Eating more fruit and vegies boosts mental wellbeing, UK study finds

A lack of fruit and vegetables in diets is being linked to anxiety and depression, just with four to six serves a week likened to the bliss of being married.

Eating fruit and vegetables every day makes people happy and even offers the same mood boost as getting married.

A longitudinal study of 45,000 UK people found that eating more fruits and vegetables benefits physical health and mental wellbeing.

“Increasing the frequency of vegetable consumption from never to four to six days per week generates approximately the same estimated increase in life satisfaction as being married,” lead author Dr Neel Ocean from the University of Leeds said.

“Reducing consumption from four to six days per week to never generates approximately the same estimated loss in life satisfaction as being widowed.

“The more often fruits and vegetables are consumed in a week, the higher mental wellbeing is likely to be.

Heidi, 10, and Nate, 7, eat fruit at home. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“It is also notable that the effect of eating vegetables more often is somewhat larger than the estimated effect of eating fruit more often.”

The results are supported by an Australian study of more than 7000 people which found the probability of being diagnosed with depression and or anxiety was inversely linked to the consumption of fruit and vegetables two years earlier.

The study was led by Associate Professor Redzo Mujcic from the University of Warwick and found the average number of fruit and vegetable portions consumed in one day positively and significantly predicts life satisfaction and happiness.

Associate Professor Mujcic found the difference was “quite substantial” which meant eating fruit and vegetables had the same impact as divorce or separation.

Dr Ocean and his team found that although people with high incomes eat more fruit and vegetable as a whole, the difference is not great across all income groups.

“This suggests that being unable to afford fruits and vegetables in large quantities is perhaps not the main reason that levels of consumption are below recommended guidelines for the majority of the population,” he said in Social Science and Medicine journal.

Dr Ocean said the findings could have important implications for public health practitioners, especially given the low rate of adherence to the national “five-a-day” guideline.

“Even modest changes in the consumption patterns of individuals may translate into substantive positive effects for the wellbeing of large cohorts of the population,” he said.

Australian data shows 85 per cent of people eat fewer than three daily portions of fruit and 60 per cent eat fewer than three daily portions of vegetables.

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