Junk food ups depression risk: Study
A diet of fast food, cakes and processed meat may significantly increase risk of depression , a study has found. Researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK found that eating foods which are known to promote inflammation -- such as those high in cholesterol, saturated fats and carbohydrates -- puts people at 40 per cent higher risk of depression. The team analysed data from 11 existing studies that focused on the link between depression and pro-inflammatory diets -- encompassing more than 100,000 participants, between 16 to 72 years old, of varied gender and ethnicity, spanning the USA, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. All the studies recorded the presence of depression or depressive symptoms in the participants -- through self-observation, medical diagnoses and antidepressant use --alongside a detailed questionnaire about the contents of their diet. Each participant was assigned a score of how inflammatory his or her diet is, according to th