The food we eat affects us in many ways. A recent study from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found a link between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and an increase in the risk of depression. Ali Rogin speaks with Olivia Okereke, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who worked on the study, to learn more.
The study found an association, and cannot find causation. So it could be that eating more ultra-processed foods leads to a greater risk of depression, or that depression leads to eating more ultra-processed foods, or that something else entirely causes both. The article seems to assume it’s only the first possibility without mentioning the others, which makes me think this is not worth reading.
The actual paper discusses the reverse causation hypothesis and using data over a 4 year period: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10512104/