The link between fast food and depression

🍴Increased consumption of fried 🍟🥓🍔sugary 🧁🍿& processed🥪🍕 foods is associated with increased risk of both anxiety and depression.

✅These large observational studies don’t give us reasons why eating more processed food or fast food increases the chances of people having depression, but it does suggest that there is very likely a link between the two.

🍅🍌🥦As an extra benefit, increasing your intake of “whole-foods” (ie vegetables and fruit and anything unprocessed) seems to be protective against depression.

👍Avoiding fast food and processed food (for example burgers, fried foods, pastries and high-sugar foods) is side-effect free, so it’s surely worth a try to see if it helps?

📖references:
📚Akbaraly TN, et al. Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age. Br J Psychiatry. 2009
📚Jacka FN, et al. The association between habitual diet quality and the common mental disorders in community-dwelling adults: the Hordaland Health study. Psychosom Med. 2011.
📚Sánchez-Villegas A, et al. Fast-food and commercial baked goods consumption and the risk of depression. Public Health Nutr. 2012.