Happy Saturday,
According to a recent study by researchers at the University College of London, a diet high in fatty and processed foods led to an increased risk of depression.
The participants were separated into two groups. One group who ate a diet largely based on “whole” foods, and another group who mainly ate fried food, processed meat, high-fat dairy products and sweetened desserts. The results showed that those who ate the whole foods had a 26 percent lower risk of depression than those who ate mainly processed foods. More alarming though, was that the group with a processed food diet was 58 percent more likely to be or become depressed.
Why did these results occur? Researchers put forth several hypotheses:
- Previous studies have shown a diet high in antioxidants can ward off depression.
- Eating lots of fish may protect against depression because it contains high levels of the sort of polyunsaturated fatty acids which stimulate brain activity.
- They also thought that a “whole food” diet protects against depression because of the combined effect of consuming nutrients from lots of different types of food, rather than the effect of one single nutrient.
The final conclusion of the research “suggests that healthy eating policies will generate additional benefits to health and well-being, and that improving people’s diet should be considered as a potential target for preventing depressive disorders.”
Check out a video of Chris and I doing a Healthy Food, Healthy You: Food Clinic:
