Eating Extra Fruits And Vegetables Can Improve Your Mental Health In Just 2 Weeks

Linh Pham

You already know that fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet, but did you know that it only takes two weeks of a few extra servings of produce to have a direct impact on your psychological health, according to science?

It sounds too good to be true, but that’s exactly what the latest research says from the University of Otago in New Zealand: Giving young adults high-quality fruits and vegetables, without texting them to increase their intake and providing them a voucher for the food, “resulted in improvements to their psychological well-being over a 2-week period.”

Luke Michael

The study, looked at the eating habits of 171 students between 18 and 25, divided into three groups: diet-as-usual, students given a voucher to purchase more fruits and vegetables, and students directly supplied with more fruits and vegetables. In both intervention groups, students reported eating more servings of fruit and vegetable (3.7 daily servings versus a baseline of 2.5 daily servings), which was accomplished simply by asking subjects to eat two extra servings of produce (one fruit and one vegetable) each day.

While both intervention groups were able to provide blood samples indicating increased FV consumption, only students in the direct fruit and vegetable intervention group (FVI) showed “improvements to their psychological well-being with increases in vitality, flourishing, and motivation” during the two-week trial. Subjects in this group were given a bag of two weeks worth of fruits and vegetables, depending on seasonal availability.

Sydney Zentz

“These results provide initial proof-of-concept that giving young adults fresh fruit and vegetables to eat can have psychological benefits even over a brief period of time,” the team concluded. “Findings provide initial validation of a causal relationship between FV and well-being, suggesting that large-scale intervention studies are warranted.”

Given what we already know about the benefits of eating plenty of produce — that it can help you live longer and improve your sex life — adding an extra piece or two of produce to our daily diets is a no-brainer. And if you want to show someone you care, bring them a hefty bag of fruits and vegetables the next time you see them.