You are what you eat and if you eat unhealthy food, you not only risk poor physical health but poor mental health as well. The foods we eat play a huge impact on the health of our brain.
Wanting to know how ultra-processed food consumption early in life, from 13 to 17 years old, effected depression later in life, researchers analyzed data from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study, an Australian longitudinal study that had set out to study the effects of lifestyle on chronic, non-infectious, diseases. The dataset contained 23,299 participants between the ages of 27-76 years old.
They analyzed the diet survey of 121-item Food Frequency Questionnaire at the start of the study, 1990-1994 and matched to the participant’s survey answers regarding psychological distress such as fatigue, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, etc. between the years of 2003 to 2007.
Ultra-processed food included sodas, packaged food, margarine, shelf-stable and preserved dishes, and processed, reconstituted meat products. Non-ultra-processed foods included rice, unprocessed meat, fruits, and vegetables, nuts, seeds and less processed foods such as canned fruit and fish, and bread.
They found that those in the highest quintile of ultra-processed food consumption had a 14% higher likelihood of distressful psychological issues compared to the lowest quintile of consumption. In addition, eating high amounts of ultra-processed food was also associated with other unhealthy habits including eating less fruits and vegetables or engaging in less physical activities.
The foundation of a good mental health is healthy eating. This is especially important when you’re parenting because what you choose to feed your children today can have lasting impact in the future.
The authors’ findings were published in Journal of Affective Disorders.
M Lane et al. High ultra-processed food consumption is associated with elevated psychological distress as an indicator of depression in adults from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.04.124
