Depression risk linked to ultra-processed foods

Consuming large amounts of ultra-processed food, such as drinks containing artificial sweeteners, snacks and ready meals, is associated with a higher risk of depression, research from the US has concluded.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School examined the diets and mental health of more than 30,000 primarily white middle-aged women between 2003 and 2017 who did not already have depression.

They then compared how many women went on to develop depression against their consumption of ultra-processed food.

These include sweet snacks, cereals, protein bars, ready meals, fats and sauces, ultra-processed dairy products, savoury snacks, processed meat, and drinks containing and artificial sweeteners.

Adjusting for other health, lifestyle and socioeconomic risk factors for depression, the research, published in journal JAMA Network Open, found that those who consumed nine portions or more of ultra-processed foods a day had a 49% increased risk of depression compared with those who consumed fewer than four portions a day.

In addition, those who reduced their intake of such foods by at least three servings a day were at lower risk of depression than those with relatively stable intake.

“These findings suggest that greater ultra-processed foods intake, particularly artificial sweeteners and artificially sweetened beverages, is associated with increased risk of depression,” the research team concluded.

They also pointed to studies have shown artificial sweeteners may trigger the transmission of particular signalling molecules in the brain important for changing mood.

Such ultra-processed foods were also recently linked in research to a significantly raised risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.