One Treatment for Midlife Crisis: Healthy Food?

Here at LifeTwo we believe that 'midlife crisis' is often a normal depression that happens in midlife. So anything that reduces the risk of depression also reduces the risk of midlife crisis.

New research from the UK suggests that eating well -- fresh vegetables, fruit, and fish -- reduces the chance that you'll have depressive symptoms. On the other hand, a diet high in processed and fatty foods increases the odds that you'll feeling depressed.

A team from University College London, writing in the British Journal of Psychiatry, is said to be the first work to look at the relationship between overall diet -- rather than specific nutrients -- and depression. The found that the 1/3 of people who were closest to the best diet were 26% less likely to be depressed five years later than the 1/3 with the worst diet. High consumption of processed food was associated with a 58% higher risk of depression symptoms five years later.

The researchers removed the effects of age, gender, education, smoking, exercise levels, and chronic diseases.

Possible explanations for the effect include:

• fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants, which have been shown to lower the risk of depression
• fish contains certain fatty acids which may protect the neuron membranes in the brain
• the variety of nutrients in a 'whole food' diet may have an overall benefit

The flip side of this is that processed foods increase the risk of coronary artery disease and inflammation, both of which are associated with depression.

What could be wrong with this study? For one, it's survey-based, so people who eat better may simply feel better about themselves than people who eat poorly and know it. For another, the study can only report the relationship between diet and depression, and not prove causation -- it's possible that depression leads to poor diet, although the study looked at diet first and depressive symptoms five years later. And while the researchers statistically removed the influence of smoking and the other variables listed above, there could be an unknown lifestyle factor that explains the differences. Also, the survey population, though large enough, was a demographically narrow group of white London-based civil servants.

Nonetheless, to the many reasons to follow a health diet, add one more.

--- Sources and further reading:

UK National Health Service: "Processed Food and Low Mood"

Medical News Today: "Researchers Say Healthy Diet Protects Against Depression In Middle Age"

OnMedica: "Depression Linked to Junk Food Diet"

Guardian: "Mediterranean diet 'can help stave off depression'"

British Journal of Psychiatry: "Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age" (abstract)