A study published in the Periodical “Molecular Psychiatry,” which reveals the links between diet and depression. Yes, according to researchers eating junk food raises the risk of depression.

Eating junk food increases the risk of becoming depressed among people age between 20 to 50. The study also reveals the increase in prompting calls for doctors for giving dietary advice to patients under the process of depression treatment.

But those people who follow a traditional Mediterranean diet (a diet that includes high consumption of vegetables, olive oil and moderate consumption of protein) are much less likely to develop depression.

It is also cleared that people who include fish, nuts, fruit, and vegetables in their diet, helps in protecting against mental health problem as well as other diseases.

In a statement, Dr. Camille Lassale, the study’s lead author, states that “A pro-inflammatory diet can induce systemic inflammation, and this can directly increase the risk for depression. Chronic inflammation can affect mental health by transporting pro-inflammatory molecules into the brain, it can also affect the molecules – neurotransmitters – responsible for mood regulation. Poor diet may increase the risk of depression as these are results from longitudinal studies which excluded people with depression at the beginning of the study. Therefore the studies looked at how diet at baseline is related to new cases of depression.“

The study reflects on taking bad diet heightens the risk of depression to a notable extent. The analysis of the study also found that foods containing a lot of sugar or fat, or if processed, lead to inflammation. In that respect, the impact of poor diet is like that of smoking, pollution, obesity, and lack of exercise.

The research showed that the poor diet has a possible causal link with the onset of depression and not hardly an association. The study did not explain that people who are depressed eat more poor quality of food, or that they were depressed to start with.

In another statement, Dr. Tasnime Akbaraly, another UCL academic who co-authored the research, states that “Added to recent randomized trials showing beneficial effects of dietary improvement on depression outcomes, there are now strong arguments in favor of regarding diet as mainstream in psychiatric medicine. Our study findings support routine dietary counseling as part of a doctor’s office visit, especially with mental health practitioners.“

Eating junk food not only raises the risk of depression but also increases the risk of other diseases such as obesity, heart diseases, liver damage, diabetes (Type 2).