Rx for happiness: Eat more fruits & veggies!
From Juice Plus+ August 2017 Newsletter
Not a subscriber? Subscribe Here!
Happiness increases after consumption of
fruit and vegetables, study finds
University of Warwick research indicates that eating more fruit and
vegetables can substantially increase people’s later happiness levels.
To be published shortly in the prestigious American Journal of Public
Health, the study is one of the first major scientific attempts to explore
psychological well-being beyond the traditional finding that fruit and
vegetables can reduce risk of cancer and heart attacks.
Happiness benefits were detected for each extra daily portion of fruit and
vegetables up to 8 portions per day.
The researchers concluded that people who changed from almost no fruit
and veg to eight portions of fruit and veg a day would experience an
increase in life satisfaction equivalent to moving from unemployment to
employment. The well-being improvements occurred within 24 months.
Cancer
The study followed more than 12,000 randomly selected people. These
subjects kept food diaries and had their psychological well-being
measured. The authors found large positive psychological benefits
within two years of an improved diet.
Professor Andrew Oswald said: “Eating fruit and vegetables apparently
boosts our happiness far more quickly than it improves human health.
People’s motivation to eat healthy food is weakened by the fact that
physical-health benefits, such as protecting against cancer, accrue
decades later. However, well-being improvements from increased
consumption of fruit and vegetables are closer to immediate.”
The work is a collaboration between the University of Warwick,
England and the University of Queensland, Australia. The researchers
found that happiness increased incrementally for each extra daily portion
of fruit and vegetables up to eight portions per day. The study involved
an examination of longitudinal food diaries of 12,385 randomly sampled
Australian adults over 2007, 2009, and 2013 in the Household, Income,
and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. The authors adjusted the
effects on incident changes in happiness and life satisfaction for people’s
changing incomes and personal circumstances.
Western diet
The study has policy implications, particularly in the developed world
where the typical citizen eats an unhealthy diet. The findings could be
used by health professionals to persuade people to consume more fruits
and vegetables.
Dr Redzo Mujcic, research fellow at the University of Queensland, said:
“Perhaps our results will be more effective than traditional messages in
convincing people to have a healthy diet. There is a psychological payoff
now from fruit and vegetables — not just a lower health risk decades
later.”
The authors found that alterations in fruit and vegetable intake were
predictive of later alterations in happiness and satisfaction with life.
They took into account many other influences, including changes in
people’s incomes and life circumstances. One part of the study
examined information from the Australian Go for 2&5 Campaign. The
campaign was run in some Australian states which have promoted the
consumption of two portions of fruit and five portions of vegetables each
day.
Antioxidants
The academics think it may be possible eventually to link this study to
current research into antioxidants which suggests a connection between
optimism and carotenoid in the blood. However they argue that further
research is needed in this area.
“Evolution of well-being and happiness after increases in the
consumption of fruit and vegetables” by Redzo Mujcic and Andrew
Oswald, forthcoming in the August issue of the American Journal of
Public Health.
http://www.psypost.org/2016/07/happiness-increasesconsumption-fruit-vegetables-study-finds-43734