Burgers, stuffed chicken rolls and French fries may taste good, but high consumption of processed junk food not only makes you obese, it could contribute to depression, says a new research.
A team of British and French epidemiologists, who analysed food and mood data from 3,486 men and women, claimed they’ve uncovered a cause-and-effect relationship.
“Our finding shows a strong association between diet and depressive symptoms after controlling for a large range of socio-demographic factors, and for health behaviours such as smoking, physical activity, and health status,” said lead researcher Tasnime Akbaraly of National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Montpellier, France.
While it’s possible that a healthy diet is a marker of some other factor that protects against depression, “the effect of diet on depressive symptoms didn’t go down after we adjusted for other indicators of a healthy lifestyle, such as smoking, physical activity, and body mass,” he said.