Happiness and Diet

Somewhere around the time I became a teenager I began to become sad, in a general sense. Not everyday was really bad, but there was always an atmosphere of depression that engulfed my daily existence. Year after year it was becoming more apparent that it wasn't going away anytime soon, so I bought the smashing pumpkins records and sulked in the bedroom, learning how to play siamese dream and mellon collie and the infinite sadness on my mexican-made fender strat. Each lyric and every guitar line became my gospel.
Sometimes, when I sign-up for a research study to make some easy money, they'll ask me a serious of questions that will include one about depression. "Have you ever suffered from depression?" I'll answer "yes" and then they'll ask me "when did this occur?" which seems like such an absurd question, like it ever completely went away. But, as I'm getting older I'm beginning to see everything much more clearly about why it began when I did and why it always continues to a certain degree.
When I became a teenager my mother stopped cooking for the family every night. I had more freedom of mobility with my new driver's license and became more responsible for my dietary needs and schedule than ever before. I ate more tv dinner, fast-food and soda than I ever did before. That's probably when my caffeine addiction began, shooting my mental state in all directions. In the past decade the happiest, most productive times were probably the five months when I stopped drinking soda (which didn't last) and the two years I was a vegetarian. Looking back at everything it seems so obvious now and I can't believe that I just didn't understand how linked my diet and happiness levels where aligned. I'm grateful that I understand that now when millions of people just don't seem to get it, that much of the modern diseases and ailments are induced by poor diets of processed food and legal addictions. It's hard to blame them when the media is no help. Rarely on television when they're doing investigative reports on things like children on medication and why america is so depressed and angry do they ever link diet and emotional state together.
but, alas. i'll end this rant.