British researchers recently published a study in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health showing a connection between sugar intake and mental health.
The researchers analyzed the data using 23,245 person-observations from the Whitehall II cohort study, comparing sugar intake from sweet food and beverages with common mental disorder and depression in men and women.
What they discovered was that there seemed to be a strong connection between those who ate a lot of sweet foods and beverages and those who had common mental disorder or depression. Specifically, they found that sugar intake was connected to common mental disorder in men and recurrent depression in women.
Furthermore, they noted that the men who ate the most sugar (the highest tertile, or third) had a 24% higher chance of having incident common mental disorder after 5 years. They also saw that for every 30 g of sugar that women ate, their odds of having recurrent depression went up 36%.
This is one more study in a growing body of research showing a connection between what we eat and our mental health.