A recent Australian research, undertaken at the University of New South Wales and led by Margaret Morris, has revealed that a high-fat, high-sugar diet, or a diet of "comfort foods", can relieve stress and have the same effects as popular mood-altering medicines.

For the sake of study, two controlled group of rats that were traumatized in early life due to forced separation from their mothers were put on different diets and studied. One group was given an "all-you-can-eat cafeteria diet of junk food", and the other was out on a more healthy dietary routine, and both were then made to run through a stress-testing maze. Researchers then noticed an effect similar to popular anti-depressants that doctors all over the world prescribe on previously stressed rats that were on junk food.

"We asked the question, if you're stressed early in life and then you're given yummy food to eat does that reduce your behavioral deficit, and basically that's what we found. The animals that’d been exposed to stress who were then given palatable food, junk food if you will, no longer looked anxious", confirmed Morris.

Despite the findings, researchers have been quick to assert that this is not a reason for people to just go out and starting eating junk food as everyone knows it is not a healthy option. The result, however, can be used to help depressed and stressed patients reduce their dependence on drugs.

Details of the study have been published on the journal Psychoneuroendrocrinology.