{"id":150306,"date":"2023-03-21T14:16:39","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T18:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/?p=150306"},"modified":"2023-03-20T21:54:33","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T01:54:33","slug":"fruits-and-vegetables-put-to-the-test-for-boosting-mood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/150306","title":{"rendered":"Fruits and Vegetables Put to the Test for Boosting Mood"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fruits and Vegetables Put to the Test for Boosting Mood\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_xmZ45bXz0M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n\u201cFruits and Vegetables Put\r\nto the Test for Boosting Mood,\u201d There are two components of\r\npsychological health: the absence of mental health disorders\r\nsuch as depression, as well as the existence of positive\r\npsychological well-being. That’s the focus of an emerging\r\nfield of positive psychology focusing on happiness, life\r\nsatisfaction, and flourishing, which may translate to physical\r\nbenefits such as improvements in blood pressure, immune\r\nfunction, and longevity. What is the contribution of food\r\nconsumption to well-being? Well, studies have linked the\r\nconsumption of fruits and vegetables with enhanced well-being.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nA systematic\r\nreview of research found evidence that consuming fruits and\r\nvegetables were associated with increased psychological well-being.\r\nOkay, but that’s just an association. A famous criticism in this area of\r\nresearch is that maybe there’s just some inherent personality trait\r\nor type of family upbringing that might lead people simultaneously to eat healthily, and also\r\nto have better mental well-being. So the diet is merely correlated\r\nwith, but incorrectly gives the appearance of helping to\r\ncause the level of well-being.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBut recent research circumvented\r\nthis problem by seeing if changes in diet are correlated\r\nwith changes in mental well-being, in effect studying the evolution\r\nof well-being and happiness after increases in the consumption\r\nof fruits and vegetables. And look at that graph\u2014a straight-line\r\nincrease between how much more fruits and veggies people started eating\r\nand their change in life satisfaction over time. Increased fruit and\r\nvegetable consumption appeared predictive of increased happiness,\r\nlife satisfaction, and well-being\u2014 up to 0.24 life satisfaction points for\r\nan increase of eight portions a day. What does that mean?\r\nIs that a lot? Is that a little? That’s a lot, equal in size\r\nto the psychological gain of going from being unemployed\r\nto get a job.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=758859582269788&amp;set=a.273424174146667\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ibb.co\/ZMJqX15\/3313ecz-Copy.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"115\" height=\"130\" \/><\/a>\r\n\r\nMy Daily Dozen recommendation\r\nis for at least nine servings of fruits and veggies a day. This study was done in Australia.\r\nIt was repeated in the UK, and researchers there found the same\r\nthing, though the Brits may need to bump up their daily minimum to\r\nmore like 10 or 11 servings a day. Okay, but does eating fruits and veggies\r\nalso reduce the risk of depression and anxiety? I mean\r\nwell-being is nice, but governments and medical\r\nauthorities are often interested in the determinants of major\r\nmental illness, not life satisfaction. And indeed, using the same data set\r\nbut instead looking for mental illness, eating fruits and vegetables may\r\nhelp to protect against future risk of clinical depression\r\nand anxiety as well. A systematic review and meta-\r\nanalysis of dozens of studies found that every 100-gram increased intake of\r\nfruit was associated with a 3% reduced risk of depression. That’s about\r\nhalf an apple, yet less than 10% of most Western populations\r\neven consume a bare minimum. Maybe the problem is we’re just telling\r\npeople about the long-term benefits of fruit intake for chronic\r\ndisease prevention, rather than the near-immediate\r\nimprovements in well-being.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.pexels.com\/photos\/6382642\/pexels-photo-6382642.jpeg?auto=compress&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;h=650&amp;w=940\" \/>\r\n\r\nSo maybe we should be advertising\r\nthe happiness gains, but first, we need to\r\nmake sure they’re real. We’ve been talking about associations.