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.
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Depression is a widespread condition that affects more than 280 million individuals worldwide with 70 per cent of patients unable to respond to initial treatment with antidepressant medications. The study stated that diet was an important element to overcome the condition and that's where orange could play a part.
“I hope our results inspire other researchers to look into the link between diet and mental health. I think people know intuitively that the foods we eat impact our mood. We even have a term for this: comfort foods, which make ourselves feel better in the short term," said Mr Raj.
“There's such a huge unmet need for depression treatments, and eating citrus doesn't really have any major side effects,” he added, “so it would be great to see how much this simple treatment can help.”
The researchers also acknowledged that their study had certain limitations due to most of the participants being white, middle-aged women. Additionally, while they managed to control several factors, there is a possibility that the findings were correlational rather than casual, Even if that's the case, eating an orange a day certainly harmed no one.
