Today in Research: Why Eating Fast Food Regularly Is So Sad

Discovered: Eating McDonald's will make you very sad, preventing cancer is easy, the Earth's clock is all wrong, and picky women help a species survival.

• Eating McDonald's is sad. Or, rather, it will make you sad. But being sad is sad, isn't it? A study of 9,000 fast-food eaters found that those who ate the junk on the regular were 51 percent more likely to develop depression than those who abstained for healthier options. "Even eating small quantities is linked to a significantly higher chance of developing depression," explained researcher Almudena Sanchez-Villegas. These fast-food eaters also had less fun sounding lives in general; the research found them to be more likely to be single, less active, smoke, and work more than 45 hours a week.  [The Telegraph]

• Preventing cancer is easy. Alright hypochondriacs, get ready for this: Over 50 percent of cancers are preventable. Of the estimated 1,638,910 new cancer cases that will be diagnosed this year in the United States, more than half could have never happened. How? "Only, After working in public health for 25 years, I've learned that if we want to change health, we need to change policy," said researcher Sarah J. Gehlert. A lot of cancer development has to do with our poor lifestyle choices. (Like, eating McDonald's.) Unlike DNA or luck, that's easy-ish to change. "Stricter tobacco policy is a good example. But we can't make policy change on our own. We can tell the story, but it requires a critical mass of people to talk more forcefully about the need for change," she continued. [Wash U]

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.