\r\nYes, a healthy diet may reduce the risk of future depression or anxiety, but\r\nbeing diagnosed with depression or anxiety today could also lead\r\nto lower fruit and vegetable intake. Now, in these studies, you can\r\nindeed show that the increase in fruit and vegetable consumption came\r\nfirst, and not the other way around, but as the great enlightenment\r\nphilosopher pointed out, just because the cock\r\ncrows before the dawn doesn’t mean the cock\r\ncaused the sun to rise. To prove cause-and-effect you need to put it to the test\r\nwith an interventional study. Unfortunately, to date, many\r\nstudies were like this, where those randomized to eat fruit\r\nshowed significant improvements in anxiety and depression, fatigue,\r\nand emotional distress.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWow, amazing! But that was compared\r\nto chocolate and potato chips. Apples, clementines, and bananas\r\nmaking people feel better than assorted potato chips and chunky chocolate\r\nwafers\u2014not exactly a revelation. This is the kind of study I’ve been\r\nwaiting for: a randomized controlled trial in which young adults were\r\nrandomized to a diet-as-usual group, encouraged to eat\r\nmore fruits and veggies or a third group was given two servings\r\nof fruits and vegetables a day to eat over and above\r\ntheir regular diet.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nAnd the ones given fruits and\r\nveggies showed improvements in their psychological well-being\r\nwith increases in vitality, flourishing, and motivation within just two weeks! However, simply educating people\r\nto eat their fruits and vegetables may not be enough\r\nto reap the full rewards, so perhaps greater emphasis needs to\r\nbe placed on actually providing people with fresh produce, for example, offering\r\nfree fruit for people when they shop.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI know that would certainly\r\nmake me happy!\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_xmZ45bXz0M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">As found on YouTube<\/a>\r\n\r\nThis solution reverses kidney disease! Guaranteed to be effective or your money back: <a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=flywait&amp;vendor=empoweredh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Beat kidney disease. Just by following a simple treatment plan, you can reverse kidney disease. No matter how old you are! Just listen to what people who have tried this solution have to say.<\/a> \u201cThank God I came across your solution by accident! Dad\u2019s kidney function decreased from 36% to 73% in just two months. He\u2019s 90 years old! His doctor said people his age shouldn\u2019t have kidneys that efficient!\u201d Graeme Asham, QLD, Australia, And this\u2026 \u201cNo more dizzy spells! My creatinine has gone down from a staggering 1800 to 1100. My blood count has greatly improved and I\u2019ve been taken off my blood pressure medication. Your solution works! \u201d Joe Taliana, 55, Malta Simply follow the scientifically backed solution and restore your kidneys, fast! =&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=flywait&amp;vendor=empoweredh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This solution reverses kidney disease!<\/a> \u2190 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100000332115031\/videos\/590895892954739\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100000332115031\/videos\/590895892954739\/<\/a> \u044f\u03b1\u2113\u03c1\u043d \u2113\u0454\u03b1\u043c\u03b1\u0438","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; \u201cFruits and Vegetables Put to the Test for Boosting Mood,\u201d There are two components of psychological health: the absence of mental health disorders such as depression, as well as the existence of positive psychological well-being. That’s the focus of an emerging field of positive psychology focusing on happiness, life satisfaction, and flourishing, which may &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/150306\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Fruits and Vegetables Put to the Test for Boosting Mood<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":150305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[138,305],"tags":[59896,59914,59919,59918,59899,59901,55188,471,38266,59908,957,59916,59905,59903,35831,59910,59912],"class_list":["post-150306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-unrest-conflicts-war","tag-diet-for-depression","tag-dr-greger","tag-dr-gregor","tag-dr-michael-greger","tag-food-of-your-mood","tag-food-that-makes-you-happy","tag-foods-for-depression","tag-health","tag-how-not-to-die","tag-how-not-to-diet","tag-mental-health","tag-michael-greger","tag-mood-booster","tag-mood-boosting-foods","tag-nutrition","tag-nutrition-facts","tag-nutritionfacts-org"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/htmlF_IMG_6418c6c93399d.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150306"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150391,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150306\/revisions\/150391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}