Do ultra-processed foods cause depression or is it whiting eating its own tail?

There has been a lot of talk lately about a study that was just published in B.M.J.. In it, scientists from Deakin Universityin Australia analyzed a total of 45 meta-analyses, which included data from more than 10 million peopleto check what the most harmful effects of eating ultra-processed foods are. There are 32 negative conditions in total, but one of the most striking is the link between ultra-processed foods and depression.

This study shows that consuming ultra-processed foods increases the risk of suffering by 48–53%. any mental health problem. In particular, the risk of depression increases by 22%. Moreover, if the diet consists of more than 30% ultra-processed Cases of depression are skyrocketing.

This link between ultra-processed foods and depression is very surprising, as there is a lot of talk about the effects on metabolic or cardiovascular health, but not so much about how they affect mental health. Now, before we talk about these effects, we must take into account that depression is multifactorial and that perhaps it is not just the consumption of ultra-processed foods that leads to depression, but also the reasons why we eat them.

What are ultra-processed foods?

Before explaining why ultra-processed foods may be linked to depression, it’s important to remember what these foods are.

There is no fixed definition. Some people define them according to their quantity of ingredients. If they have too many ingredients, they are already ultra-processed. However, a jar of mixed vegetables might be considered as such, but in fact it is not. There are also those who define them by their content in chemicals or additives. For those complaining about chemicals, we have news to break to you: it’s all chemicals. Tomato is chemistry. The banana you put in your oatmeal is chemical. Even the crushed dates that real gourmets use to sweeten everything they eat are also chemicals. On the other hand, supplements are not always harmful. Many of them simply help us preserve food longer in a safe and enjoyable way, but they do not reduce its nutritional value or make it more harmful.

What makes an ultra-processed product unhealthy is the excessive amount of ingredients that are harmful to health. Excess sugar, salt or saturated fat, For example. It is the accumulation of these substances that leads to these 32 harmful effects of ultra-processed foods. But what about depression?

The Reality of the Link Between Ultra-Processed Foods and Depression

In the just-published review, the authors acknowledge that it is impossible to determine whether all the harm found is caused solely by ultra-processed foods. They may also be associated with other bad habits such as alcohol or tobacco usewhich often go hand in hand with ultra-processed foods.

This is not stated directly, but there may be a connection with stress. We are often forced to eat ultra-processed foods by our busy lifestyles. If a person spends 15 hours of his day working and caring for home and family, he either does not sleep or cannot devote much time to proper nutrition. Therefore, it is quite common for people who are stressed to consume a lot of ultra-processed foods.

And this stress also leads to anxiety in many ways. Stress is natural reaction of our body which helps us to be attentive to possible danger. When this happens, a very rapid adaptive response occurs. The nervous system is activated to process all this information about the environment and send signals to the rest of the body to act accordingly. This reaction, as soon as the stressful situation passes, gradually fades away and everything is back to normal. The problem arises when a stressful situation remains in the body. Our brain is not ready to constantly react to such situations. Therefore, he enters into conflict, which can lead to anxiety and depression.

In addition, it should be added that during stressful situations a hormone called cortisol, which, among other functions, has the ability to reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, if cortisol levels are maintained for a long time, it begins to cause the very symptoms that it usually alleviates. Therefore, severe inflammation occurs, which can also affect the nervous system and lead to depression.

It should be noted that consumption of ultra-processed foods also leads to inflammation. Even stress causes us to eat even more processed foods due to simple anxiety. So it all ends up being fueled.

For women the situation is even worse

A 2019 study found that symptoms of depression increased in people who worked too many hours a week. In particular, this is something very serious in women. Those in the study had a higher risk of depression when they worked more 55 hours from Monday to Friday. This does not happen for men because they tend to pay less attention to caring for the home and children.

On the other hand, when working during weekend, cases of depression have increased in both men and women. Someone who must work 55 hours Monday through Friday or on weekends is likely to eat more ultra-processed foods. But these are not the only culprits for your depression. It all adds up. The prevalence of harmful effects of ultra-processed foods should improve. However, unless we also make an effort to change the conditions in which people work, this unfortunate link between ultra-processed foods and depression may continue to exist.