Eating Your Way to Happiness
If long-term health benefits don’t motivate you to eat better, maybe the promise of a near-term mood lift will.
There are more studies linking healthy eating to better physical health than there are calories in a can of cola. But a strong body of work also ties improved diet to reduced risk of depression… and even happiness. Importantly, the research is not about fad diets. It simply shows how good nutrition can boost mood.
Compiling data from 16 separate research projects involving 46,000 people, new research out this week provides some of the most comprehensive evidence yet that any one of three factors—better nutrition, weight loss or fat reduction— is good for mental well-being.
“Adopting a healthier diet can boost peoples’ mood,” said study leader Joseph Firth of the University of Manchester.
A big takeaway from the study, published Feb. 5 in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine:
Don’t lean on specialized diets that force you to eat only this or that (aka “fad diets” or what I prefer to call “stupid diets”). Just eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and cut down on the highly processed junk food and other things you know are bad for you.
