Research carried out by the University of Warwick indicates that eating more fruit and vegetables can substantially increase people’s happiness levels.
The study of more than 12,000 people is one of the first major scientific attempts to explore psychological well-being beyond the traditional finding that fruit and vegetables can reduce the risk of cancer and heart attacks.
Happiness benefits were detected for each extra daily portion of fruit and vegetables up to eight portions a day.
The researchers concluded that people who changed from eating almost no fruit and vegetables to having eight portions a day would experience an increase in life satisfaction equivalent to moving from unemployment to employment. These improvements to well-being occurred within two years of starting the new 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 research is a collaboration between the University of Warwick and the University of Queensland in Australia.
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 academics believe it may eventually be possible to link this study to current research into antioxidants, which suggests a connection between optimism and carotenoid, a pigment in the blood.
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