Every extra veggie lower your stress levels by 5 percent
Vegetables are loaded with vitamins and minerals to maintain a healthy lifestyle - and they relieve that end-of-the-day stress too.
Those who eat more vegetables throughout the day had less stress than those who didn't eat many, a new study found.
Scientists say that people who eat between three and four daily servings of vegetables had a 12 percent lower risk of stress than those who only ate one serving or less.
It builds on past research which found that particularly dark, leafy greens, such as spinach, are rich in folate, helping to increase the production of mood stabilizers in the brain including serotonin and dopamine.
The study, conducted at the University of Sydney in Australia, looked at 60,000 Australians who were age 45 or older.
Researchers measured the participants' fruit and vegetable consumption, lifestyle factors and psychological distress at two time points: 2006-08 and 2010.
Psychological distress was measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, a 10-item questionnaire that measures anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Usual fruit and vegetable consumption was assessed using short, validated questions.
The researchers found that participants who ate between three and four daily servings of vegetables had a 12 percent lower risk of stress than those who ate between zero and one servings daily.
And eating five to seven daily servings gave you a 14 percent lower risk.
The benefits were even more pronounced when it came to women. Women eating three to four daily servings of vegetables had an 18 percent lower risk of stress.
But women who ate five to seven servings had a 23 percent lower risk of stress than women who ate one or less servings a day.
Researchers said at the start of the study that characteristics associated with higher stress included: being female, being younger, having a lower education and income, being overweight/obese, being a current smoker and being physically inactive.
Fruit consumption alone had no significant association with a lower incidence of stress, they found.
And there was no significant association between higher levels of fruit and vegetable intake - greater than seven daily servings - and a lower stress incidence.
'This study shows that moderate daily fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with lower rates of psychological stress,' said Dr Melody Ding of the University of Sydney's School of Public Health.
'It also reveals that moderate daily vegetable intake alone is linked to a lower incidence of psychological stress. Moderate fruit intake alone appears to confer no significant benefit on people's psychological stress.'
Several studies have found that fruit and vegetables, both together and separately, are linked with a lower risk of depression and higher levels of well-being assessed by several measures of mental health.
'We found that fruit and vegetables were more protective for women than men, suggesting that women may benefit more from fruit and vegetables,' said first author and University of Sydney PhD student, Binh Nguyen.
The authors say further studies should investigate the possibility of a 'threshold' between medium and higher levels of fruit and vegetable intake and psychological stress.
Article Source :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4317810/Veggies-lower-stress-levels-five-percent.html
Image Source :
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/03/15/20/3E4F14D800000578-4317810-image-a-54_1489610408392.jpg
VOCABULARY WORDS:
1.threshold= (n.) The magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition to occur or be manifested.
2.Intake = (n.) an amount of food , air , or another substance taken into the body.
3.assessed= (v.) evaluate or estimate the nature, ability, or quality of:
4.Consumption = (n.) The using up of a resource.
5.Distress= (v.) cause(someone) anxiety, sorrow , or pain.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1. Rate you stress from 1-10. How stress are you?
2. What do you usually do when you are stressed and want to relax?
3. What kind of vegetables do you eat and why?
4. Do you think you have a healthy diet? Why?
5. When do you plans to change your diet for the better?
