While an apple a day might keep the doctor away, research shows that consuming an orange a day might help keep depression at bay. A study published in Biomedcentral, led by Raaj Mehta, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, has found that orange may lower a person’s depression risk by 20 per cent.
The study highlighted that the citrus fruit stimulates growth of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (F. prausnitzii), a type of bacteria found in the human gut that influences the production of serotonin and dopamine — two crucial neurotransmitters responsible for making a person feel good. Both are synthesized in the gut and it is one of the reasons why scientists call it the “second brain”.
“The effect seems to be specific to citrus. When we look at people’s total fruit or vegetable consumption, or at other individual fruits such as apples or bananas, we don’t see any relationship between intake and risk of depression,” said Mr Mehta.
Over 280 million people worldwide suffer from depression, a common ailment for which 70% of patients do not improve with first-line antidepressant prescription treatment. According to the study, eating was a key factor in curing the illness, and oranges may help with that.
“I hope that our findings encourage further studies to investigate the relationship between nutrition and mental health.” I believe that people are naturally aware that our diets have an effect on how we feel. This is even known as “comfort meals,” which temporarily improve our mood, Mr. Raj added.
He continued, “Eating citrus does not really have any severe adverse effects, and there is such a huge unmet need for depression treatments, so it would be amazing to explore how much this basic treatment may help.”
Because the majority of the participants were middle-aged, white women, the researchers also admitted that their study had certain limitations. Furthermore, even though they were able to control for a number of variables, it is possible that the results were correlational rather than coincidental. No one was hurt by eating an orange every day, even if that were the fact.
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