Posted on 02/11/2025 8:33:35 PM PST by ConservativeMind
When and what you eat might play a role in maintaining good mental health, a study suggests.
Researchers found that folks with heart disease were more likely to keep depression at bay if they ate a big, calorie-rich breakfast.
There's evidence that heart disease patients "are more likely to develop depression when compared to the general population—and dietary factors have been shown to play an important role in depression occurrence and development," noted a team led by Hongquan Xie.
According to the researchers, the timing of calorie intake "can regulate circadian rhythms and metabolism," and disruptions in circadian rhythms may be a contributor to depression.
Heart disease patients are already at heightened risk for depression, so the new study looked at possible links between daily meals and a patient's mental health.
The team looked at 2003–2018 data from almost 32,000 Americans who enrolled in the U.S. National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey.
Almost 3,500 participants (averaging 66 years of age) had heart disease, and 554 of those people were also diagnosed with depression.
Survey participants also reported what and when they ate during a typical day.
The data showed that people who took in the most calories at breakfast (791 calories on average) were 30% less prone to depression, compared to those who ate the skimpiest breakfasts (average of 88 calories).
And when folks shifted even 5% of their daily calories from dinner or lunch to breakfast, that was tied to a 5% lowering of their depression risk.
Levels of particle nutrients—protein or carbohydrates, for example—were not linked to depression risk, the study found.
The bottom line, according to the research team is this: "[W]hen you eat is as important as what you eat. Dietary energy consumption time should coordinate with body clock fluctuations to reduce the risk of depression."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Eat breakfast like a King
Lunch like a Prince
Dinner like a Pauper
My mama always said that. :)
Aren’t you up past your bedtime? ;-D
I’m a night owl. I really don’t like breakfast. Been depressed all my life, but then, a few years before she died, my mother told me that when she finally got to bring me home from the hospital, (I was a premie) “you wouldn’t let me hold you”, so she didn’t. Yeah. Bummer. Explained a lot.
My daily breakfast is omelette with pre-sauteed sweet red peppers+onion+tomato+mushroom+jalapeno or poblano peppers. It is important to cook veggies first, then add scrambled egg because egg cooks much faster than veggies. Even the veggies should be cooked peppers & tomato first, then onions and mushrooms last. After egg is added to pan, for extra rich taste add pieces of sharp cheddar cheese. So freaking yummy !!
Contrary to what has been programmed into us, some folks do NOT do well if they eat early in the day.
If I eat before 8:30, my entire day is ruined. I get logy, tired and cannot motivate to save my own neck.
I do far better eating around 10-11, then nothing but fluids until 6-7 pm.
wasn’t the “big breakfast” meme recently disputed ?
My mother didn’t like me, did nothing but tell me I was going to hell. . OK because I didn’t like her either. My dad absolutely loved me. He was in the restaurant biz and made great breakfasts and dinners for me. I still don’t eat lunch.
Breakfast at 10 or 11, dinner at 7. I weigh 112, am really never hungry, have to remind myself to eat. My dad said, “Buy the best food you can afford and do as little as possible to it.” My MD said he’d never seen anyone my age as healthy as I am. Take one prescription drug and 11 nutritional supplements, and have for decades.
How much did this stupid study cost us?
L
I am not typically a breakfast person. I generally like to have my big meal around 1 or 2 PM, and a light snack for dinner.
I just can’t eat much in the morning. No appetite until I’ve been up 3-4 hours.
My dad loved us, too, but he couldn’t do anything about our mother’s behavior. She was nuts, damaged, a product of her rotten upbringing. I believe she loved us, but she was so messed up that she didn’t how to parent. I didn’t do such a hot job, myself, I know.
My mother admitted that she never read bedtime stories or sang me to sleep. She had her sister (who turned out to be a sociopath though I had always known she was cold) watch me while she worked who after a little while stated she couldn’t watch me anymore because it was too much work what with having her own 1 year old. Mom admitted that sometimes when she’d pick me up I would be in my carrier and she’d get a funny feeling that I had been kept in there all day. So then I was foisted off onto another aunt. At this second aunt’s house I remember being so hungry it was uncomfortable, I mean it could have been just one day or it may have been most days, whatever it was left an impression on me cuz I still remember it today even though I must have been only maybe 3 years old. On top of that I wandered around her house with nothing to do and nobody to play with. I knew what utter boredom was from an early age. Then as I got a little older I remember Long Summers where I had nobody to talk to or play with because I was so shy and apparently mom was too busy. Made a friend four doors down but she had asthma and her mom wouldn’t let her run and always made her come in the house after maybe a half an hour of play.
There are probably many millions of people who had rotten childhoods, that negatively affected their entire lives. It comforts me to realize that whatever this life is, good, bad, or indifferent, it is just a tiniest bit of our eternal life. As the Bible tells us, it is but a vapor, when compared with eternity. We are going to live forever; after this life, either in Heaven or in Hell. I choose Heaven, where every tear will be wiped away.
That’s an English breakfast. Not bad, but they can keep their bangers and blood sausage.
Me too, but I love breakfast, mostly because when I was working, I worked the 3-11 p.m. shift. When I got home, I couldn't go right to bed, but sat up, catching up with the news, and TV shows, and I always read before I turn out the light at night. I never ate breakfast then, nor drank coffee at home. I'd pick up a sandwich or a salad on the way into work, and eat that when I could while working. It wasn't until I retired that I started having breakfasts and coffee every day.
I retired 21 years ago, and kept the same night schedule. I don't go to bed until 4 or 5 a.m., so when I get up around 11 a.m. or noon, I'm ready for breakfast. I don't make this every day, but I'll have two slices of thick bacon, one egg, one or two sausages, homemade hash browns and a slice of toasted Italian bread. If I have a big breakfast like that, then I have something light in the evening. No lunch ever. If I have a bagel for breakfast or a buttermilk biscuit, I'll have a slightly bigger supper.
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