We know that people who are depressed don’t eat as well as people who don’t have depression. So not surprising to anyone, diet and what we eat remain linked to depression. But despite new research, we still don’t know which way the relationship goes — does diet cause depression, or do people with a certain lifestyle or with depression eat poor diets?
They split the participants into two types of diet - those who ate a diet largely based on whole foods, which includes lots of fruit, vegetables and fish, and those who ate a mainly processed food diet, such as sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products.
After accounting for factors such as gender, age, education, physical activity, smoking habits and chronic diseases, they found a significant difference in future depression risk with the different diets.
Those who ate the most whole foods had a 26% lower risk of future depression than those who at the least whole foods.
By contrast people with a diet high in processed food had a 58% higher risk of depression than those who ate very few processed foods.
There are three reasonable explanations for this finding. The one the researchers believe is that what you eat can directly impact your mood over the long run. Another explanation is that people who are more prone to depression live a kind of lifestyle where eating processed food is a normal part of it (think of a person who is harried and stressed out and doesn’t know how to manage stressors in their life very well). “Physical activity” and education don’t really rule out the possibility of the second explanation.
And the third explanation is that people with depression eat less healthily. That also seems like a reasonable explanation for this finding. The news article doesn’t say whether they assessed depression at the onset of the study (which seems like a pretty reasonable thing to have done).
Honestly, I’m not sure eating more healthy is going to directly impact your mood. It will, however, impact your overall general health, which does have an impact on your mood. So even if it’s not a direct relationship, it’s something to think about next time you find yourself stopping into McDonald’s for the 5th time this month (or week!).
Read the full article: Depression link to processed food
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Links to This Article
Depression, Lifestyle and Processed Food | Hacker Journals (11/2/2009)
Eat Healthy, Whole Foods or Risk Depression | The Optimum Function Blog (11/3/2009)
12 Comments to
“Depression, Lifestyle and Processed Food”
This is interesting! As someone who suffers from depression i truly think there is a link between sugar and depression. i’ve found that a few days after eating sugar, that i tend to suffer depressive episodes. i’ve tracked it and try to stay away from it (sugar) as much as i can. Thanks for the info!
Rob
And the fourth explanation is that people who tend to eat less processed food (as opposed to fast food eaters) are the people who tend not to eat in their cars, on the go, or on the job, and thus have stronger social relationships (illustrated by sitting down with friendds/family to an actual slow-cooked dinner!), which have also been shown to be inversely correlated with depression.
That is, the higher the degree of social relationship, the lower the incidence of depression.
It’s not necessarily the food. It’s who’s doing the eating.
Another explanation is that eating well is work.
You need to shop frequently, and prepare meals, and that is the last thing I would feel like doing when I am depressed.
On the other hand, if I had a cook and was able to order, I would certainly chose healthy food over junk. Junk is equal to not having to deal with food? And so is not eating at all.
More sugar, though? Very likely!
Sugar can really be used like a drug, and therefore it also causes you to ‘come down’ from it.
Actually, the notion of a “sugar high” is an urban myth. Well, maybe not just urban!
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2747/does-giving-sweets-to-kids-produce-a-sugar-rush
And from Duke University:
http://news.duke.edu/2002/02/mm_debunkingthe.html
p.s. Katrin? I saw an interesting recent comment to your post about David Schnarch at http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/09/14/why-women-and-men-fake-orgasm/ I don’t know if you’ve read it. It’s the last one there.
Interesting information. I heard of sugar effecting depression, but not processed food.
Thanks, TBG, I had not seen that, and am glad I did. What do I know, anyway? (smile)
That was a good comment.
I will look at your links, too. Katrin
Here’s a physiological link that I try and impress upon my students and patients high glycemic diets (those high in sugar) can lead to a “insulin overload” which causes our blood sugar to drop too rapidly. This in turn, may cause us to utilize cortisol to bring our blood sugar levels back to a homeostatic range (normal). Excess cortisol does a bunch of things to our endocrine physiology including interrupting the communication necessary to maintain our entire endocrine system (the communication between the hypnothalamus and pituitary gland).
Clinically, I see improper blood sugar regulation preceding depression and hormonal/neurotransmitter problems. At my Portland, OR, chiropractic and nutrition clinic (http://OptFunction.com), I often start with encouraging a diet of whole foods, not too much, mostly vegetables (to paraphrase a statement by Michael Pollan in “In Defense of Food”: http://tinyurl.com/ygg32jv).
There is also some preliminary evidence to suggest that diets higher in natural sources of lithium — found naturally in varying concentrations in drinking water, fruits and vegetables — may be somewhat protective against depression.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2629959
Schrauzer GN, de Vroey E. Effects of nutritional lithium supplementation on mood: A placebo-controlled study with former drug users. Biol Trace Elem Res 40(1):89-101, 1994
Fierro AA. Natural low dose lithium supplementation in manic-depressive disease. Nutr Perspectives January, 1988:10-11
Some of these studies involve rats, of course. But it’s an intriguing idea, and worth exploring further.
There is also evidence that rates of hospitalization for psychosis and a number of other mental illnesses are higher in regions, such as parts of Texas, where there is a lower-than-usual level of lithium in tap water.
Whoops — In above post, I meant to say, “grains and vegetables.” The only fruit I’m aware of that contains significant lithium is lemons. Eggs are also a good source.
韓国では、刺身をわさびじょうゆのほか、チョコチュジャンといわれる酢味噌につけて食べたり、特製だれとともに葉野菜で巻いて食べたりします。このお店でも、香ばしいオリジナルの特製だれが刺身とともに出され、本場韓国の食べ方で刺身が味わえます。
So what your saying is I should pass up those Chicago Hot Dogs?!?
I find THAT a rather depressing thought!
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 2 Nov 2009
