It is of course no news that a healthy and varied diet is good for you. Yet the emphasis is often on physical health, while mental health is at least as important. And what you eat has a major influence on this. Certain foods can make you feel very sad. Worse: depressed.
That showed a recent study, done by Harvard and among a female target group, again. Extremely processed products and drinks and sweets full of sugar in particular could cause feelings of depression.
Avoid these products for your mental health
This probably doesn’t come as a huge surprise, but all pre-packaged snacks are really bad for you — both your body and your mind. The researchers examined more than 30,000 middle-aged women between 2003 and 2017. None of the participants suffered from depression or depressive thoughts prior to the study. But in 2017 it was very clear: in the group that mainly ate ready-made products, 49 percent of the participants in the study experienced more depressive feelings than in the other group.
This includes all ready-made foods: sweets, but also savory snacks and complete evening meals. In addition, snacking did not appear to be very healthy, because the group that ate nine or more times a day (including a snack) also experienced many times more depressed feelings than the group that ate four times a day. I expected that it is not necessarily healthy for you, but these figures scare me.
This is also not good for your mood
Another thing we should eliminate from our diet, if we want to feel happy: all diet versions of soft drinks. Maybe you already expected that, but to be honest, I was mainly familiar with the disadvantages that, for example, Diet Coke can have for your body — not that it can affect your mood that much. But these artificial sweeteners are not doing your mind any good at all, even though it is not yet known why.
The researchers speculate that it is due to a link between the artificial sweeteners and certain molecules in the brain, which affect your mood. Well, let’s be clear: from now on, preferably no more ready-made meals, but only fresh products. Your body and mind will be very happy with that.
Also read:
Bron: MentalFloss
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2024-01-25 18:51:05
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