Consuming an unhealthy diet rich in sugars and fats can lead to obesity and also increase the risk of depression.
A new study conducted in rats shows that exercise can help counter depressive and anxiety-like symptoms that result from a high-fat, high-sugar diet that is typical of a Western diet.
However, exercise was not able to attenuate all the effects of the unhealthy diet, underscoring the importance of a healthy diet in addition to physical activity.
Exercise can help moderate some of the adverse effects of an unhealthy diet on depression-like symptoms in rats, according to a recent study published in Brain Medicine.
The study, conducted in a rat model, showed that exercise helped reduce depressive and anxiety-like symptoms induced by a high-fat, high-sugar diet.
The study’s findings suggest that exercise could mitigate the effects of an unhealthy diet on mood by normalizing levels of metabolic hormones, such as insulin and leptin, and attenuating the decline in certain metabolites produced by the gut microbiome.
