There are two components of psychological health, the absence of mental health disorders, such as depression, as well as the existence of positive psychological well-being.

That's the focus of an emerging field of positive psychology,

focusing on happiness, life satisfaction, and flourishing,

which may translate to physical benefits,

such as improvements in blood pressure, immune function, and longevity.

What is the contribution of food consumption to well-being? Well, studies have

lengthy consumption of fruits and vegetables with enhanced well-being. A systematic review of

research found evidence that consuming fruits and vegetables was associated with increased

psychological well-being. Okay, but that's just an association. A famous criticism in this area of research is that maybe there's just some inherent

personality trait or a type of family upbringing that might lead people simultaneously to

eat in a healthy way and also to have better mental well-being.

So the diet is merely correlated with, but incorrectly gives the appearance of helping to cause

the level of well-being.

But recent research circumvented this problem by seeing if changes in diet are correlated

with changes in mental well-being, in effect, studying the evolution of well-being and happiness

after increases in the consumption of fruits and vegetables.

And look at that graph, a straight-line increase between how much more fruits and veggies

people started eating and their change in life satisfaction over time.

Increased fruit and vegetable consumption appeared predictive of increased happiness,

life satisfaction, and well-being, up to 0.24 life-satisfaction points for an increase

of eight portions a day.

What does that mean?

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