Most people have been there, in the line at our favorite fast food joint, anxiously waiting for that cheap affordable tray of junk food. When you call it junk food, you also mean comfort food. For many people, fast food is what you eat to feel better or to deal with a low energy day. But this may all just be an illusion. You may be used to be eating junk food when you’re sad or having low energy, but it may turn out that fast food is actually partially responsible for you feeling depressed. It turns out, it’s not helpful at all, it doesn’t fix the actual issues. In fact, it exacerbates the issues and may be even causes them.
How Does junk food affect mental health?
New research has emerged in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, has suggested that fast food, which is high in sugar and fried foods, can actually be a major factor concerning mental health. Eating junk food can harm your metabolism and increase your risk of obtaining phycological problems such as, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc. This is the case regardless of personal characteristics, like education, age, gender, race, or relationship status. It seems to be just a fundamental part of how humans respond to junk food.
Eating foods high in sugar has been linked to the development of bipolar disorder. Eating whole processed grains and fried foods has been associated with developing depressions. Combining these two ingredients, in the form of fast food leads to an overall decrease in mental health. This is just preliminary research and has quite a ways to go before we can speak of this theory in terms of absolute fact. It still is good evidence to suggest you should eat healthy to feel healthy.
