According to a study, there is a considerable risk of depression connected with a daily diet that contains over 30% ultra-processed food. Ultra-processed foods is not just your standard fast food and junk food. Additionally, it contains a variety of mass-produced, highly refined foods and beverages, such as margarine, some fruit juices, flavor-enhanced yoghurts, and packaged items like scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes.
The new research, which was just published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, adds to the mounting evidence of the wide-ranging negative effects of diets high in convenience food that is frequently inexpensive, well-marketed, but low in nutrients.
Over 23,000 Australians from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study were examined to see if there were any links between eating highly processed food and depression by researchers from Deakin University and Cancer Council Victoria.
Melissa Lane, who conducted the study as part of her Ph.D. studies at Deakin University’s Food and Mood Centre, noted that despite the fact that Australians consume a lot of ultra-processed foods, the relationship between food and depression has never been examined in a random group of Australians.
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Classification of Foods:
The NOVA categorization divides food into four groups, from least to most processed, based on the degree and use of industrial processing.
Food in group one that have not been processed or have only undergone minimum processing include whole grains, nuts, whole cuts of meat and fish, eggs, milk, and natural yoghurt. Processes “designed to preserve natural food, to make it suitable for storage, to make them safe or edible, or to make them more pleasant to consume” are used to change these food.
Group 4 foods are those that have undergone extreme processing, and according to NOVA, these are “industrial formulations typically with five or more and usually many ingredients, which often include those also used in processed food, such as sugar, oils, fats, salt, antioxidants, stabilizers, and preservatives.”
Readers are advised to avoid processed food whenever they can as it can seriously impact their mental health in the long run. Mental Health is one of the biggest concerns in people nowadays. Food is the easiest way we use to regulate our mental health and avoid depression. Avoiding processed food can also help in avoiding obesity and many other conditions.
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