Fruit and veg make us happier

A study showed that the more fruit and vegetables we eat, the less likely we are to be depressed

There are many different factors related to depression and diet can be one of them. A Peruvian study aimed to investigate whether fruit and vegetable consumption can affect our mental wellbeing and if there’s a relationship between how much we eat and how likely we are to have depressive symptoms.

The results from over 25,000 people from across the country showed that people consuming the most fruits and/or vegetables had significantly less depressive symptoms than those who ate the least of these foods. When analysed separately, the association was stronger with fruits than vegetables but both had a strong positive effect on mental health. People eating the least were more than 80 per cent more likely to experience depressive symptoms.

_{Wolniczak I et al., 2017. Fruits and vegetables consumption and depressive symptoms: A population-based study in Peru. PLoS One. 12(10):e0186379.}