Indulging in Fatty Foods Won't Lead to Happiness for Long

Adolescence is a time of rapid physical, psychological, and social development. While developing, they need to be informed of healthy eating habits that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, this period frequently comes with the onset of psychiatric illness; three-quarters of lifetime psychiatric disorders will first emerge in adolescence or early adulthood. Recent data suggests diet and nutrition is a reoccurring factor in pathophysiological depressive illness. There have been experiences demonstrated to show the inverse associations between habitual diet quality and the likelihood of clinically determined depressive and anxiety disorders.

A study completed by The Healthy Neighborhoods included a 14-item dietary questionnaire which included questions about what people ate for breakfast, the different types of beverages they drank, and takeaway food consumed. The questionnaire was designed to assess dietary patterns associated with positive energy balance and food behaviors and measures the intake of key foods that are indicative of less/more healthy food choices. Based on Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia, a healthy diet score was constructed from answers to four dietary items. Participants were given a point for each of the following: breakfast every day before school; low fat dairy food at least once per day; at least two serves of fruit per day; and at least four serves of vegetables per day. An unhealthy diet score was derived from the sum of answers to the following four questions: consumption of hamburgers, hot dogs or sausages, potato chips or fatty snacks, doughnuts, cake, pie, chocolate and other sweets, and sweet drinks such as sodas, plus a question regarding the frequency of takeaway foods. The range for the final score was zero to four, which was subsequently recoded as categories 1, which was an unhealthy diet to 5, a healthy diet.

Depression was measured utilizing the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ), which was created to use in studies of depression for children and adolescents. The SMFQ comprises 13 items relating to mood states, has high internal consistency, and correlates with other well-validated measures based on a depression scale. Effect modification by age or gender was also assessed. Results show correlations between both healthy and unhealthy dietary scores and covariates. A higher healthy diet score was associated with: younger age; more physical activity, less smoking, higher paternal and maternal education, higher paternal employment status, lower risk of family conflict and poor family management; and a higher dieting score. In contrast, an unhealthy diet was associated with: a lower dieting score, less physical activity, greater family conflict and poor family management, smoking, lower parental employment and education status, a lower BMI. This shows how the negative stands with the negative, and positive stands with the positive.  The inverse relationship of healthy diet score to symptomatic depression was apparent both before and after adjustments for age, gender, physical activity, work status, adolescent diet scale, and family conflict and largely followed a dose response curve. The results overall show that along with other circumstances and unhealthy diet leads to a more depressed lifestyle, and vice versa.

In this study, it was reported that both a lower devotion to the consumption of foods promoted by the Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia, and greater consumption of unhealthy and processed foods, are associated with increased odds for self-reported symptomatic depression in adolescents. These relationships remained strong after adjustment for a wide range of potential factors.  These findings support previous research reporting associations between diet quality and mental health outcomes in adolescents, and between diet quality and depression in adults. They suggest that both low intakes of nutrient-dense foods, and/or high intakes of high-energy, nutrient-poor foods are related to an increase in the likelihood of adolescents being depressed.

            This study proves that when children scored low in the diet scales, the consequently scored low on the depression scales. The reverse happened to people who had healthy diets, living happier adolescent lives. If children begin to develop depression, it needs to be fixed so that it does not continue for the rest of their lives, in order to fix the issue at hand they need to be watched in what they eat and how often they eat, this way they do not consume such an unhealthy diet and develop habits of unhealthy eating. This will better prepare them for a healthier, happier lifestyle.

Jacka, Felice N., Peter J. Kremer, Eva R. Leslie, Michael Berk, George C. Patton, John W. Toumbourou, and Joanna W. Williams. "Associations Between Diet Quality and Depressed Mood in Adolescents: Results from the Australian Healthy Neighbourhoods Study." SAGE Journals (2010). Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. SAGE Journals, 01 May 2010. Web. 03 Mar. 2012. <http://anp.sagepub.com/content/44/5/435.full.pdf html>.