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Trans Fats Linked to Depression

It’s not a secret that obesity can lead to more serious ailments such as heart attacks, developing diabetes and contracting some types of cancers, which is why America has been obsessed with finding ways to lose belly fat. But recent studies show that obesity can also affect our mental health.

According to a study conducted among 12,000 Spanish university graduates in the course of six years time, students who consumed more trans fats than their peers were at a greater risk of being diagnosed with depression.

Trans fat, commonly found in junk food has been found to raise one’s level of bad cholesterol which makes it one of the primary causes for an increase in numbers of coronary heart disease. In fact in a previous study it was estimated that trans fats caused more than 20,000 deaths in a year in the US alone from heart disease.

And this could be where a vicious cycle of depression and living an unhealthy lifestyle may form. Dr. Valerie Taylor, mental health lead at the Canadian Obesity Network and assistant professor at St. Joseph’s Healthcare cites that those who are sickly will likely be depressed and those who are depressed similarly care less about their health.

All over the world, depression affects an estimated 151 million people with bad eating habits cited as one of the factors that might have caused or contributed to the depression. Given this, health experts such as Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez, professor of preventive medicine at Spain’s University of Navarra and co-author of the study mentioned above suggests that including a healthy dose of olive oil and Omega-3 – also considered as fat burning foods – in your diet can help negate the effects of trans fats.

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