Nutrition Videos

Hi! I'm Stelios Pantazis. I'm a doctor and I specialize in medical nutrition and metabolic disorders. Today, I'm revealing the food that makes you happy, and the amount you have to consume for maximum gain. The answer to the question which food makes you happy comes from a study that was published a few years ago, which was based on data from monitoring over 12,000 people in Australia. Among the many questions made to them, they were asked how many portions of fruits they consumed a day and how many portions of vegetables. Then, they monitored for the following two years, at the end of which they repeated the questions, the difference in the happiness indices that the participants answered then based on the consumption of fruits and vegetables they had stated in the previous two years. I have to say that this sample of people were really happy with their lives. In the happiness scale, 10 was the highest score you could give, and the average score of the group was 7.9. However, the people that consumed many fruits and vegetables were happier by up to 1/4 of a unit compared to those that didn't consume any fruits and vegetables. I'm wondering if this seems convincing enough to you. You may think that the extra happiness you get by eating many portions of fruits and vegetables every day, namely the gain, which is only 1/4 of a unit, is low. The researchers answered this question and said that the gain in happiness is equal to what was mentioned by the participants that were unemployed and found a job in the following two years. Namely, the researchers concluded that the sufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables adds to the happiness index similarly to finding a job, namely very much. In the introduction, I promised that I'd also tell you how many fruits and vegetables you should consume for maximum happiness. As you can see in the table, the researchers divided the participants into nine groups. The first group stated that they didn't consume any fruits and vegetables. The next one consumed one portion of fruits and vegetables a day, the next one two portions, etc. The ninth group consumed eight portions of fruits and vegetables a day. The group with the highest gain in happiness was the group that consumed eight portions of fruits and vegetables a day. It was even higher than that of the group that consumed seven portions. Namely, the more portions of fruits and vegetables you consume a day, the happier you are. When I saw the study, I wondered what we would find if there were groups that consumed over eight portions of fruits and vegetables a day. If they consumed nine or even ten portions a day. Would we see even higher gain? Maybe. But only 15% of the participants answered that they consumed three or more portions of fruits and vegetables a day. Only 40% consumed three or more portions of vegetables. And the researchers here counted potatoes and tomatoes in too, which is usually not what we mean when we think about vegetables. What I'm trying to say is that many people would become happier only by eating more fruits and vegetables. If you consume fewer than eight portions of fruits and vegetables a day, you're missing the chance to become happier. One portion of fruits is one apple, one orange, two Mirabelle plums, three apricots, three plums, etc. One portion of vegetables is four tablespoons of cooked vegetables, such as spinach, greens, etc. One small bowl of green salad, two pieces of broccoli or cauliflower, and, in general, 80 g of vegetables. In one day, you could eat a medium-sized salad with every meal, and two medium-sized fruits, and you've already reached eight portions. It's not hard. If you thought this was interesting, please give us a thumbs up. Share it with people who you think might find it interesting, and subscribe to our channel in order to get notified when we upload a video. You can also suggest subjects in the comment section. Thank you very much!