Kansas City Food Blog

​Everyone has a moment when they grab a meal from the freezer or stare at that half-eaten package of hot dogs and think -- am I really going to eat this? According to the BBC, a new study suggests that you're right to pause because processed foods could be linked to depression. 

The study involved 3,500 middle-aged civil service workers in Britain who were split into two groups according to diet. The first ate primarily whole foods (fruit, produce and fish), while the second group ate fried foods, sweets, refined grains and high-fat dairy products. Those on the first diet were 26 percent less likely to suffer from depression, while those who mainly ate processed foods were 58 percent more likely to be depressive.

Culinate can't help but link the study to what Michael Pollan -- author of In Defense of Food -- wrote earlier this year in an essay for The New York Times:

The fact is that not cooking may well be deleterious to our health, and there is reason to believe that the outsourcing of food preparation to corporations and 16-year-olds has already taken a toll on our physical and psychological well-being.

After a day that begins with sausage and gravy and ends with chocolate cake, it's not hard to feel bad about what you've put in your body. But the idea that you're eroding your mental well-being at the same time as your physical well-being is fairly disconcerting.  

It's a safe bet that whatever the question, the answer will not come in packaged form. A move towards good health is rarely the expedient or convenient option, and perhaps that's the point.
 
[Image via Flickr: thebusybrain]