Why Junk Food Makes You Sad

If you ever needed more reasons to avoid fast food and pay more attention to the way you eat, this study from the Spanish universities of Granada and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria now provides a very good one. Published in the Public Health Nutrition journal, it shows how eating fast food or industrially baked goods can increase the odds of falling into a depression.

The study suggested that those who indulge in hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza and similar items are 51% more likely to develop depression, compared to those who eat little or none of the above. Commercial confectionery items such as doughnuts, fairy cakes and croissants are particularly “bad” for long-term mood.

The study is based on a sample of 8,964 participants, none of whom had ever been diagnosed with depression. During the six months of the assessment, almost 500 of them began to show symptoms.

There are over 120 million people in the world diagnosed with depression and while not much is known about the role that food can play, previous studies have shown that it can be important. On the opposite side of the spectrum, for example, the healthier, fast food-free Mediterranean diet is believed to reduce the risks of developing a depression.