These types of studies have been done before, and the “link” always turns out to be money.
The other link is in the other direction. Shopping for and preparing quality food takes a lot of energy and effort. Two things that are usually very tight when your mental health is bad.
Depression, burnout and similar stuff usually doesn’t help you have a ton of energy to go shopping and spend an hour or two preparing a quality home-made meal.
When you are poor you have more depression, more anxiety and less time and energy, so I would say money is key.
Heck, if you have enough money you can even pay to have the freshest food magically appear without making any effort.
If you have an average income you can afford to DIY good food.
If you have good mental health you are more likely to have the energy to make healthy food.
If you have bad mental health you are less likely to have the energy to make healthy food.
Remember, averages are averages, not extremes.
You can change your diet to foods that are readily eaten or with very little (5-10min) prep. That’s a benefit of fruits and vegetables; prep is often optional. However,
Depression, burnout and similar stuff
Also makes the behavioral change of just making a different choice or trusting future benefit nearly impossible.
This is why you see ads for apples and bananas instead of beef.
Huh? I see ads for beef and fruits and vegetables
okay, make these foods more accessible then.
Vegetables are not accessible? They come from dirt.
They keyword you are looking to search is “food desert”. Have fun.
Mmmmm dessert
Many folks lack access to land (in apartments) or a host of other means necessary to grow vegetables (and it’s harder also to grow them year round).
I’m all for everyone growing vegetables, but for many folks vegetables, especially those grown without pesticides (no problem with GMO, but pesticide use is a real problem in my mind), are not readily accessible (financially, or otherwise).
but pesticide use is a real problem in my mind
wash your vegetables.
I do. I’m more concerned about the ecological effects on pollinators and plant adjacent species (birds, rodents, fish in the watershed)
Edit: I guess I should say in this context, that in places with limited or poor water quality, washing vegetables is not always super accessible either.
no pesticides = world hunger and very expensive vegetables. We cannot feed 9 billion organically.
Vertical grow farms, better more resilient gmos, better farming and land management practices, food forests, subsidizing decentralized food growing. There are lots of things we can do to support lowering pesticide use.
By the way, killing pollinators will also make our vegetables very, very expensive.
Coz it would never soak in…(better than not washing, but.)
I would think most markets should have a form of vegetables. Some access at least that you might pay some money but it’s not like it’s as much as some other foods.
As far as pesticides I think a lot of misinformation on YouTube has a lot of people thinking vegetables are some sort of disease ridden wasteland where it really isn’t. And you can rinse them anyways. You should at the very least.
Many folks lack access to land (in apartments) or a host of other means necessary to grow vegetables (and it’s harder also to grow them year round).
Think, CSAs for fresh vegetables - be sure to shop around as prices vary greatly. Homesteaders can or freeze fresh produce. They also they to move to grains and root crops like potatoes, rutabagas, carrots and parsnips in the winter. Most GMO crops are created so they can be sprayed with glyphosate which is harmful to your gut bacteria. Non GMO crops like potatoes and wheat are may also be sprayed with glyphosate.
CSAs (and community gardens or decentralized gardening) are really great and I do recommend, but there are places where access to these types of resources can still be limited.
Some GMOs are created with pesticide use in mind. Others are simply more drought tolerant or produce more vitamins and minerals (which can be a natural defense against pests in some cases). Which is why GMO =/= bad in every case. Monsanto GMO? Bad. Scientist making a GMO crop to yield more with less pesticides, less water use, less fertilizer use, and higher nutritional content? That’s pretty good.
So why is it when I am psychologically distressed I head directly for the ice cream store?!
Because your depression gut bacteria want to expand. You’re being manipulated by bugs.
If youre not already on a subscription membership plan with your ice cream store you’re probably closer to a crisis than you thought.
Okok, i believe you. Enough already.
Depression cured!
You don’t say. Doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything differently though 😆
They even said it in the article:
Correlation is not causation
So if I eat all my fruits and veggies and then chase it with a frosty mug of delicious root beer, does that cancel out and I’ll spend the entire day just feeling ‘meh’?
I think it suggests you’ll be swapping your depression for another, different depression.
The sample size of this study is too small. I want a bigger sample size with lots of data for each food so I know what to eat depending on my mood
Initial study sample size was 45,000…
Follow-up study (which confirmed initial findings) was the small one.
You don’t say. Doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything differently though 😆
