Eating Junk Food Can Make Depression, Why?

Medical Video: Why does eating junk food make me feel good?

Our brain and body work all the time without stopping, because it requires energy and fuel to do all the work. Imagine if your body and brain are a luxury car that requires very good care, one that must be considered is the quality of the fuel used. Eating foods that contain various nutrients, such as mineral vitamins, and antioxidants can protect our brain and body from various diseases and avoid oxidative stress that causes free radicals that can damage the body. But what happens if the body that is like a luxury vehicle is given fuel that is not of good quality, like junk food?

How can food affect your mood and feelings?

Reduces serotonin production

Serotonin is a hormone that helps to regulate sleep, appetite, mood, and body temperature. This hormone is 95% produced in the digestive tract that is connected with millions of nerve cells, so it is not impossible what you eat will affect your mood. Research shows that groups that often consume high and low fat foods for other nutrients have fewer serotonin levels. So, consumption of foods such as junk food, not only makes your fat reserves increase, but also makes the mood less good and easy to experience stress.

Junk food do not have probiotic bacteria that the body needs

Foods such as junk food usually do not have good nutrition and only contain high fat due to the cooking process by frying at very high temperatures. Of course, such foods, which do not contain probiotic bacteria that are useful to help the body to digest food and beverages. Various studies say that probiotic bacteria can increase serotonin hormone, which is the hormone "happy". While the lack of probiotic bacteria will cause people to experience stress and depression. Research shows that people who have probiotic bacteria in their bodies have lower levels of stress and anxiety than people who have little probiotic bacteria.

Other studies compare groups that often eat food western food as junk food with the group consuming traditional food and the results of the study found that the group consuming junk food experienced a stress level of 25-35% higher than the other group. This is because traditional food consists of various foods that are rich in nutrients, while western food only has high fat content.

Increases oxidative stress in the body

Oxidative stress is a natural process that occurs in the body due to too many free radicals produced by the body. Oxidative stress can be triggered by the consumption of excessive fat, such as trans fat found in various types junk food. If this process continues to occur in the body, the body will feel 'saturated' and trigger severe depression in someone. Based on research that has been done, it shows that people who experience severe depression have more levels of free radicals than people who are not under pressure.

The study, which involved at least 675 cases of depression, proved that groups that ate foods containing high trans fats, such as pastry and junk food, has a high level of depression. While groups that often consume foods that contain unsaturated fats such as avocados, olive oil, and various kinds of nuts have lower levels of depression. In other studies, consumption of foods high in fat can increase the risk of developing depression by as much as 48%.

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