Could very well be the other way around, people who don't suffer from anxiety or depression tend to eat more fruits and vegetables. Or, the thing that makes you anxious or depressed also causes you to eat less vegetables or fruits. The article specifically states "correlation is never causation".
this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2025
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Or even " the people who have the time to prepare, money to buy and luxury of access to fruits and vegetables are happier because they have time, money and luxury, whereas people who are poor and/0or work two jobs are depressed and incidentally don't eat many vegetables.
Who can afford apples and time to prepare it. Well, off to McDonald's
Yeah that's fair, I'm pretty money and time poor but I also eat whole raw carrots straight out of the bag like a fucking horse
Raw carrots > cooked carrots
I do suggest at least washing them though.
Yet that doesn't stop epidemiologists from running to the media with their bullshit conclusions.
People who eat well are more educated, have more money, can spend more time and money on mental health and are not doing some mind-numbing bullshit job.
While wealthier people have access to better food, is it that hard to believe that eating well also benefits your health and well being?
It's not one variable. There is no depression sandwich.
Did anyone say this is the only variable? One thing can have an effect without being the entire explanation.
But we already knew eating healthy foods make you healthier. Like the original comment said, maybe people who are depressed are less likely to eat healthy foods when they are feeling depressed.
If we already knew that eating healthy makes you healthy, then why are we running for alternative explanations here? Why can’t eating healthy make you emotionally healthy, too?
People in this thread seem to have a strong attachment to the stereotype of depressed people gorging themselves on junk food for comfort, but that’s all it is: a stereotype - hardly a reliable description of depression.
I mean yeah, when I'm most depressed I practically live on fruit and veggies. Cheap at the produce stand and takes no effort to prepare, easy calories. You have to cook meat, but not watermelon. Sprinkle some parmesan on canned green beans and boom, that's dinner. You can leave apples in your room and then you don't even need to get out of bed to eat! Also bags of chips. Hey, even that's potatoes though!
But seriously, if a diet "cured depression" it wouldn't be because it's full of fruit and veg, it'd be because it's dynamic and well rounded.
Nobody said “cured,” that’s exaggerating it to make a straw man out of it. “Significantly less likely to suffer from it” is the finding. The people in question may never have even been depressed at all.
That could very well be. The original comment was only pointing out the possibility that it could be the other way around since the post seemed to have left that out, that's it.
But anecdotally it's not that I eat junk food to feel better when I'm depressed, but I just don't care. I've eaten a bag of carrots before as a dinner, I've had two pop tarts as a dinner too. I'm not trying to feel better.
Correlation is never causation? I’m not sure how I feel about that phrasing. Any causation will effect a correlation, so it seems the proper way to think about it is “correlation is not necessarily causation.” Unless we’re just talking about denotations here, as in “correlation and causation are different words.” I guess in that sense, ambulance is never dildo.
Couldn't decide between:
"Not with that attitude."
"Paige, no!"
I once saw an article posted by Harvard's medical school that claimed patients' self-assessment of poor health caused poor health outcomes. Their advice was to simply believe in yourself to improve your health outcomes.
Needless to say, this was based on an observational study. They never even entertained the idea that patients might have some intuition that they're sick prior to getting diagnosed.
When I'm feeling down or stressed, I always go for my comfort foods. That salad-a-day habit goes right out the window.
I’m the opposite. When I’m feeling run down and shitty, I ask myself when’s the last time I had a salad, and go make one. It always makes me feel better. Not just better, more completely full and satisfied.