DROP THAT DONUT FOR MIND HEALTH

Research says junk food is bad for your mental health.

We’ve known for decades how junk food can pose a concerning risk to our physical health, but now we know sugar and chemical additives affect our mental health, too.

New research has found that packaged foods such as cereal and frozen meals have a strong link to cognitive decline alongside rising anxiety and depression. According to the accumulated data, the longterm effects of these delicious foods are more detrimental to our mental capacity than once predicted.

“Many high-quality, randomised studies have shown the beneficial effect of a nutrient-dense diet on depression, but we still do not fully understand the role of food processing on mental health,” says Melissa Lane, a researcher at the Food and Mood Centre at Deakin University.

However, “We know that people with depression and other mental disorders have a less diverse composition of gut bacteria and fewer short-chain fatty acids.”

In a study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, over 10,000 adults in the United States were assessed on their eating trends to find the more ultra-processed foods that were consumed, the more likely a person was to report feeling low or depressed.

“There was a significant increase in mentally unhealthy days for those eating 60 per cent or more of their calories from UPFS (ultra-processed foods),” Dr Eric Hecht, the study’s author, said. “This is not proof of causation, but we can say that there seems to be an association.”

Although it’s not all doom and gloom, as researchers say that switching to a healthy diet with limited processed ingredients has the ability to offset the effects of previous ultra-processed diets, including dementia.