Indulging your sweet tooth could lead to depression, surprising study reveals

GUILDFORD, United Kingdom — Do you find yourself reaching for that extra cookie or can’t resist a sugary soda with your lunch? Your sweet tooth might be doing more than just adding a few extra ounces to your waistline. A new study by a team at the University of Surrey has revealed a strong connection between our love of sweet treats and serious diseases, including depression and diabetes.

Researchers, publishing their work in the Journal of Translational Medicine, dug into the food preferences of a whopping 180,000 volunteers from the UK Biobank. Using artificial intelligence, they sorted everyone into three main groups based on what they like to eat. Think of it as your food personality type.

There are the health nuts who are all about those fruits and veggies, passing on the sugary stuff and animal products. Then there are the “everything bagels” who enjoy a bit of everything – meats, fish, some veggies, and yeah, they’ll have that dessert too. Finally, we have the sweet tooths, for whom sugar is king. They’re all about those sweet treats and sugary drinks, often leaving the healthier options on the side.

Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. The researchers didn’t just stop at sorting people into groups. They took a deep dive into the volunteers’ blood samples, looking at nearly 3,000 proteins and 168 metabolites.

For reference, proteins are like the body’s multitool. They do everything from fighting off nasty infections to helping you flex those muscles and even powering your thoughts. Metabolites, on the other hand, are tiny molecules that pop up during digestion and other chemical processes in your body. Think of them as little biological clues that can tell us a lot about how well your body is running. By comparing these biological markers between the different food preference groups, the researchers uncovered some eye-opening results.

“The foods that you like or dislike seem to directly link to your health. If your favorite foods are cakes, sweets, and sugary drinks, then our study’s results suggest that this may have negative effects on your health,” says Professor Nophar Geifman, who led the study, in a media release.

The study found that people in the sweet tooth group were 31% more likely to have depression. That’s not all – these individuals also had higher rates of diabetes and heart problems compared to the other groups.

Digging deeper into the blood work, the researchers found more cause for concern.

“In the sweet tooth group, they had higher levels of C reactive protein, which is a marker for inflammation. Their blood results also show higher levels of glucose and poor lipid profiles, which is a strong warning sign for diabetes and heart disease,” Professor Geifman explains.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. The health-conscious eaters, who tended to have more fiber in their diets, showed lower risks for heart failure, chronic kidney diseases, and stroke. The omnivores, our “everything bagels,” fell somewhere in the middle with moderate health risks.

Now, you might be thinking, “But I thought a little sugar was okay!” Well, you’re not wrong. The British Nutrition Foundation notes that, on average, adults in the U.K. get between 9% to 12.5% of their daily calories from “free sugars” – that’s the kind added to food and drinks, not the natural sugars found in whole fruits and vegetables. The biggest culprits? Biscuits, buns, cakes, pastries, and fruit pies top the list for adults. When you add in sugary soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, however, that’s where most of our added sugar intake comes from.

“Processed sugar is a key factor in the diet of many, and these results are yet more evidence that, as a society, we should do all that we can to think before we eat, stressing that no one wants to tell people what to do, our job is just informing people,” Prof. Geifman concludes.

So, what’s the takeaway here? It’s not about swearing off sweets forever or feeling guilty about every cookie. Instead, it’s about being aware of how our food choices might be impacting our health in ways we hadn’t considered before. Maybe next time you’re faced with a choice between an apple and a candy bar, you might think twice. Your body – and your future self – just might thank you for it.