Journal of Affective Disorders: Fruit consumption reduces risk of depression in adults, research suggests

Researchers at the Centre for Healthy Brain Aging (CHeBA) in Sydney, Australia have found that fruit consumption is associated with a reduced risk of depression in adults aged 45 and over. The results of their research were published in the Journal of Affective Disorders (JАD).

A total of 7,801 volunteers without depression participated in the study. All of them were over 45 years old. First, the researchers collected information, with the help of questionnaires, about the fruits and vegetables section of each subject's diet. After that, the researchers started monitoring these volunteers for nine years.

During the monitoring, 1,630 new cases of depression were recorded. The comparative analysis showed that the influence of the consumption of vegetables on the probability of occurrence of this disease was not statistically significant. However, a higher proportion of fruit in the diet has definitely been correlated with higher indicators of mental well-being.

Researchers have assumed that vegetables are consumed more often in a cooked state, due to which most of the nutrients are lost. But fruits are mostly eaten raw, which enables to get all the antioxidants, vitamins, and nutrients necessary for brain health.

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