If you were told that eating fruits and vegetables would make you a happier person, would you increase your intake of fruits and vegetables?
According to a new study from Australia, eating fruits and vegetables may help you feel happier.
The researchers found that people who switched from eating almost no fruit and vegetables in their daily diets to eating eight portions of fruit and vegetables a day experienced an increase in life satisfaction equivalent to what an unemployed person feels after finding a job.
The researchers looked at more than 12,000 people in Australia, following them for two years. The researchers asked the people whether they normally ate fruit and vegetables, and how much they ate. Investigators also asked the study participants how satisfied they were with their lives, on a scale from 0 to 10. The researchers then tracked the people’s diets, including whether they had increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables during the study period, and their life satisfaction levels for two years.
The improvements in the people’s life satisfaction occurred within two years of the changes to their diets.
According to study co-author Redzo Mujcic, a health economics research fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia: “Eating fruit and vegetables apparently boosts our happiness far more quickly than it improves human health.”
Results showed that in the people who began eating more fruit and vegetables per day during the study period, the levels of life satisfaction increased by the end of the study.