There’s good news and bad news, and in the time-honoured way, we’ll start with the bad. The Food Standards Agency has just published findings that 65% of chickens produced here and sold in British supermarkets have campylobacter. Campylobacter is the most common food bacterium, and is responsible for 55,000 cases of food poisoning each year.

So, how can there be any good news?

First, campylobacter is easily killed by proper cooking, and you can prevent it spreading by careful handling of raw chicken – storing raw and cooked food separately, washing knives and cutting boards and, of course, your hands.

Secondly, Spanish researchers at the University of Las Palomas de Gran Canaria and Clinic of the University of Navarra, Pamplona, have conducted a huge study, which rates 10,000 subjects on nine components, indicating their degree of adherence to the “Mediterranean diet”. This is the diet most people reading this probably already eat: a diet rich in olive oil, fruits, nuts, vegetables, whole grains and fish.  Their surprising (but welcome) conclusion after four years of study: the subjects who satisfied more of the criteria for eating such a diet not only enjoyed better physical health – improved blood vessel function, ability to fight inflammation, reduced risk of coronary disease and better repair of oxygen-related cell damage – they also were less at risk from suffering depression. In fact, those who ate a diet that most closely approximated the healthy Mediterranean diet were at 30 per cent lower risk of developing clinical depression.

So if you’ve got a cherished recipe for cooking your chicken, say Poulet à la provençale (with tomatoes, onions, garlic and above all, olive oil), or simply grilled with herbs and olive oil, you will not only protect yourself and your family and guests from campylobacter – you’ll be warding off depression at the same time.

Now that’s good news! Of course it’s hardly surprising to discover that eating good food is good for you – but it’s always agreeable when scientists confirm what our mothers have always told us.