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A study in Australia in 2016 found improvements in psychological well-being after an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption. We wanted to know if this finding was true using a larger sample (over 40,000 participants) of the longitudinal study of British households.
Our analysis showed that the increase in fruit and vegetable consumption is related to the increase in mental well-being and life satisfaction reported by people over a five-year period. even after taking into account other determinants of mental well-being, such as physical health, income, and other food consumption.
The benefits of physical activity for mental health are well established. Estimates of our work suggest that adding a portion to your daily diet could be as beneficial to mental well-being as going for an extra seven to eight days a month. One serving equals one cup of raw vegetables (the size of a fist), half a cup of cooked vegetables or chopped fruit, or a piece of whole fruit. This result is encouraging because it means that a possible way to improve your mental health can be as simple as eating more fruit each day or having a salad with a meal.
It is important to emphasize that our discoveries alone can not reveal a causal link between the consumption of fruits and vegetables and an improvement in psychological well-being. And we can not exclude the so-called "substitution effects". People can only eat too much in one day. For example, a person who eats more fruits and vegetables may have less room in their diet for unhealthy foods. Although we have considered bread and dairy products in our study, ideally, future research should follow all other foods consumed to exclude other explanations.
But, taken with other studies in this area, the evidence is encouraging. For example, a randomized trial conducted in New Zealand showed that various measures of mental well-being, such as motivation and vitality, improved in a treatment group where young adults were asked to eat two extra servings of fruits and vegetables a day for two weeks. although no change was found for depressive symptoms, anxiety or mood.
Although our own study can not rule out that people with a high level of mental well-being could eat more fruits and vegetables, a recent review of our work by the authors of the 2016 Australian study brings some insight additional about it. The authors show that the number of servings of fruits and vegetables consumed during a day can predict if a person is suffering from depression or anxiety two years later. But the opposite does not seem to be true. A diagnosis of depression does not appear to be a powerful predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption two years later. This suggests that it is perhaps more likely that the consumption of fruits and vegetables influences the mood and not the opposite.
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In search of causes
Although several studies, including ours, have linked fruit and vegetable consumption to mental well-being, we need in-depth testing to provide strong evidence that this link is causal. However, expensive randomized controlled trials, another means of identifying the causal link is to focus on the biological mechanisms that link the chemicals commonly found in fruits and vegetables to physical changes in the body. For example, it has been shown that vitamins C and E reduce inflammatory markers associated with depressed mood.
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While further research is needed, our work adds weight to a growing body of evidence that fruit and vegetable consumption and the maintenance of a higher level of mental well-being are positively correlated, and Signs of a causal link from other recent studies are encouraging. We do not suggest that eating fruit and vegetables replaces medical treatment, but a simple way to improve your mental health might be to add a few more fruits and vegetables to your daily diet.
Neel Ocean is a researcher in behavioral economics and Peter Howley is an associate professor of economics at the University of Leeds. They receive funding from the UK Food Systems Restoration System program for World Food Security, with support from the BBSRC, ESRC, NERC and the Scottish Government.
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