Fruit for Mental Health: A Surprising Benefit of Eating Fruit at Work

Can snacking on fruit at the office really make a difference for your mental health? According to science, it absolutely can. One study even found that eating an orange every day could lower your depression risk by 20 percent! But how does fruit work its magic?

It turns out there’s a strong connection between the gut and the brain. What we eat during the workday can have a big impact on how we feel. To understand why, we dug into the science to find out what fruit does for our minds, how the “gut-brain axis” works, and how much fruit employees should eat to get the benefits.

Why Fruit Matters for Mental Health

Multiple studies have linked eating fresh fruit with better mental health. It can help reduce your risk of anxiety and depression, lower your stress, boost your mood, and improve your life satisfaction. And it turns out that you get the first mental health benefits of snacking on fruit before you even take a bite.

“Even the anticipation and excitement of eating fruit releases hormones in your brain,” Senior Neuroscience Dietitian Erin Nella told The FruitGuys.

Once you start chewing, the micronutrients in the fruit get to work, bringing you a mental health boost in a few different ways.

4 Ways Fruit Supports Mental Health

1. Fruit Encourages Serotonin Production

Vitamin B6 and folate are common nutrients in fresh fruit. Both nutrients help your body produce serotonin, one of the body’s “feel-good chemicals.” Low serotonin levels are linked with anxiety and depression, and high levels will keep you calm, happy, and focused. Eating fresh fruit helps keep those serotonin levels up.

2. Fruit Helps Reduce Inflammation

Fruit is jam-packed with antioxidants, including carotenoids, flavonoids, isothiocyanates, phenolic acids, and some vitamins. These healthy nutrients protect our cells from stress-related damage (a.k.a. inflammation). Some inflammation is normal, but chronic inflammation can be dangerous and is linked to depression and fatigue, so it’s important to keep it at bay.

3. Fruit Feeds the Good Bacteria in Your Gut

Fruit is a great source of both soluble and insoluble fiber, which keeps our digestive organs running smoothly. This is important for mental health because your gut and your brain are connected. They’re constantly communicating through a system called “the gut-brain axis.”

Nella told The FruitGuys that scientists have noticed a correlation between certain patterns of bacteria and fungi in the gut and mental health issues.

“Fruit interacts to change the microbiome to be one that’s more favorable and less susceptible to anxiety and depression,” Nella said. In other words, people who eat more fruits and vegetables typically have healthier gut microbiomes and better mental health.

This may be the “why” behind the study that found a link between eating oranges and a lower risk of depression. In an interview with The Harvard Gazette, the physician who led the study said people who ate citrus regularly had higher levels of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii bacteria in their guts. Faecalibacterium prausnitzii helps our bodies produce two feel-good chemicals: serotonin and dopamine!

4. Fruit Takes the Place of Mood-Lowering Options

On top of its benefits, snacking on fruit can save you from the negative effects of less healthy choices. One study of 428 healthy adults found that frequently snacking on savory processed snacks like chips was associated with increased symptoms of depression, stress, and anxiety and overall reduced psychological wellbeing. By replacing processed snacks with fresh fruit, you can get fruit’s benefits and avoid those salty snack downsides.

What Is the Best Fruit for Mental Health?

Every kind of fruit is good for your mental health, because they’re all full of dietary fiber, antioxidants, and micronutrients that bring their own health benefits. If you’re looking for fruits that encourage serotonin production, you can find plenty of serotonin-boosting B6 in bananas, grapes, and watermelon and folate in citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruits.

One study of fruit for mental health published by Frontiers in Psychology found that raw apples and bananas were “the strongest predictors of most mental health measures.” However, it also found that “most all other raw fruits such as grapefruit, berries, kiwifruit, stone fruit (peaches, apricots), pear, frozen berries (eaten raw), and grapes were related to positive mood and flourishing.”

Another paper—this time a review of 61 different studies—found that while berries and citrus fruits in particular “may promote higher levels of optimism and self-efficacy,” all fruits and vegetables seem to have a positive influence on mental health.

So really, you can’t go wrong! The most important thing is to eat a wide variety of fruits—ideally when they’re whole and fresh.

Why Whole Fresh Fruit Works So Well

Think of every piece of fruit as a tiny orchestra. All of the micronutrients inside of it are playing different instruments. There’s the Vitamin B6 flute, the fiber cello, and so on. And like the instruments in an orchestra, these micronutrients can do amazing things on their own—but something special happens when you bring them together. As Barbara Ruhs, MS, RD, told The FruitGuys, whole fresh fruit is “nature’s perfect package” for delivering nutrients.

We don’t fully understand how all of these micronutrients coordinate to create their health symphonies, but the same study that linked raw apples and bananas to better mental health also found that raw fruit is better for mental health than cooked or processed versions. So, when in doubt, go with the fresh stuff.

How Fruit Can Support Better Mental Health at Work

This research surrounding fruit for mental health is especially important in the workplace, where stress and burnout are common. Thanks to its serotonin-boosting properties, a piece of fruit can bring a little extra joy to the workday. Snacking on fruit will also help you be happier and more present at the office long term by lowering your anxiety and depression risk and helping you feel less stressed.

Plus, fruit is brain food: When workers eat more fruits and vegetables, according to a study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, they’re more engaged, productive, and motivated. That’s a lot of mental wins for an office snack!

How Much Fruit Employees Need for Mental Health

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends eating at least two servings of fruit per day. But interestingly, the same study that found a link between savory snacks and depression symptoms also showed that eating fruit frequently was more important for mental health than eating a lot of it. So even if you can only eat one serving in any given day, that’s much better than none! And a workplace that supports healthy habits can make a big impact.

How to Make Fresh Fruit Easier to Access at Work

Eating fruit for mental health has so many workplace benefits that keeping a fruit bowl in the office just makes sense. If every employee snacked on at least one piece of fruit per day, that could make a huge difference in your office’s culture and productivity.

The easiest way to make sure your team always has access to fresh fruit is by adding office fruit delivery to your wellness program. An office fruit subscription service like The FruitGuys can deliver a wide variety of fresh, high-quality options right to your break room every week. Regular deliveries make it simple to keep fruit on hand and help your team form healthy habits. Want to try it out? Fill out this quick form to request a free sample!