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I have a long history of depression...I also have a long history of eating lots of junk food. I don't think that my junk-food habit CAUSED my depression, but I DO think that my junk food habit PERPETUATED my depression.
When I "talk" -- online or otherwise -- with people who are dealing with depression, I urge them to tackle their depression first by starting with the physical rather than the psychological: cut back sugar, cut back caffeine and alcohol, cut back processed foods, increase water intake, increase activity, stick to a regular sleep schedule (which may include cutting out naps or increasing the amount of sleep), increase the consumption of whole foods, and take a vitamin.
Processed/junk foods aren't doing ANYONE any good. They're destroying us from the inside out.
Yeah, I've had that advice before. I didn't want to take it because I figured that one thing that didn't have an effect on my mood was my diet. I couldn't have been more wrong.
I've heard the talk about depression being merely caused by chemical imbalances. I thought that that was complete b.s. just to sell a drug. Then I've learned that chemical imbalances in the brain could cause depression.
Before jumping on anti-depressants it would be good to try to adjust your diet. There is a possibility that depression could persist. But I believe medication should be the last resort.
Circular logic. They are depressed b/c they are overweight and are overweight and eat junk b/c they are depressed.
The less processed the foods are the less your body expends to break them down. The less enzymes you take in, the less alive you feel. Eat more veg/fruit and you will certainly feel and see the difference.
It's got to have an overall effect on attitude and personality, too.
The high salt in processed food makes your body bloat up and that puts stress on your vital organs. The quick sugar release creates wild blood sugar swings - you feel wired one minute, drained the next.
What part of any of that would make a person feel good?
I don't really care if it has been proven that junk food makes you or anyone feel a certain way.
What matters to me, is that junk food makes me feel ill. Food that makes me feel unhealthy is probably unhealthy in the mind as well. I don't know. I'm not prone to getting depressed or unhappy, so I don't know if junk food would be enough to make me feel down.
In my opinion, an unhealthy lifestyle weighs in on a person's overall well being. Most people I know seem to agree. Generally, junk food is very unhealthy. I don't need a study to prove to me that I shouldn't eat it.
I am a respiratory therapist and have also done sleep studies. There is something to the circular theory about eating junk food, weight gain, depression and sleep.
Poor sleep habits especially if you have sleep apnea will cause you to get into this vicious cycle of poor eating habits. Somehow the blood chemistry gets out of whack when you have disrupted sleep. This causes you to CRAVE bad food-carb rich foods in particular which in return cause you to gain weight. The increased weight contributes to poorer sleep and the cycle just keeps repeating. Gaining weight and sleeping worse, increased depression....
YIKES! People don't realize how important sleep is to regulating blood sugar levels.
Lets see..
Eating HEALTHY puts good vitamins and nutrients INTO the body to help repair and keep it healthy
vs
Eating junk food made of chemicals, processed unknowns, and fat to do..... what.....
Simple fact... if your body doesn't get Calcium you are at a HIGH risk of developing osteopirosis
If your body isnt getting Vitamin c - you'll devlope scurvy
If your body doesn't get enough Vitamin B - you'll suffer fatigue, depression, lessened mental function
etc etc etc
All these are medical facts... and it doens't take a genius to realize that what we put into our bodies will affect our WHOLE being... including the brain - which is in fact part of the body and not some space that holds air (although in some people that is debatable.)
Can Junk Food Make One Feel Unhappy and Depressed?
I dont know about anyone else here, but after I eat some junk food I always feel terrible. I feel physically terrible and mentally terrible afterwards. Usually its "I should not have eating that awful junk, I can just see my arteries clogging up with grease, my heart suffering and fat just accumulating in my stomach".
I don't tolerate very greasy, salty fast food all that well - especially when I haven't been eating it for a while. I either get heartburn (which I rarely get when I eat right) or it goes right through me. I always end up paying for it somehow.
My personal take is that if a person's diet is filled with empty junk food calories (loaded with additives such as MSG that cause many side effects) that aren't delivering what the body and mind need in the way of nutrients, then, certainly that can lead to depression. Don't doctors say that many mental conditions are caused by chemical imbalances?
Here's something interesting I came across- you've heard about Dr. Linus Pauling, right? These days he's mostly known for his advocacy of taking Vitamin C, but he achieved much more, and won a Nobel Prize, too, for his research.
Here's a quote for an article about him that relates to depression/junk food and what I've said above:
The world's only 2 time unshared Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Linus Pauling, stated "You can trace every sickness, every disease and every ailment to a mineral deficiency." Dr. Linus Pauling practiced this personally and lived to the age of 93.
Pretty mind-boggling, that statement he made. So, balanced diet versus unbalanced diet may equal good health versus bad health--mental and physical. What we put in our mouths really matters.
And don't forget that many junk foods are loaded with salt (sodium) and our body's balance between sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium is very crucial for good health. Most of us are way out of whack with our heavily salted diets.
Last edited by LittleDolphin; 06-17-2010 at 02:15 PM..
Reason: addition to post
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