Increase Happiness with Healthy Eating

By: Kristin Pulling

Are you looking to increase your well-being and overall satisfaction in life?  It may be easier than you think! Recent research has shown that people who increased their daily servings of fruits and vegetables experienced improvements in happiness, well-being, and life satisfaction.

It is well known that maintaining a healthy diet has many long term physical benefits. However, these long-term health benefits may take decades to accrue. Psychological and emotional benefits derived from increasing fruit and vegetable consumption are much quicker to payoff. In this study, published by the American Journal of Public Health, participants experienced positive increases in life satisfaction within just 24 months. The increase in happiness caused by eating more fruits and vegetables (up to eight portions per day) was extremely significant – measured as “equal in size to the psychological gain of moving from unemployment to employment.”[1]

Next time you’re feeling a little blue, try snacking on fruits and vegetables – the results might surprise you!

 

[1] http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303260