A-Z of mental health
Information and advice on a huge range of mental health topics
Do doughnuts make you depressed?
Posted Wednesday 29 June 2011
Do doughnuts make you depressed? The Daily Mail, in an article yesterday, has given a list of ‘surprising everyday triggers’ that it believes can cause depression.
Depression is a much more complex condition than the article implies. While some of the possible causes suggested by the article may be factors in triggering or worsening depression we don't know why some people are likey to experience depression and not others. Simplifying and focusing on a small selection of possibilities is unhelpful.
Depression is different to feeling temporarily feeling ‘low’, or sad and miserable about life. While eating sugary foods such as doughnuts can lead to a ‘sugar crash’ that will lower someone’s mood after the initial energy boost, this will not lead to developing depression. Changes in mood are natural.
Eating sugary products, drinking caffeine or alcohol, smoking and other factors can affect mood but most people do not get depressed because of them. The Mail’s article takes a seemingly random selection of possible causes and equates them all, regardless of how common they are or how much effect they are likely to have.
There is no one cause of depression; it varies very much from person to person and can occur through a combination of factors. Some people are much more vulnerable to depression than others. This could be because of the way different people’s brains work, because of experiences, or even family background.
Weather, hormone-based medicines such as birth control pills, lack of sleep, diet and stress, among other factors, can be triggers for episodes, or things that make ongoing depression worse. With the exception of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), where symptoms develop and recur during a particular season, they do not usually cause it.
If any of these lead to someone feeling down changing – where possible – the circumstances causing the sadness will usually lead to an improved mood.
This is not usually the case with someone diagnosed with depression where it is less simple to determine causes or treatments. While lifestyle changes such as diet can be important, depression is also effectively treated via talking therapies such as counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, psychotherapy, self-help techniques and, where necessary, medication.
It is rarely as simple as cutting out the doughnuts.
Sam Challis, Mind Information Officer
For more on depression read Mind’s information on Understanding depression and Seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
12 Comments
-
Stephen Fry was a fan of sugarpuffs and then switched to porridge oats, so was this beneficial to his bipolar disorder, then? Any ideas, anyone?
-
Well said!
-
Basically, the Daily Mail is saying everything gives you depression. Reminds me of the everything gives you cancer song Russell Howard did last year about the Daily Mail.
-
It's amazing what people can believe just by reading these types of newspaper articles! The journalists themselves should have correct prior/background knowledge on the subjects they write about, rather than just stringing a few hunches and guesses together to make a story. Otherwise they just sharing lies and stigma. Boo to them for it.
-
I think this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed especially in Inpatient Units - how can we honestly be handing out drugs to keep peoples moods even then be giving out super sweet desserts after meals and having unlimited access to coffee on the ward??
I suggested that we move from sugared drinks in the drinks machine to sugar free drinks and was met with a wall of blanks stares...The whole person needs to be addressed not just the symptoms - grr it makes me very angry.
-
I work in medical research in Cambridge, and while we'd normally treat any DM articles with a touch of 'scepticism' let's say, I have to agree that closer attention to triggers and a holistic awareness of the individual must be essential. It could only add to the body of research that has been meticulously assembled so far, surely.
I'm personally aware that short term highs - whether from a doughnut or alternative - carry the risk of an exacerbated 'low' to follow, but given the well documented links between e.g. appetite, satiety and mood (see studies linking leptin [satiety hormone] and serotonin ['well being' neurotransmitter] such as Oury F, Karsenty G. Trends Endocrinol. Metab. 2011 May 20) further investigation into how dietary factors can influence depression must be warranted? I'm at pains to suggest anything in the DM is correct, but given the spectrum of depressive disorders that exist, I could only think that investigating each and every possibility in the individual could only further our understanding.
-
Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Affective Disorder. My mood continued to fluctuate, but not in a particularly disabling way.
Two years ago, I was also diagnosed as Insulin Resistant (the body is unable to process insulin and sugar correctly). Left untreated, this results in the development of Type 2 diabetes. As part of my treatment I have had to cut out all forms of sugar (including rice, pasta, potatoes and flour). Since then, I have lost an enourmous amount of weight and gained much increased energy levels. Interestingly, my mood swings are much less frequent and extreme. Whilst I do not consider myself "cured", the impact on my life has been greatly reduced. Insulin Resistance affects 1 in 20 in the population, but is generally unrecognised in the UK at present. Key symptoms are weight around the stomach area, low energy levels, mood swings and depression, skin tags and (in women) Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. In short words, yes; cutting out sugar has made a huge difference to my mental health. -
Diet really matters and atypical antipsychotics interfere with glucose metabolism. There is an increased risk of weight gain & increased appetite with these drugs. Although they are touted as 'better' because of a decreased risk of extrapyramidal effects such as agitation/shaking/muscle twitching there is an increased risk of developing diabetes.
Many psychoactive drugs [mood stabilisers and antidepressants] also cause increased appetite/weight and it annoys me when service users are blamed for not eating/exercising healthily because it's not always easy on a restricted income with less energy or when finding it hard to get out. -
Agree with mindreaders reply as many psychiatric medications do interfere with body metabolism and can therefore impact on self esteem when medication causes or rather can cause weight increase. Certainly from my own experience living with Bipolar I have found that when my diet is good my mood is good but alas when the low mood kicks in my diet suffers. Maybe being strict with intake is important as is exercise even when you don't feel like doing it. However, I have also thought that the celebrity who often looks quite ill on TV is actually Gillian McKeith the diet doctor so where do we draw the line. Remember it is the holistic approach that works.
-
Doughnuts don't make me depressed. Doughnuts make me happy.
-
Perhaps the DM made the common mistake of confusing mood swings - in this case caused by food - with clinical depression.
All of us who have been diagnosed with depression will have our own way of describing the condition, but in relation to mood sings (or a shift from normal flat mood into melancholy) I would say this is down to mental fragility, so in reaction to someone or something we go into a very low mood where everything is hopeless and pointless. A similar thing happens with anxiety. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I, and others, want to disengage with life. -
very good!
Commenting is now closed.