Fruit and veggies make us happier, not just healthier: study

Fill up on five or more serves of fruit and vegies if you've been feeling flat — research shows they are just as good for our mental health as our physical.

Researchers from the University of Warwick in the UK looked at how much fruit and vegetables people ate and also how high they ranked on a scaled of mental wellbeing.

They found that those who scored highest in mental wellbeing tended to eat more fruit and vegetables.

"The data suggest that the higher an individual's fruit and vegetable intake the lower the chance of their having low mental wellbeing," said lead author Dr Saverio Stranges.

"These novel findings suggest that fruit and vegetable intake may play a potential role as a driver, not just of physical, but also of mental wellbeing in the general population."

Thirty-four percent of respondents who reported a high mental wellbeing said they ate five or more serves of fruit and vegetables, 31 percent ate between three and four portions and 28 percent ate between one and two while only seven percent of those with a high mental wellbeing ate less than one portion.

The researchers studied 14,000 English people who had filled out surveys about their mental and physical health, socio-economic status and healthy behaviours.

They found that smoking and fruit and vegetable intake had the most powerful correlation with mental wellbeing while alcohol intake and obesity did not appear to have the same effect.

Good mental wellbeing was defined as feeling good and functioning well. Those people said they felt happy and optimistic, plus had good self esteem, resilience and relationships.

"Mental illness is hugely costly to both the individual and society, and mental wellbeing underpins many physical diseases, unhealthy lifestyles and social inequalities in health," said co-author Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown.

"It has become very important that we begin to research the factors that enable people to maintain a sense of wellbeing.

"Our findings add to the mounting evidence that fruit and vegetable intake could be one such factor and mean that people are likely to be able to enhance their mental wellbeing at the same time as preventing heart disease and cancer."

The study was published in the journal BMJ Open.

Author: Kimberly Gillan. Approving editor: Wade O'Leary.