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.
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!"
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.
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.
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.
I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that if you live on doritos and diet coke, you're going to have a depression and anxiety problem.
Why should I listen to a rocket scientist about mental health? I mean, it hardly takes a brain surgeon to realise that people with depression will indulge in their comfort foods more often. Doritos don't lead to depression; depression leads to doritos.
The studies say differently.
No they don't. They explicitly say correlation is not causation, and all they have found is a link within a small sample size. A link that is equally well explained by mental health affecting diet.
Why are you so eager to believe that happy people eat vegetables rather than the other way around? You don’t think there’s corroborating evidence generally that a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables is good for you?
That is... Not what I said. Think: If a person's having a bad day, then they're more likely to say "I don't feel like cooking. I'll just have a snack to make myself feel better." Their mood affects their diet.
‘We are not in any way saying eating more vegetables is a cure for mental health' - This article.
It’s exactly what you fucking said, right here:
it hardly takes a brain surgeon to realise that people with depression will indulge in their comfort foods more often. Doritos don't lead to depression; depression leads to doritos.
So again, why is this SO obvious to you while it’s unthinkable that eating well may be good for you? Any evidence whatsoever that this is the direction the causal arrow points? Or just snappy phrases like “it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize…?”
If I am going to take your argument in good faith, I need you to explain why you think I'm saying healthy eating isn't good for you. I will also need you to explain why "good for you" means "prevents depression" when the article itself says that isn't the case. I will need some acknowledgement of my "sad people eat comfort food" argument I have made in clear terms multiple times. Lastly, I will need you to apply the same question of "why is it so obvious" and snide remarks at "it doesn't take a ___ to realise" phrases to the comment directly above mine that did the exact same thing.
Because right now, it feels like you aren't even reading my comments.
I will need some acknowledgement of my "sad people eat comfort food" argument I have made in clear terms multiple times.
Oh it’s bright and clear as day that you hold this stereotype of depression to be a proven fact, yet it’s nothing but your dearly held stereotype. This is not a factual description of depression at large suitable to tip the interpretation of some experimental data. I’m much more persuaded by the mountain of scientific evidence that fresh fruits and vegetables benefit health. Your argument is based on cultural stereotypes.
My argument was in response to a cultural stereotype, and informed by people I know in real life. My best friend has ARFID, and suffered depression. But thank you for ignoring most of my comment and proving you aren't arguing in good faith. It'll save me a lot of time this evening.
Several studies in mice had indicated that gut microbes can affect behavior, and small studies of people suggested this microbial repertoire is altered in depression. To test the link in a larger group, Jeroen Raes, a microbiologist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, and his colleagues took a closer look at 1054 Belgians they had recruited to assess a "normal" microbiome. Some in the group—173 in total—had been diagnosed with depression or had done poorly on a quality of life survey, and the team compared their microbiomes with those other participants. Two kinds of microbes, Coprococcus and Dialister, were missing from the microbiomes of the depressed subjects, but not from those with a high quality of life. The finding held up when the researchers allowed for factors such as age, sex, or antidepressant use, all of which influence the microbiome, the team reports today in Nature Microbiology. They also found the depressed people had an increase in bacteria implicated in Crohn disease, suggesting inflammation may be at fault.
That shows a link between depression and gut microbes, but it seems to indicate that depression causes the lack of those microbes, rather than the other way around. Plus, it doesn't say a THING about diet, cause those microbes process food instead of coming from it.
At most, you've proven a link. Not causation.