Study: Depression’s Link To Processed Food
This may strike some readers as “Duh,” but British and French researchers report in this month’s British Journal of Psychiatry that a long-term study of diets and depression in some 3,500 Brits found more depression in those who ate a diet high in processed foods. Those who ate a diet stronger in “whole” foods–fruits, veggies, fish–saw a 26 percent less chance of depression than did those who ate the most processed foods (meats, cheeses, desserts) and fried foods. Conversely, the high-processed foods group had a 58 percent higher risk of depression than did the whole foods group. (A BBC account of the study is here.)
Coming on the heels of last month’s study showing depression-protecting effects of the Mediterranean diet, this study is further evidence of the well-known link between food and mood. Of course, it’s not going to be real easy for people in the UK to follow a Mediterranean diet nor in most of the US, so this study is quite real world in that sense. It’s also a big argument in favor of moderation: there’s a great middle group in this study who had little depression yet did eat some of the whole foods and some of the processed foods. That said, I’m sure some would love to make an ideological argument about corporations and processed foods and a conspiracy of depression-for-profit, when really what you eat boils down to individuals eating what they already know is good for them. If they don’t buy Cheez Whiz and the like (or buy much less of it), then companies won’t bother making it.
The study also confirms what I’ve long said on this site: if you don’t eat reasonably well and reasonably often, then you aren’t even giving yourself a fighting chance with depression. I feel the same way about exercise and socialization. Neither are cures per se, but without them, you can go down a rat hole of mood.
One weakness of the study (I haven’t seen the full version) and the reportage on it is that I cannot tell how depressed people were at baseline and at the study’s conclusion. My hunch is that the findings are probably most applicable to mild-to-moderate depression and that diet would have less of an effect, especially short-term, in severe, chronic depression.
At least that’s the opinion of this light-on-processed-foods, heavier-on-fruits-than-veggies eater.
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