United States: Eating plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs), which many vegetarians love to choose, might increase the risk of depression and also inflammation. Meanwhile, these foods may also lower or lessen the risk of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).
These foods are also called ultra-processed foods, and like there is growing evidence or we can say a proof that ultra-processed foods can be really very bad for our health. Although PBMAs are healthier than some other processed foods, more research is needed to understand their effects fully.
According to researchers at the University of Surrey, their groundbreaking study published in Food Frontiers found that vegetarians who consumed PBMAs had a 42 percent higher risk of depression than vegetarians who avoided those products.
As reported by the SciTechDaily, the study, led by Hana Navratilova and based on data from the UK Biobank, found no significant differences in any of the sodium, free, total sugar, total fatty acids eaten by vegetarians who ate PBMAs compared with vegetarians who didn’t.
However, they did discover that those consuming PBMAs had greater blood pressure and C reactive (CRP), a measure of inflammation, and lower levels of apolipoprotein A, a ‘good’ cholesterol protein, and that people who consume PBMAs were reduced in risk of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by 40%.
Study Limitations and Expert Perspectives
Professor Nophar Geifman, from the School of Health Sciences at the University of Surrey, and senior author of the study, said: “The overall findings are reassuring and suggest that plant-based meat alternatives can be a safe option as long as they are part of an overall balanced diet,” the authors say.
However, ‘more information needs to be gathered: whether these types of foods can ultimately lead to inflammation and depression,’” he said.
Some of the limitations of the study as presented were that significantly more of the data collected was from a white population in the UK, and dietary information was only gathered at the start of the study and did not take into account for changes over time.
“Ultra-processed plant-based meat alternatives can be a good way for people to go vegetarian and for sustainable agricultural practices.” These findings, like many potentially important associations between vegetarian foods and mood, await confirmation from further research, including longitudinal studies, and trials with more diverse populations.