Research suggests eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression. It says, people who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually had a lower risk of depression. A report in the British Journal of Psychiatry says data on diet among 3,500 middle-aged civil servants was compared with depression five years later.<br/> Those who ate the most whole foods, which includes lots of fruit, vegetables and fish, had a 26 per cent lower risk of future depression than those who ate the least whole foods. By contrast people with a diet high in processed food, such as sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products, had a 58 per cent higher risk of depression than those who ate very few processed foods. The team said the study was the first to look at the UK diet and depression.