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A new study claims eating a diet high in processed food can increase the risk of depression.

A team from University College London conducted a survey of the diet of 3,500 middle-aged civil servants and found those who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually had a lower risk of depression.

They split the participants into two types of diet, those who ate a diet largely based on whole foods, which includes lots of fruit, vegetables and fish, and those who ate a mainly processed food diet, such as sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products.

After accounting for factors such as gender, age, education, physical activity, smoking habits and chronic diseases, they found a significant difference in future depression risk with the different diets.

Those who ate the most whole foods had a 26 percent lower risk of future depression than those who at the least whole foods.

By contrast people with a diet high in processed food had a 58 percent higher risk of depression than those who ate very few processed foods.