People who follow the same dietary regime that's recommended to avoid stroke also experience lower rates of depression, according to a new study.

The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet avoids red meat as well as saturated fats and sugar, and sticks to healthy vegetables and fruit with whole grains.  The research says people who switched to the DASH plan were 11 percent less likely to be suffering depression.  Previous studies have established DASH's health benefits such as lowering high blood pressure and bad cholesterol (LDL), along with lowering body weight.

"Depression is common in older adults and more frequent in people with memory problems, vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, or people who have had a stroke," said study author Dr. Laurel Cherian of Chicago's Rush University Medical Center.  "Making a lifestyle change such as changing your diet is often preferred over taking medications, so we wanted to see if diet could be an effective way to reduce the risk of depression."

And while people in the study who followed the typical Western diet of lots of meats and sugar were more likely to develop depression, the researchers caution that a cause and a effect has not been established.

"Future studies are now needed to confirm these results and to determine the best nutritional components of the DASH diet to prevent depression later in life and to best help people keep their brains healthy," said Dr. Cherian.

The study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 70th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles in April.