If we needed more motivation to eat a bit healthier, a study has shown that eating more fruits and vegetables can help to lower family stress. Health, including mental health, is incredibly important and especially given the most recent times, it is important that families keep taking care of themselves. This means eating well, getting enough exercise, and making sure that you are taking part in activities that benefit their mental health. However, families are busy now and there may be a way to take care of “two birds with one stone,” and that is by making sure you and your family are consuming enough fruits and veggies.
According to Study Finds, a new study is showing that eating more fruits and vegetables can be a simple solution for battling stress. That this small change will help stress levels in families, while also taking care of their nutritional health as well.
The study was completed by Edith Cowan University and can be read in full here. The team of researchers looked at 8,600 participants, and they found that those who were eating at least 470 grams of fruit and vegetables a day had a 10% lower stress level than those who were eating 230 grams a day.
Simone Radavelli-Bagatine was the lead researcher for the project and she stated that these study findings prove that diet and mental wellbeing are linked. The saying “you are what you eat” may hold more merit than we had originally thought. If you fuel your body with the right nutrients, it can help your stress output.
Stress has been a problem forever, but the last year has made the strain increasingly tougher on families due to the pandemic. There have been studies before showing a link between produce and stress in younger adults, but this study proved it is the same across all age ranges.
The research team is not quite sure why this link exists, and what exactly causes the lower stress levels, but they do have their theories. They do believe that it is linked to consuming the key nutrients that produce holds. Fruits and vegetables have some of the most important nutrients and vitamins that we need and these can reduce inflammation and oxidative stress and in doing that, it improves the mental wellbeing of everyone.
If mom is thinking that it may be tricky for her to incorporate more fruits and veggies into her child’s diet, she may want to try smoothies. They are a great way to get servings of fruit, and mom can sneak some veggies in there as well.
Sources: Study Finds, ECU