Mom Wasn’t Just Nagging, She Was Right:
Your mom ever pack an apple in your lunch, or tell you to eat your vegetables?
Well, it turns out mom just wanted you to be awesome, and those theories Bradley the teddy-bear whispered late at night about her being part of the international spinach cartel were purely-circumstantial.
In a University of Otago study, Tamlin Conner and her team studied the diets of a small group of young adults along with their reported feelings and behaviors over a short while.
Not Just Feelings, But Actions & Socializing, Too:
And it turns out that not only was higher fruit & vegetable consumption linked to the abstract senses of happiness and meaning in life, but also with Actions.
The subjects were actually Behaving in more creative and exploratory ways.
And not just on their own, but with their compatriots socially, too.
An important counter-point to these tests, is that the opposite-case behaviors are also markers for Depression, ie: lower motivation & exploration.
As for the control group consuming sweets, etc. and lower fruit & vegetables, they did not share the same benefits.
Seemingly Anti-Depressive, But No Day-To-Day Carryover:
There was also no carry-over effect from one day to the next, so you have to keep it up.
Further study by Tamlin’s team might explore the exact biochemistry of what’s going on, in addition to what’s speculated about increased vitamin c, micronutrients, and mood neurotransmitters.
Hey, maybe Dr. Joel Fuhrman was right about eating a big salad at least once a day after all?
More details at the Links:
Photo Credits: Publicity Photo of Keir Dullea as Dr. David Bowman in “2001: A Space Odyssey”, by Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and MGM
Links:
• Source: U.Otago-An Apple A Day…
• via: PSMag
• More Coverage: British Psych Society
• Source Study: BJHS-On carrots and curiosity: Eating fruit and vegetables is associated with greater flourishing in daily life
• Otago-Full Text [PDF]
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