Associations Between Meat Consumption and Depression Are Small and Unlikely to Be Causal

Abstract

Evidence from cross-sectional studies suggests that people who eat more meat tend to report somewhat lower depression—a link that, if causal, could have important implications for mental health. However, little is known about why meat consumption is associated with depression. We examined the nature and magnitude of this association in three large, representative, longitudinal samples in the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia (total N = 77,678, aged 14–102 years). Adjusting for income, age, education, and gender, we observed a weak association of β = −0.05 between meat consumption and depression that was not moderated by living context. Moreover, the longitudinal within-person association was very small (β = −0.01) and lagged within-person effects were not significant, casting doubt on a direct causal association. Overall, results do not support low meat consumption as an important risk factor for depression.