A recent study showed that a high intake of fresh produce is not only beneficial for physical health, but also contributes significantly to mental and emotional well-being, independent of other socioeconomic factors.
This is potentially a very exciting discovery in many respects. Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption could help reduce public health spending, give the industry an opportunity to educate consumers while establishing a new marketing strategy for fresh produce, and provide further incentive for public health institutions to increase their recommendations for fresh fruit and vegetable intake.
Depression is a major burden on public health budgets
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines depression as the main cause of health problems in the world, with around 350 million sufferers. Each year, about 7% of the world’s population suffers from major depression, and 25% are affected by a milder form, including anxiety – a debilitating state of mind that can prevent individuals from performing simple daily tasks.
According to the WHO, as far as mental disorders are concerned, the biggest part is related to depression, which is claimed to be 26% of the total illnesses in the EU. In some countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, around half the budget for long-term sickness and disability benefits is spent on mental health disorders, with depression accounting for the vast majority of cases. Almost 10% of the adult population in the EU take antidepressants.
In addition, the WHO points out that mental and physical health are not two separate things – depression can cause heart disease and can even be one of the causes of cancer.
Fruits and vegetables – an option for happiness
Despite the abundance of research on correlations between high consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and physical health, the link between diet and mental health remains poorly researched.
However, a paper titled “Is Psychological Well-Being Associated with Fruit and Vegetable Consumption?”, published in the journal “Social Indicators Research,” aimed at investigating this connection, came to some surprising conclusions.
The researchers, brought from several institutions, including Dartmouth College (USA) and Warwick Medical School from the UK, analyzed three sets of data from around 80,000 individuals, collected across Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales).
The study showed a strong positive correlation between high fruit and vegetable consumption and mental well-being, with well-being peaking at around seven servings per day.
The researchers felt confident enough about their findings to judge them strongly against a large number of demographic, social, and economic variables. However, they acknowledged that their findings only suggest a causal relationship, and that more research effort is needed to confirm their conclusions.
Diet affects the brain
Mental health and well-being is certainly no less desirable than physical health. As anyone who has ever dealt with the onset of deep depression can testify that an attack can paralyze one’s life even more than many physical ailments.
“Natural” approaches to combating depression are in high demand. Compared to dealing with physical ailments, people struggling with mental health problems are very reluctant to seek professional help, whether from a doctor, physical therapist, or counselor. They also very often show even more resistance when it comes to taking drugs that help restore the biochemical balance in the chemical composition of the brain.
It is accepted in professional circles that mental health problems, including depression, can be caused (often only temporarily) by imbalances in brain chemistry. Given that the food we eat provides all the raw materials for biochemical and metabolic processes in the body, it should come as no surprise that brain functions are also strongly influenced by nutritional factors.
New positioning platform and future basis for audit guidelines
Unfortunately, the public is still unaware that there is a connection between nutrition and mental health. Creating awareness of this connection and informing consumers that increasing fruit and vegetable intake can help keep depression at bay is worth research for future marketing platforms for fresh produce.
As indicated by the researchers who conducted the aforementioned study, much work needs to be done to explain the connection between fresh produce consumption and mental and emotional well-being. Besides the obvious fact that just a few studies are simply not enough to prove a link or establish mechanisms, it would be of interest to determine whether certain types of fresh produce have a greater effect on personal happiness than others. This research is still in its infancy and would greatly benefit from more investment, including from industry players.
The study also suggests that seven meals a day have been shown to be associated with optimal life satisfaction, rather than the five meals usually recommended by official health authorities around the world, including England, Germany and America.
The five-meals-a-day doctrine was never based on the amounts needed for optimal physical and mental health, but had more to do with setting achievable goals for people whose daily intake was below three meals a day. Encouraged by public health promotions, along with industry effort, consumption levels are slowly starting to rise. Our data shows that on a global level, fruit and vegetable consumption per capita increased by over 8% in the period 2006-2011. Studies like this one will provide further impetus to increase the number of recommended servings per day, ideally to seven or eight servings, a more than welcome step for consumer health and the fresh produce industry itself.
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Euromonitor International