Year: 2012
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Humans run on a fuel called food.Yet economists and other social scientists rarely study what people eat.We provide simple evidence consistent with the existence of a link between the consumption of fruit and vegetables and high well-being.In cross-sectional data, happiness and mental health rise in an approximately dose-response way with the number of daily portions of fruit and vegetables.The pattern is remarkably robust to adjustment for a large number of other demographic, social and economic variables.Well-being peaks at approximately 7 portions per day.We document this relationship in three data sets, covering approximately 80,000 randomly selected British individuals, and for seven measures of well-being (life satisfaction, WEMWBS mental well-being, GHQ mental disorders, self-reported health, happiness, nervousness, and feeling low).Reverse causality and problems of confounding remain possible.We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our analysis, how government policy-makers might wish to react to it, and what kinds of further research --especially randomized trials --would be valuable.
Source: Social Indicators Research
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1571758011