Eating fruits, veggies lifts mood, makes you calmer

Melbourne: Eating more fruit and vegetables may make young people calmer, happier and more energetic in their daily life, according to a new research. Researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand investigated the relationship between day-to-day emotions and food consumption. 

    Researcher Tamlin Conner, Caroline Horwath and Bonnie White analysed a total of 281 young adults (with a mean age of 20 years) who completed an internet-based daily food diary for 21 consecutive days. 
    The results showed a strong day-to-day relationship between more positive mood and higher fruit and vegetable consumption, but not other foods. "On days when people ate more fruits and vegetables, they reported feeling calmer, happier and more energetic than they normally did," Conner said in a statement. 
    To understand which comes first — feeling positive or eating healthier foods — Conner and her team ran additional analyses and found that eating fruits and vegetables predicted improvements in positive mood the next day, suggesting that healthy foods may improve mood. PTI