Junk foods may increase your odds of depression....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 11-3-2009

Yesterday, AFP reported a study done in London on people in civil service jobs which found that the people who mostly ate processed & fatty foods such as fried foods, processed meat, high-fat dairy products and sweetened desserts were more likely to report being depressed than the people who instead ate lots of fresh vegetables, fruit and fish.

The story said that eating a diet heavy in processed food had a 58 percent higher risk of depression. And that the people who ate more whole foods such as fresh vegetables, fruit and fish had a 26 percent lower risk of depression.

Apparently the study suggests the researchers had some way of removing the effects of not smoking and of doing regular exercise and STILL found this effect.

The study was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

The article had several theories the researchers suggested for why eating the more health OK foods helped people escape being depressed.

They suggested that the high level of antioxidants in the fruits and vegetables could have had a role in creating this effect – noting that previous studies found higher antioxidant levels were associated with a lower risk of depression.

Secondly, eating lots of fish may protect against depression because it contains high levels of omega 3 oils which they said stimulate brain activity. (These oils, though the article didn’t say so, have definitely helped prevent or reverse depression.)

They also said the reduced risk of depression might be due to the combined effect of consuming beneficial nutrients from many types of food.

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I think they are likely correct on the three things they said helped make eating the more health beneficial foods protective against depression.

But they seem to have missed a couple of things.

The data reported seemed to show that the negative effect of eating the junkier foods was worse for increasing the risk of depression than eating the more health supporting foods was protective.

So, I think some guesses on why that was found are in order.

Here are mine.

Eating a lot of fatty meats and high fat dairy products and sweet desserts tends to cause heart disease and over time decreases circulation to the brain.

That same diet also tends to cause high blood sugar levels & type 2 diabetes, particularly when combined with no exercise. That tends to harm circulation to the brain also AND it can often produce mood swings and feeling tired and sluggish at times during the day. So, since that leads to quite literally not feeling quite well, it seems clear to me that would tend to cause depression.

My second point is different. When you find associations between two things it’s often the case that instead of one causing the other or being the only cause, some third factor is causing BOTH the effects.

I think that’s definitely likely in this case.

People who are less well paid or live in neighborhoods where people have less money than average tend to have more eating places and stores offering fatty meats and high fat dairy products and sweet desserts while people who are better paid or live in neighborhoods where people have more money than average are more likely to have a good selection of fruits, vegetables, and fish.

Such people are often less educated, feel in less control of their lives, are less optimistic, less informed about health, and less proactive. And people with those characteristics are well known to be more prone to depression.

As a result of these factors, such people both tend to eat more fatty meats and high fat dairy products and sweet desserts AND to be more likely to be depressed with those predisposing factors causing both the food choices and the depression.

Eating more vegetables, somewhat more whole fruit, and more wild caught fish not excessively high in mercury is likely to help prevent depression.

So is eating far less fatty meats and high fat dairy products and sweet desserts; moving to a smaller place in a better neighborhood in some cases; becoming more informed about health, and taking proactive control of your health.

So, is learning to become more optimistic and proactive in general.

Lastly, it helps to do the things that prevent depression that were not researched in this study such as getting regular exercise, increasing your amount of social interaction each week, and taking omega 3 supplements and at least an extra 1,000 iu to 3,000 iu of vitamin D3 in addition to any other sources such as sun exposure or from multivitamins or in food.