@article {Leee000332, author = {Megan Frances Lee and Ryan Eather and Talitha Best}, title = {Plant-based dietary quality and depressive symptoms in Australian vegans and vegetarians: a cross-sectional study}, elocation-id = {e000332}, year = {2021}, doi = {10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000332}, publisher = {BMJ Specialist Journals}, abstract = {Plant-based dietary patterns (vegan and vegetarian) are often considered {\textquoteleft}healthy{\textquoteright} and have been associated with broad health benefits, including decreased risk of obesity and ill health (cardiovascular disease, blood glucose and type II diabetes). However, the association between plant-based diets and mood disorders such as depression remains largely equivocal. This cross-sectional study of 219 adults aged 18{\textendash}44 (M=31.22, SD=7.40) explored the associations between an estimate of overall plant-based diet quality and depression in vegans (n=165) and vegetarians (n=54). Overall plant-based diet quality was associated with depressive symptoms in vegans and vegetarians F(1, 215)=13.71, p\<0.001 accounting for 6\% of the variation in depressive symptoms. For those without depression, higher diet quality was protective against depressive symptoms F(1, 125)=6.49, p=0.012. Conversely, for those with depression no association with diet quality was found F(1, 89)=0.01, p=0.963. These findings suggest that a high-quality plant-based diet may be protective against depressive symptoms in vegans and vegetarians. In line with emerging research between food and mental health, higher-quality dietary patterns are associated with a reduced risk of depressive symptoms. Given the rapidly increasing rate of vegan and vegetarian food products within Australia, understanding the potential mechanisms of effects through which a plant-based diet may influence depressive symptoms is required.Data are available in Mendeley public open access repository.}, URL = {https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2021/12/01/bmjnph-2021-000332}, eprint = {https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2021/12/01/bmjnph-2021-000332.full.pdf}, journal = {BMJ Nutrition, Prevention \& Health} }