Women who suffer from depression and anxiety may want to take a look at their diet as possible contributors to these conditions, study findings hint. Dr Felice N. Jacka, at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues report mood disorders were more common among women 20 to 93 years old who, over 10 years, ate primarily processed, refined, high-fat foods.
"There's no magic diet," Jacka commented in an email to Reuters Health. But eating a diet mainly of vegetables, fruit, whole grain foods, low fat dairy products, and lean meat, and reserving processed and sweet treats to "sometimes foods," will aid physical health and may also support mental well-being, she said. Jacka's team assessed diet and psychiatric evaluations gathered over 10 years from 1,046 women representative of the general Australian population. A total of 925 women were free of mood disorders, whereas 121 had depressive and/or anxiety disorders, the researchers report in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
When they assessed how diet might relate to mood disorders, they found that a "Western" diet - eating primarily hamburgers, white bread, pizza, chips, flavoured milk drinks, beer, and sugar-laden foods - was associated with more than a 50 percent greater likelihood for depressive disorders.
By contrast, both depression and anxiety disorders appeared about 30 percent less likely among women eating a more "traditional" Australian diet -- mostly of vegetables, fruit, beef, lamb, fish, and whole-grain foods.