Sugar, Ultra-Processed Food, and Mental Health

Fast food and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) intake are strongly linked to poor mental health in adolescents, especially high school students, where the SSB and fast food intake may result in clustered eating patterns (i.e., consuming small meals frequently) and enhancing each other’s consumption. Therefore, SSB and fast food intake together may have more detrimental impacts on mental health than either substance used alone. In this study by Ra (2022), data on a population of 24006 high school students derived from the 17th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2021) was examined to determine the effects of combining the use of SSBs with fast food on mental health (depressive symptoms, stress, and suicidal thoughts). Analysis of the results revealed that combining a high intake of SSBs with a low-to-high intake of fast food may worsen stress, suicidal thoughts, and depressive symptoms in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, compared to independent consumption, mixing more than moderate amounts of SSBs and fast food was linked to higher levels of stress, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation among Korean teenagers. The author recommends that healthcare professionals in schools and communities could help create a variety of school- and/or community-based interventions that restrict the consumption of SSB and fast food to enhance the mental health of adolescents.