Fast Food and Your Mental Health

Who among us does not love to have our pizza and Chinese food instantly served to us or delivered right to our door? It is wonderful. But it may not be so good for our mental health. A study published in the Journal of Public Health Nutrition revealed that people who ate fast or takeout food were 51% more likely to struggle with depression compared to those who tended not to eat those foods. That makes sense, because what we eat often determines how we feel, both physically and emotionally. Eating processed or fast food tends to load us up with sugar and refined carbohydrates that give us an initial high but instantly send our energy and mood plummeting. Eating delivered or takeout food regularly also means we are not getting the nutrients our brains need to work optimally. Lacking vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats like Omega-3 has been shown to cause mood issues. For instance, a deficiency in folate, a B vitamin, has been shown to cause depression, apathy, and fatigue. The bottom line is that a growing body of research is suggesting that what we eat is linked to our mental health. When we eat fast or takeout food, we tend to scarf it down in front of the TV or computer. Before we know it, we have consumed far too many calories. Do this over and over and after a few months, you can unintentionally put on a lot of weight without even realizing it. Then your self-esteem could take a hit and you begin to feel symptoms of depression. This in turn causes you to stay in more (instead of being social) and ordering more food so you can self-medicate by eating things that got you into trouble in the first place. Very quickly, you can find yourself caught in a vicious cycle. Some researchers now believe certain junk foods may be addictive. Are you ordering in more and more for the convenience, or because you have formed a dependence on certain foods? Food addiction can be as difficult to break as other substances. In fact, some studies would indicate cutting sugar out of the diet is harder than quitting cigarettes. If you want to feel good, inside and out, be careful ordering in junk food and instead prepare wholesome and nutritious meals for yourself. Is it as convenient? No, but part of taking care of yourself is making the difficult everyday choices that you will be thankful for in the future. To make cooking at home more convenient check out the link below to the cookbook Skinnytaste Meal Prep: Healthy Make-Ahead Meals and Freezer Recipes to Simplify Your Life. This cookbook has great recipes and because it teaches you how to prep meals, it makes cooking at home so much easier. You may also benefit from attending therapy; if interested please provide your contact information and we will contact you as soon as possible...thanks for reading! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08QB1NSBJ/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=therapeuti05c-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B08QB1NSBJ&linkId=2b529a49a1698bb416a1ec6a7349ebb3