A burger might cheer you up: Beef is the only food linked to a lower risk of depression, study reveals

• Beef was only food linked to lower risk of depression in study on 440,000 Brits
• Nutrients found in beef – including iron and B vitamins – may be responsible 
• Beef could be protective through nutrients beneficial in depression prevention

If the thought of a salad makes you glum, tucking into a juicy burger is best for cheering yourself up, say scientists.

Beef was the only food linked to a lower risk of depression in a study using data on 440,000 Britons.

Nutrients found in beef – including iron and B vitamins known to help brain functioning – may be responsible for the protective effect, researchers reported in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

‘This is the first study reporting a potential, beneficial causal effect of beef intake on lowering the risk,’ said the team of psychiatrists from National Taiwan University, Massachusetts General Hospital and other centres.

‘We found that higher beef intake may be protective against major depressive disorder,’ they added.

The researchers studied data from 440,000 people stored in the UK Biobank database, and from 45,000 people with depression.

They examined data on which genes were associated with eating more beef and then they checked if the same genes were also associated with risk of depression. Non-oily fish was associated with a higher risk of depressive illness.

Just how beef could be protective is not clear, they said, but added that it contains nutrients which may be beneficial in the prevention of depression, including zinc, iron, B vitamins and protein.