Eating fruits and vegetables can boost mood

Eating fruits and vegetables in everyday life can boost happiness by making young people calmer, happier and more energetic, according to a new study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology.at the University of Otago's Department of Psychology and human resources studied the relationship between daily mood and food consumption.the study,
281,
young people with an average age of
20,
completed a daily food diary on the Internet that lasted
21
days., participants completed a questionnaire detailing their age, gender, race, weight and height. People with a history of eating disorders are excluded

out of the world.every day of
21
days, participants logged into their diaries every night and rated their emotions using
9
positive and
9
negative adjectives.they were also asked five questions about their diet that day.specifically, they were asked to report the number of servings of fruits (excluding fruit juice and dried fruit), vegetables (excluding vegetable juice), and unhealthy foods such as biscuits, chips and muffins.showed a strong relationship between more positive emotions and higher daily fruit and vegetable intake.more analysis found that eating fruits and vegetables predicted positive emotions the next day, suggesting that healthy foods may improve mood. The findings were independent of an individual'
body mass index (BMI)
body mass index."further analysis, we have demonstrated that young people need to consume about
7-8
of fruits and vegetables a day to make meaningful positive changes.a serving of fruit or vegetables is about the size or half a cup that your palm can hold.My co-author,
Bonnie White
, suggests that this can be done by eating half of the vegetables in each meal and eating whole fruits such as apples," the researchers said.while studies have shown a link between promising healthy foods and healthy moods, the researchers recommend randomized controlled trials to assess the effects of high fruit and vegetable intake on mood and well-being.