, a Multicenter Cross‐Sectional Study

Noushin Mohammadifard et al. · Health Science Reports · 2025

DOI 10.1002/hsr2.71540

cross_sectional · n=1120
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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