Does eating fruit and vegetables also reduce the longitudinal risk of depression and anxiety? A commentary on 'Lettuce be happy'

Abstract

This commentary provides evidence of a longitudinal connection between current diet and later mental health. We build upon a research study, Ocean, Howley, and Ensor (2019, forthcoming), which uses UK data to argue that consumption of fruit and vegetables may be able to improve people's self-assessed mental-health scores on the general health questionnaire (GHQ) and life-satisfaction scores. We show, in Australian data, that an equivalent result may be true for actual clinical diagnosis of depression and anxiety. We conclude that there appears to be accumulating evidence for the psychological power of fruit and vegetables.

Keywords: Anxiety; Clinical diagnoses; Depression; Longitudinal design; Plant consumption; Well-being.