Background: About 10-20% of children and adolescents worldwide experience a mental health problems, while among the factors which may be preventive, there is a diet, especially fruit and vegetables intake.
Objective: The aim of the study was to conduct a systematic review of the observational studies analyzing the association between the fruit and vegetables intake and the mental health in pre-schoolers and school-aged children.
Material and methods: The systematic review was conducted based on PubMed and Web of Science databases, while the human studies, published in English until June 2019, conducted in populations of pre-schoolers and/ or school-aged children, verifying the influence of fruit and/ or vegetables and products (e.g. juices) intake on a various aspects of mental health were included.
Results: The number of 12 studies were included, while a wide area of aspects of mental health was taken into account, including general well-being, emotions, stress, behavioral difficulties and problems, as well as depressive symptoms, or depressive symptoms combined with anxiety.
Conclusions: In majority of studies included to the systematic review of the observational studies analyzing the association between the fruit and vegetables intake and mental health in pre-schoolers and school-aged children, the supposed positive influence was confirmed. However, it must be indicated that it was studied only in a few research and the issue must be analyzed in other populations. At the same time, in a number of studies, not fruit and vegetables intake alone was stated to be beneficial, but rather a more general dietary pattern, including also other elements of healthy diet and healthy lifestyle.
Keywords: fruit; vegetables; juices; mental health; child; diet.
Copyright by the National Institute of Public Health - National Institute of Hygiene