Do you love sugary drinks, packaged snacks, and hot dogs?
A new study suggests you may want to think twice before making them a regular part of your diet.
These foods belong to a category called ultra-processed foods, and researchers have found a strong link between eating these foods and having more mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
Ultra-processed foods are not just regular processed foods. They are made in factories using ingredients like oils, sugars, starches, and chemicals that don’t resemble the original whole foods.
They are often full of additives such as flavorings, colorings, and preservatives to make them taste and look better. Examples include soft drinks, chips, sugary cereals, ready-to-eat meals, and reconstituted meat products like hot dogs.
While these foods are cheap and convenient, they may come with a hidden cost to your mental health. A team of researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine, along with collaborators, studied over 10,000 adults in the U.S. using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
They looked at the number of days people felt mentally unwell, anxious, or showed signs of mild depression, and compared these to how much ultra-processed food they ate.
The results were clear. People who ate the most ultra-processed food had more days where they felt mentally unhealthy or anxious.
They were also more likely to show signs of mild depression and less likely to report having zero mentally unhealthy days. These results were statistically significant, meaning they are unlikely to be due to chance.
What makes this study important is its size and scope. The data reflect a broad sample of the U.S. population, which means the findings likely apply to many people, not just a small group.
The research also uses the NOVA classification system, a globally recognized way to group foods based on how much processing they go through. According to NOVA, ultra-processed foods make up about 60% of the calories Americans consume.
Lead researcher Dr. Eric Hecht pointed out that the processing of these foods removes much of their nutritional value and adds unhealthy ingredients like sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats. This can lead to weight gain, heart problems, and now, as this study suggests, poor mental health as well.
Senior author Dr. Charles Hennekens emphasized the need for more in-depth studies to test these findings and explore exactly how ultra-processed foods affect mental health. Still, these results add to a growing body of research suggesting that what we eat doesn’t just affect our body—it affects our mind too.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, almost one in five adults in the U.S. has some form of mental illness. With so many people affected, and with ultra-processed foods making up such a large part of our diets, these findings have serious public health implications.
Choosing whole foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed meats might be a good step toward not only better physical health, but also a healthier mind.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about Cannabis use disorder linked to increased risk of these mental diseases and findings of Some mental health drugs can cause rapid weight gain.
For more about mental health, please read studies about One sleepless night can reverse depression for days and findings of Scientists find better treatment for older adults with depression.
The study is published in Public Health Nutrition.
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