The British Journal of Psychiatry has revealed the results of a study looking at the link between depression and the UK diet. Surely it’s hardly surprising that they seemed to find a correlation between processed foods and dipping moods? (To be fair, they couldn’t disprove the idea that people were eating junk food because they were depressed rather than the other way around.)
While junk food has undeniable charms, most people approaching adulthood quickly figure out that it has its downsides. From sluggish feelings to sugar crashes, a diet of junk food is hardly dependable and is likely to have disastrous effects in the long term.
This is also directly applicable to the practice of reading only junk. While a few trashy novels and magazines can be just the reward the reader needs after a period of stress or intensive study, it should not be recommended as a rounded literary diet. As when it comes to physical sustenance, variety is the key.
Incorporate components from the five major book groups – literary fiction, non-fiction, memoir, historical works and trashy novels – into your yearly literary diet and protect yourself from the depression that can be generated by a steady diet of fluffy and undemanding junk reads. Your literary health is in your hands!
Lynsey May 
Perhaps we will see a Literary Food Pyramid? The base would be the classics and the apex would be trashy novels?
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Now that sounds like an excellent task for promoting procrastination – don’t tempt me! But where would the ghostwritten celeb ‘novels’ go? Maybe on a pole sticking out the top? I don’t think they even deserve a spot in the pyramid 🙂
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This to me as well as many others I’m sure comes as no suprise. Here in the states I am beginning to wonder the long term effects (1980’s) forward of growth hormones and steriods used in foods, particularly, in fast foods.
Is it possible that’s why kids look older and are physically maturing faster?
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You know, it is pretty scary – especially as it becomes increasingly clear that some people actually are struggling to access fresh fruit and veg or unprocessed foods.
I definitely read a couple of studies linking growth hormones in chicken and cattle to premature maturation of children a while back. And then there’s the whole foods – especially fish and some tofu maybe? – having too much estrogen and that having an adverse effect on men.
I hate the fact that the whole organic food thing has turned into an exercise in branding and advertising here, but whenever I read studies like these I convince myself the extra cost might be worth it – even if I’m not always getting what it says on the rustic looking label.
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