We all have our guilty pleasures. For some of us, that’s food, moreover, fast food. Now we all know that unhealthy food has a bunch of negative effects on the body. But we rarely consider how such food impacts our mental health. For instance, this study that suggests that a higher consumption of fries increases the risk of anxiety and/or depression.
But to be exact, fried potatoes were found to result in a 2% increase in risk of depression over fried white meat.
The study was conducted with 40,728 people over the course of 11.3 years. According to a study published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), within the first two years of the research, 8,294 cases of anxiety and 12,735 cases of depression were found in people who ate fried food.
Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health says that “The health effects of fried food will depend greatly on what food is fried and what type of fat is used for frying.”
So, it seems there’s a lot to consider when we choose pleasurable food choices altogether.
Unfortunately, mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety are on a rise, in general. And it seems the kind of food we eat is definitely a contributing factor.
