Meatless diet linked to increased depressive episodes compared to non-vegetarian diet

Written By : Dr. Shravani Dali |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2022-12-29T20:00:20+05:30 | Updated On 30 Dec 2022 5:24 PM IST

A meatless diet linked to increased depressive episodes compared to a non-vegetarian diet suggests a recent study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

The association between vegetarianism and depression is still unclear. They aimed to investigate the association between a meatless diet and the presence of depressive episodes among adults.

A cross-sectional analysis was performed with baseline data from the ELSA-Brasil cohort, which included 14,216 Brazilians aged 35 to 74 years. A meatless diet was defined from in a validated food frequency questionnaire. The Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised (CIS-R) instrument was used to assess depressive episodes. The association between meatless diet and presence of depressive episodes was expressed as a prevalence ratio (PR), determined by Poisson regression adjusted for potentially confounding and/or mediating variables: sociodemographic parameters, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, several clinical variables, self-assessed health status, body mass index, micronutrient intake, protein, food processing level, daily energy intake, and changes in diet in the preceding 6 months.

Results

• They found a positive association between the prevalence of depressive episodes and a meatless diet.

• Meat non-consumers experienced approximately twice the frequency of depressive episodes of meat consumers, PRs ranging from 2.05 (95%CI 1.00–4.18) in the crude model to 2.37 (95%CI 1.24–4.51) in the fully adjusted model.

The cross-sectional design precluded the investigation of causal relationships. Depressive episodes are more prevalent in individuals who do not eat meat, independently of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors. Nutrient deficiencies do not explain this association. The nature of the association remains unclear, and longitudinal data are needed to clarify causal relationships.

Reference:

Ingrid S. Kohl, Vivian C. Luft, Ana Luísa Patrão, Maria del Carmen B. Molina, Maria Angélica A. Nunes, Maria I. Schmidt, Association between meatless diet and depressive episodes: A cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from the longitudinal study of adult health (ELSA-Brasil), Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 320, 2023, Pages 48-56, ISSN 0165-0327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.09.059.

Journal of Affective Disordersmeatlessdietdepression

Source : Journal of Affective Disorders

Dr. Shravani Dali

Dr. Shravani Dali has completed her BDS from Pravara institute of medical sciences, loni. Following which she extensively worked in the healthcare sector for 2+ years. She has been actively involved in writing blogs in field of health and wellness. Currently she is pursuing her Masters of public health-health administration from Tata institute of social sciences. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in.

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751