Eating more fruits and vegetables is good for your health and mental state.
According to the Conversation, the authors Peter Howley and Ocean wrote that their research was based on the Australian study of 20 16. The report pointed out that people's mental health has improved after the increase in fruit and vegetable intake.
In addition, a randomized trial in New Zealand found that if young people were asked to eat two more servings of fruits and vegetables every day for two weeks, various mental health indicators, such as motivation and vitality, were improved. Although the emotional state such as depression and anxiety has not changed.
In order to verify the past research, the team conducted a five-year follow-up survey of nearly 40 thousand Britons, asked the subjects about their fruits and vegetables through actual visits or questionnaires, and used the general health questionnaire; ; GHQ- 12), to assess the degree of mental health. In this study, 65,438+0 servings of fruits and vegetables are equivalent to 65,438+0 fist-sized lettuce, or half a fist-sized sliced cooked vegetables and fruits.
The benefits of eating 1 fist fruits and vegetables every day and walking for 8 days every month.
According to Science Daily, research shows that increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables is related to higher mental health and life satisfaction. These data span as long as five years, and other interfering factors, such as health, income and other food intake, are also excluded. The study also found that eating more 1 fist vegetables every day is equivalent to walking for 8 days every month (at least 10 minutes each time).
But eating fruits and vegetables can not directly promote mental health, because the "substitution effect" cannot be ruled out. Ocean explained that people's food intake is limited, so people who eat more fruits and vegetables have less appetite for unhealthy food. In the future, other foods should be included in the research to reduce the influence of substitution effect.
Fruits and vegetables may affect your mood. The next step is to explore the physiological mechanism.
Is it possible that people with healthier psychology just like to eat fruits and vegetables? Ocean pointed out that research in New Zealand shows that according to a person's fruit and vegetable intake, it can be predicted whether he will have depression or anxiety after two years, but it is difficult to predict whether he will have depression or not. He said that this shows that fruits and vegetables are more likely to affect mood, not the other way around.
Future research will further strengthen the causal relationship between fruits and vegetables and mental health. However, randomized trials are expensive, and the possible direction is to explore the relationship between substances in fruits and vegetables and physiological changes. For example, vitamins C and E are related to inflammatory indicators related to depression. Ocean and Howley*** both pointed out that more and more studies have proved the benefits of fruits and vegetables, and a simple way to improve mental health is to eat more fruits and vegetables.