Might Fatty, Sugary Diets Contribute to Depression?

Contributor: Marlene Lesson, MS, RD, LDN, CDE, Nutrition Director, Structure House

What are your feelings immediately after scarfing down an entire carton of ice cream? You might not be overly pleased with yourself. But could unhealthy dietary habits predispose you to clinical depression over time? Recent research suggests that they might.

In an ongoing study of UK civil servants, researchers wanted to find out if diet might be associated with future depression (1). They found that women who ate a whole foods diet (more vegetables, fruits and fish) were about 60% less likely to experience recurrent depression symptoms over a 5-year period than those who ate a processed diet (sweetened desserts, fried foods, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy).

The “Western” Diet and Depression

Another study of 1000 Australians arrived at the same conclusion. Women who ate a “western” diet (processed foods, fried foods, refined grains, sugary products and beer) were more likely to develop depression and anxiety over a 5-year period than those who ate a “traditional” dietary pattern (vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, whole grains) (2).

How might this association between overall diet and development of depression over time be explained? Previous research has suggested a link between inflammation and depression. Healthy amounts of inflammation help our immune systems fight disease and recover from injuries. But excessive inflammation has been linked to conditions such as heart disease, strokes, diabetes and cancer.

Diet Habits and Health Outcomes

Only recently has a possible link between an inflammatory dietary pattern and depression been specifically researched (3). The researchers tracked the diet habits and health outcomes of over 43,000 women who were free of depression at the beginning of the study.

Those who regularly drank sugary sodas, ate red meat or refined grains and infrequently consumed green leafy and yellow vegetables, wine, and olive oil over a 12-year period were 29-41% more likely to become depressed than those who ate a less inflammatory diet.

Blood tests revealed that the women who ate more inflammatory foods also had significantly higher levels of the biomarkers for inflammation that have been previously associated with depression. So, chronic inflammation does appear to underlie the link between diet and depression.

Dietary Quality and Depression

These and many other studies show an association between dietary quality and depression. As encouraging as these findings seem, we really don’t know for certain if improving dietary quality might reduce the risk of depression (4) or can help with recovery from depression.

Many individual factors such as personal circumstances, genes, and other lifestyle behaviors also play a role.

Studies on Diet and Recovery from Depression

But preliminary findings are promising enough that governments and the research community are taking action. A randomized, controlled trial is underway in Australia to determine if a dietary program can improve recovery from depression (5).

Each individual in the intervention group is participating in a series of individual counseling sessions with a dietitian to encourage and facilitate healthier eating while continuing to take medication. Blood tests of study participants might help strengthen the link between diet, indicators of inflammation and symptoms of depression. The results of this study are eagerly awaited.

Europe has hopped on the band-wagon, too. The European Union has launched the 9 million euro MoodFOOD project to explore how improving food-related behavior and nutrition status might prevent depression (6).

Then they will develop nutrition guidelines and practical tools to guide policy. Extensive promotion throughout Europe is intended to lower the risk of depression and improve overall health of all EU citizens.

Lowering the Risk of Disease

Depression appears to be a disease of the body not just the mind. Replacing processed, high saturated fat and sugary foods with vegetables, fish, olive oil and whole grains lowers our risk of chronic disease.

There’s a good chance that such dietary measures may also benefit our emotional health.

Community Discussion – Share your thoughts here!

It is important to eat a balanced nutritional diet to maintain good health, have you found that eating certain foods can affect your moods?

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References:

1. Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age. Akbaraly et al. Brit J Psych, 2009.
2. Association of western and traditional diets with depression and anxiety in women. Jacka et al. Am J Psych, 2010.
3. Inflammatory dietary pattern and risk of depression among women, Lucas et al. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 2014.
4. The association between diet quality, dietary patterns and depression in adults: a systematic review. Quirk, Jacka et al. BMC Psychiatry, 2013.
5. A randomized trial of a dietary intervention for adults with major depression (the “SMILES” trial): study protocol. Jacka et al, 2013.
6. MoodFOOD is a Multi-country cOllaborative project on the rOle of Diet, FOod-related behaviour, and Obesity in the prevention of Depression, 2014-2018.

The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective of eating disorders. These are not necessarily the views of Eating Disorder Hope, but an effort to offer discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.

Last Updated & Reviewed By: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC on March 21st, 2015
Published on EatingDisorderHope.com