New Study: Eating processed meats like bak kwa & bacon can trigger mania

If you’ve been finding yourself irritable or having trouble sleeping of late, your diet might be to blame – especially if you’ve been wolfing down bacon at godspeed.

A new study by John Hopkins Medicine have discovered that there might be a link between ‘manic episodes’ and eating processed meat (i.e. typically cured with nitrates).

In case you’re wondering, a manic episode is defined as “a mood state characterised by a period of at least one week where an elevated, expansive or unusually irritable mood exists.” Symptoms of include irritability, excess energy, insomnia or difficulty sleeping.

The new study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, found that patients diagnosed with mania were more than three times likely to have recently consumed meats like bacon, sausages, ham or salami, compared to those with no history of these disorders. Mania can last anywhere from a few weeks to even a few months and is also a primary symptom of bipolar disorder.

The medical histories of over 1000 people (with and without psychiatric disorders) were examined in the study, which found that the consumption of nitrates found in processed meats is associated with poor mental health. The same series of experiments conducted on rats found that the animals exhibited signs of manic-like hyperactivity after a few weeks.

No other foods were found to have significant links to psychiatric disorders in the study. “We looked at a number of different dietary exposures and cured meat really stood out,” shares lead author Robert Yolken, M.D. However, the participants were not asked to share how regularly they ate processed meats or how long they have been eating them for, which means it was impossible to establish how much eating them may increase the risk of manic episodes.

It’s safe to say this adds on to the growing research on how processed meats can not only affect your physical health (it’s been strongly linked to cancer), but also your mental health. It’s certainly no trifling issue either, considering manic episodes can cause delusional thoughts which can lead to risk-taking behaviour.

As it turns out, you truly are what you eat. For this reason, it might be best to skip out on that bacon-filled brunch or bak kwa fix this weekend..

Sarah Khan

Photo: Getty Images

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