| dc.description.abstract | Sugar consumption has increased over the past years and has surpassed the recommended
amount. This has many negative consequences such as weight gain and chronic diseases, but
it can also impact mental health. Studies found that sugar can increase depressive mood.
These studies however only studied specific sugary products that are generally known to be
unhealthy and high in sugar. By only focusing on these products, these studies could not
conclude that sugar intake in general increases depressive mood, but only that the certain
obviously sugary products they studied increase depressive mood. To answer this question,
this study therefore studied if total sugar intake, both from obviously sugary products but also
from products that seem healthy but still contain a high amount of sugar, called hidden sugars,
also lead to depressive mood. It was expected that intake of total sugar, sugars from obviously
sugary products and hidden sugars all increase depressive mood. It was also expected that
body dissatisfaction would mediate this effect, since studies found that consuming sugary
products can decrease body satisfaction, and low body satisfaction can cause depression. This
effect is more prevalent for obviously sugary products so it was expected that the influence of
sugar on depression would be larger for these products than for products with hidden sugar.
The hypotheses were tested among N = 292 participants. Sugar intake was measured
with a Food Frequency Questionnaire, for depression the Hospital Anxiety and Depression
Scale was used and for body satisfaction the Body Shape Questionnaire was used. Three
multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that intake of total sugar, sugar from
obviously sugary products and hidden sugars all did not significantly predict depressive
mood. Body satisfaction was not found to be a significant mediator in any of these analyses.
The results found in this study were contrary to the expectations and preceding studies.
This might be due to how this study measured sugar intake and depression. Since this study
did not find that sugar could increase depressive mood, no recommendations for people to
reduce their sugar intake to improve their mood can be made. However, high sugar intake has
many negative consequences that in the long term can also negatively impact mood. It is
therefore still advised that people reduce their sugar intake. This can be done on policy level
by providing knowledge and implementing a sugar tax. For future studies, it is suggested to
perform a longitudinal study to look into the causal relationship of sugar intake and
depressive feelings and also to look more into the difference between the influence of sugars
from obviously sugary products and hidden sugars on depression. In these future studies, it is
advised to let participants track their food intake and depressive feelings by use of a diary. | |
