Fried and Processed Foods and Depression

While there is not a large body primary evidence linking fried and processed foods to depression, the connection is inevitable given what we know about nutritional treatments. For example, there is strong evidence that antioxidents such as vitamin E are depleted in people suffering from depression and that increasing antioxidents is an effective treatment. We also know that what antioxidents do is to combat the effects of oxidized fats. Since the main source of oxidized fats in our diet is fried foods, then it seems to follow that we would do well to not only increase antioxidents but also to decrease fried foods.

Processed foods (or partial foods) are any foods that are made by removing edible parts of a food. For example, an olive is a whole food while olive oil is a processed food because making it involves removing almost everything in the olive that is not fat, such as the fiber and many of the nutrients. Processed food, therefore, have much lower nutritional contents compared to whole foods. We know that nutrition is an important factor in depression and that a diet heavy in these foods would be nutritionally inferior to one based in whole foods.

Research

Tsuboi H, Shimoi K, Kinae N, Oguni I, Hori R, Kobayashi F. Depressive symptoms are independently correlated with lipid peroxidation in a female population: comparison with vitamins and carotenoids. J Psychosom Res. 2004; 56(1): 53-8

Oxidated fats, such as any fat or oil that has been used for frying, increases chances for depression. Antioxidents neutralize these oxidated fats.

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copyright © 2007 Tim Desmond, MA. Last updated 31Jul2008.
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