Eating more vegetables—and some fruit—may be linked to better mental health, according to a large Australian study.
Researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), based at Brisbane’s Translational Research Institute, analysed health survey data from over 45,000 Australians and found that people who ate the least vegetables had a much higher chance of experiencing psychological distress.
Psychological distress is a broad term covering depression, anxiety, and stress.
The study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that people eating less than one serving of vegetables per day had 1.6 times the odds of experiencing psychological distress compared to those eating five or more servings.
Lead author Dr. Kerri Gillespie, from QUT’s School of Clinical Sciences, said the benefits were particularly strong for women.
“Women appear to go on benefiting from vegetables in their diet up to five or more serves per day, while for men the benefit appears to peak at around three or four serves,” she explained.
The research also found some link between fruit intake and lower rates of psychological distress—but mainly for women, and only up to about two servings a day.
Study co-author Professor Selena Bartlett said the findings were striking because of the large number of participants.
“The findings are extremely significant because it’s an Australian study with more than 45,000 people,” she said.
“Correlation is never causation and we have to be careful about that, but rarely do we think deeply about how diet affects our psychological health, and that’s the beauty of this study.”
Dr. Gillespie also ran a separate, smaller study of 129 healthy adults, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, which looked more closely at diet and mental health. That research found a strong link between sugary soft drink consumption and depression risk.
People who drank seven or more cups of soft drink a week had almost five times the odds of developing depression compared to those who drank less. The study also suggested that eating more dietary fibre might be linked to slightly lower anxiety levels.
While the smaller study’s sample size was limited, the patterns it revealed could be tested in future larger studies.
Professor Bartlett said Dr. Gillespie’s research adds to the growing evidence of a connection between diet and mental health. “We’re not saying eating more vegetables is a cure for mental illness,” she stressed. “But this research supports existing health messages recommending diets high in vegetables and low in sugar.”
The team hopes the findings will encourage the public to think more about the role of diet in mental well-being. As Professor Bartlett put it, “Our role here at the Translational Research Institute is to help improve health and well-being, and this kind of work helps us do exactly that.”
If you care about health, please read studies about why beetroot juice could help lower blood pressure in older adults, and potassium may be key to lowering blood pressure.
For more health information, please see recent studies about rosemary compound that could fight Alzheimer’s disease, and too much of this vitamin B may harm heart health.
Source: KSR.
