Lower intake of animal-based products links to improved weight status, independent of depressive symptoms and personality in the general population
Authors: Medawar Evelyn , Enzenbach Cornelia , Röhr Susanne , Villringer Arno , Riedel-Heller Steffi G. , Witte A. Veronica 
Published: February 2020

Background

Restricting animal-based products from diet may exert beneficial effects on weight status, however whether this is also true for emotional health is unclear. Moreover, differential personality traits may underlie restrictive eating habits and therefore potentially confound diet-health associations. To systematically assess whether restrictive dietary intake of animal-based products relates to lower weight and higher depressive symptoms, and how this is linked to personality traits in the general population.

Methods

Cross-sectional data was taken from the baseline LIFE-Adult study collected from 2011-2014 in Leipzig, Germany (n = 8943). Main outcomes of interest were 12-month dietary frequency of animal-derived products measured using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), body mass index (BMI) (kg/m2), and the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Personality traits were assessed in a subsample of n = 7906 using the Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI).

Findings

Higher restriction of animal-based product intake was associated with a lower BMI (age-, sex- and education-adjusted, n = 8943; ß = −.07, p < .001), but not depression score. Personality, i.e. lower extraversion (F(1,7897)= 9.8, p = .002), was related to frequency of animal product intake. Further, not diet but personality was significantly associated with depression, i.e. higher neuroticism (ß = .024), lower extraversion (ß = −.006), lower agreeableness (ß = −.001), lower conscientiousness (ß = −.007) and higher BMI (ß = .004) (all p < .001, overall model, R2= .21). The beneficial association with lower weight seemed to be driven by the frequency of meat product intake and not secondary animal products. Likewise, the overall number of excluded food items from the individual diet was associated with a lower BMI (age-, sex- and education-adjusted, n = 8938, ß = −.15, p < .001) and additionally with lower depression scores (ß = −.004, t = −4.1, p < .001, R2= .05, corrected for age, sex and education), also when additionally correcting for differences in personality traits (ß = −.003, t = −2.7, p = .007, R2= .21).

Interpretation

Higher restriction of animal-based products in the diet was significantly associated with a lower BMI, but not with depressive symptoms scores in a large well-characterized population-based sample of adults. In addition, we found that certain personality traits related to restricting animal-based products – and that those traits, but not dietary habits, explained a considerable amount of variance in depressive symptoms. Upcoming longitudinal studies need to confirm these findings and to test the hypothesis if restricting animal-based products, esp. primary animal products ((processed) meat, wurst), conveys benefits on weights status, hinting to a beneficial relationship of animal-based restricted diets in regard to prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity.

Funding

We thank all study participants. We very much appreciate the help of the physicians who performed the clinical examinations and data collection, in particular Ulrike Scharrer, Annett Wiedemann, Kerstin Wirkner and her team. This work was supported by LIFE—Leipzig Research Centre for Civilisation Diseases, University of Leipzig. LIFE is funded by means of the European Union, by means of the European Social Fund (ESF), by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by means of the Free State of Saxony within the framework of the excellence initiative. This work was supported by a scholarship (EM) by the German Federal Environmental Foundation and by the grants of the German Research Foundation contract grant number CRC 1052 “Obesity mechanisms” Project A1 (AV) and WI 3342/3-1 (AVW). The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the included in the analysis and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

Graphical abstract