As I noted in my last video, the association between vegetarian diets and depressive

symptoms is ambiguous and laxed consensus.

Some systematic reviews found no association between vegetarian diets and symptoms of depression,

while others suggest that those following a vegetarian diet are less likely to be depressed, but even that doesn't mean

that eating vegetarian makes people feel better.

Maybe those who feel better are just more likely to eat healthier.

Maybe they're less likely to need comfort foods if they're already comforted.

Or it could go the other way, where individuals who

experience problems may be more inclined to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet in order to improve

their mental health. For example, most medications use to treat depression cause weight gain,

so maybe depression led to antidepressants, which led to weight gain, which then led people

to try eating healthier

diets. What we need are prospective studies that follow people over time to see in the very

least which came first. There's been a few. This study in Germany found that the mental disorders

came first followed by the adoption of the vegetarian diet, suggesting that those with

mental health issues may try to clean up their diets in hopes it will benefit their condition.

It was the same in the UK.

Psychological distress predicted later vegetarianism, and not the other way around.

By far the biggest study was in Taiwan, a prospective cohort study following more than

3,500 vegetarians for about nine years, and compared to non-vegetarians, those in

the vegetarian group had a 30 percent lower chance of developing a depressive disorder

in that time.

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