British find depression linked to processed foods

A great piece of research from University College London (UCL) is the Whitehall II study which examines behaviour, work and lifestyle of 3,486 civil servants in the UK. Earlier this month, the researchers published their findings linking processed food to depression.

The researchers identified two groups of people, those who mostly eat natural and fresh food, cooking from scratch, and those who eat mostly highly processed foods such as fried foods, processed meats, sweetened desserts and high-fat dairy products etc. We can all relate to that. Increasing numbers of people no longer cook, relying on the scientifically-ensured-delicious prepared foods we can now get so easily.

In analysising their data, the researchers took account in a statistical way of age, gender, activity levels and any thing else so that they could just measure the effect of these different eating types.

The people in the processed food group had a 58% higher risk of future depression than the natural food group. Those who ate the most whole foods had a 26% lower risk of future depression than those who at the least whole foods.

Depression thrives on chips, hamburgers, lots of bread, fatty meats, regular fry-ups, suet pastries, cakes, éclairs, sugary pies, toffees, sweet drinks and chocolate bars. It also loves snacks throughout the day. It will become the devoted companion of anyone regularly eating junk food and drinking too much alcohol. Read more about that here.

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