The analysis, published in the British journal of Nutrition, considers data from 185 research papers to assess whether there was sufficient data available to back up recent suggestions that omega-3s has a role to play in aiding weight loss and preventing some of the suggested damaging effects of a high-fat diet.

A team of scientists from Yale University in the U.S and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, recently said junk food diets could be partly to blame for autoimmune disease.

Evidence also suggests that the trans-fats and saturated fats in some junk foods increase the risk of depression. Spanish researchers who previously followed the diet and lifestyle of more than 12,000 men and women for six years found that participants with an elevated consumption of trans-fats found in commercially produced baked goods and fast foods had up to a 48 percent increase in the risk of depression compared to participants who didn’t eat these foods.

Researchers found that omega-3 fatty acids, when fed to piglets, had the same effect on the brain as the antidepressant Prozac: They raised levels of a critical neurotransmitter, serotonin.

The UK-based research team noted that research performed in the last decade has suggested that high-fat diets could disrupt neurogenesis (a process that generates new nerve cells) – but a diet rich in omega-3s has been suggested to prevent these negative effects by stimulating the area of the brain that control feeding, learning and memory.

However the research team, led by Dr Lucy Pickavance from the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease at the University of Liverpool, found that omega-3 does not have the suggested direct impact on the these brain processes, but is likely to play a significant role in stalling refined sugars and saturated fats’ (from junk food) in their ability to inhibit the brain’s control on the body’s intake of food.

“Fish oils don’t appear to have a direct impact on weight loss, but they may take the brakes off the detrimental effects of some of the processes triggered in the brain by high-fat diets,” said Pickavance.

“They seem to mimic the effects of calorie restrictive diets and including more oily fish or fish oil supplements in our diets could certainly be a positive step forward for those wanting to improve their general health.”

April McCarthy is a community journalist playing an active role reporting and analyzing world events to advance our health and eco-friendly initiatives.