Study: Fruits beat chips for boosting your mental health
Frequently snacking on fruits can make you feel better, while tasty but less healthy snacks such as potato chips may lead to psychological harm and memory problems, new research suggests.
Researchers from Aston University in Birmingham, England, published the findings in the British Journal of Nutrition this past spring.
The study included 428 healthy adults who filled out questionnaires about their weekly over the past year, including consumption of fruit, vegetables, sweets such as biscuits, cakes and chocolate, and savory snacks such as chips. They also answered questions on their psychological health, alcohol intake, exercise and smoking status.
Those who ate fruit more often showed reduced symptoms of depression and greater positive psychological well-being, the researchers said. More frequent snacking of potato chips and other savory snacks was associated with increased anxiety, depression, stress and reduced psychological well-being.
“We’re just kind of saying that there’s easily modifiable habits that we could change to potentially boost our mental well-being and reduce our risk of potentially having low mood and developing depression,” said Nicola-Jayne Tuck, a doctoral researcher and a co-author of the study.
Participants ate fruits and vegetables on average four to six times a week, and sweet and savory snacks two to three times a week.
An interesting finding was that eating a portion of fruit of any size (for grapes, a portion was a “handful of grapes”) was good for mental health, Tuck said. Eating fruit twice a day was better than eating it four times a week, for instance.
The researchers said frequently consuming fruits in raw form (whole fruits, for example), may maximize the absorption of nutrients with antioxidant properties, increasing their influence on psychological health.
Snacking on savory foods, especially potato chips, was associated with cognitive struggles, including memory failures, as well as more instances of depression, anxiety, stress and reduced overall mental well-being, Tuck said.
Though eating more fruit was not directly linked to improved cognition in the findings, “we can say that this nutrient-poor crisp (potato chip) consumption” is associated with reduced cognition, she told USA TODAY.
Previous research has yielded similar results, including a 2020 study that found eating berries, bananas and dried fruits significantly reduced depressive symptoms.