High-fat diet reduces anxiety and depression

By William Atkins
Saturday, 28 November 2009 21:48

Science - Health

According to an Australian study performed on young rats, the eating of 'comfort foods',--that is, high-fat foods--can likely reverse the damaging effects of early trauma, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, in humans.


The 11/24/2009 University of New South Wales press release “Comfort eating reverses effects of early trauma” states that--for the first time--it was proven that the eating of “comfort foods” can eliminate the effects of psychological trauma on the brain experienced earlier in life.

The article “Palatable cafeteria diet ameliorates anxiety and depression-like symptoms following an adverse early environment,” appears online beginning on November 24, 2009, in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.

Its authors are PhD student Jayanthi Maniam and Professor Margaret J. Morris, both from the School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australia.

The UNSW article states, “Eating palatable food rich in fat and sugar can alter the chemical composition in the brain and ameliorate anxiety-like behaviour induced in early life….”

The researchers state, within the abstract of their paper, “Early trauma contributes to psychosocial disorders later in life. An adverse early environment induced by maternal separation (MS) is known to alter behavioural and stress responses in rats.”

Thus, they decided to look into whether or not a high-fat diet (HFD) has an impact on behavioral responses in rats after begin separated from their mothers (called maternal separation, MS) for a long or short period of time, or when not handled (NH).

The researchers used Sprague-Dawley rats. The pups were divided into two groups: either isolated from their mothers for periods of time or provided with normal contacts with their mothers.

Page two describes the experiment.