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Depressive symptoms and vegetarian diets: Results from the Constances Cohort
In this 2018 study, the correlation between types of vegetarian diets and depressive symptoms was analyzed. A food frequency questionnaire was used to identify each participant’s diet type (omnivorous, pesco-vegetarian, lacto-ovo-vegetarian, and vegan) while the Centre of Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale assessed depressive symptoms. The subjects (n=90,380) were taken from the population-based Constances cohort. Matta et al. discovered that a pesco-vegetarian diet (consisting of meat or poultry but no fish, eggs, milk or dairy products) was associated with a 43% greater risk of depressive symptoms, while a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets (includes eggs, milk, and dairy products but no meat, poultry and fish) was also linked with a 36% increase in chance of having depression. These inverse associations between diet and depressive symptoms were particularly apparent in cases where legume intake was lower and where any food group was excluded from the diet. Avoidance of meat was related with an odds ratio of 1.37, fish with 1.40, and vegetables was highest with 1.71. Notably, the odds ratios grew as the number of excluded food groups was increased, regardless of food type. This study indicates that depressive symptoms are associated with the exclusion of any food group from the diet. [NPID: depression, vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian diet, legume, meat, food restriction]
Year: 2018
