Pflanzliche Ernährung, insbesondere gesunde, wird negativ mit Depressionen in Verbindung gebracht: eine Querschnittsstudie

That’s incredible! I have chronic depression, but ever since switching to a plant-based diet last year, I’ve been so happy and healthy. It truly changed my life!

I had a uncomfortably hard time processing and understanding that headline.

I was plant-based for a year. I felt so much lighter and I had a lot more energy.

Unfortunately I live in red state that would make plant-based products illegal if they could. They already outlawed lab grown meat which is weird as hell to do when that’s not even in the market

This is a bad headline. If you don’t read it properly it sounds like healthy plant-based diets cause depression.

It’s hard to assess quality since the article isn’t even fully written and hasn’t been peer reviewed, but a preliminary look doesn’t inspire confidence. They used data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and only looked at self-reported diet vs self-reported depression scores. There’s no mention of controlling for any other confounding factors of which there are many considering the breadth of the survey tool used.

Additionally, the title itself is misleading. „Plant-based diets…are negatively associated with depression“ implies that any plant-based diet may lower depression, however in the conclusion they state „plant-based diets that emphasize less healthy plant foods are associated with higher depression levels among US adults“.

A better title would be „People who reported eating a healthy plant-based diet also reported lower depression“

There are so many problems with this study. Firstly, no control for wealth. There’s already a lot of research that shows people with time and energy to dedicate to worrying about their moral/food intake choices are wealthier and more privilege. Failure to control for this on its own should basically mean this result is meaningless

>PDI was not associated with odds of depression, whereas it was associated with lower PHQ-9 scores in multiple linear regression 

The PHQ9… the tool that is notoriously bad for diagnosing or having any clinically meaning for depression. the PHQ9 is good for treatment outcome tracking or very basic screening, not classification/diagnosis. For example, one massive study found people were ADHD were more likely to have depression (based only on PHQ9 scores) but were not receiving any depression treatment. Have a look at the PHQ9 questions and take a guess why people with ADHD might unintentionally have elevations on the PHQ9 even when they were completely not depressed. (Btw, the study got retracted after people critcized the absolute poor quality of the study and dangers it pose).

>Participants with higher hPDI scores had lower odds of depression and lower PHQ-9 scores. Conversely, higher uPDI scores were positively associated with prevalence of depression and PHQ-9 scores

So, the healthy you eat the less depressed you are. Again, what does research tell us about people who can afford to eat healthy and make healthier food choices? They are richer and have more societal privilege therefore they are generally healthier (in addition to their healthier food choice).

Basically, this massive ass study shows us nothing new. The one notable take away is probably that plant based diet doesn’t matter, eating healthy is what matters more.

I feel if you look at the psychology of self care, making positive choices, and eating healthy, you are looking at a person that is less likely to be depressed.

I thought studies tended to find that plant-based diets were positively correlated with depression. I’m surprised this one found otherwise.