Food fight: How fruit may battle late-life depression

UF Health Podcasts

While it may not be possible to always keep the doctor away, a new study offers strong evidence that consuming apples, berries, and other fruit can help keep antidepressants at bay.

With aging populations growing around the globe, depressive symptoms in older adults are also increasing. Specifically, many of these older adults face delayed cognitive processing, waning motivation, appetite loss, poor sleep, and increased fatigue.

Scientists in Singapore studied the dietary habits of nearly 14,000 adults there between the ages of 45 and 74 and over the course of about 20 years, controlling for other lifestyle factors such as sleep duration, smoking status, and physical activity.

Study participants who consumed at least three servings of fruit per day —compared with those who consumed less than one serving — reduced their likelihood of late-life depression by 21%.

Researchers looked at 14 of the most common fruits consumed in Singapore, including oranges, tangerines, bananas, papayas, watermelons, apples, and honeydew melon.

Fruit’s high levels of antioxidants and micronutrients, such as vitamin C, carotenoids and flavonoids — which reduce oxidative stress and inhibit inflammation — are believed to be the driving nutritional components in staving off depression later in life.

Vegetable consumption did not seem to have any impact on whether people developed late-life depressive symptoms. Enjoy relaying that to the veggie nag in your life.

The old saw about apples and doctors is a fine one, but perhaps it’s time for a modern, science-backed update: “Three apples a day keep the blues away.”