11 August 2011

Junk food gives us the blues

FAST food not only makes us fat, it brings us down.

People who have healthier diets are less likely to become anxious and depressed, Deakin University researchers have found.

"Those people eating more junk and processed foods were more likely to be anxious," said Dr Felice Jacka, of Deakin's Barwon Psychiatric Research Unit.

The research, conducted on 5700 middle-aged and older adults from Norway, showed there was a clear link between diet and mental health.

Dr Jacka said healthy diets were those that included vegetables, fruit, wholegrain food, low-fat dairy, fish and non-processed red meat.

Dr Jacka said it was unclear why junk food made people depressed, but it could be linked to immune system functions of proteins in the brain.

It came as another study showed it was probably not the best idea to live around the corner from a fish-and-chip shop.

An American study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine revealed that people who live near fast-food restaurants are more likely to eat these foods.

But it showed that living near grocery stores and supermarkets had no impact on diets.

heraldsun.com.au 13 Jul 2011

Governments are too quick to 'pretend' they care about consumer health by for example banning the visual advertising of cigarettes, or by putting labels on cigarettes that they are caner causing, whilst totally overlooking two other industries that are responsible for cancer those being:

  • the junk food industry
  • the alcohol industry

The mass media mislabels the junk food industry as the fast food industry.

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