Eating an Orange a Day May Lower Your Risk of Depression by 20 Percent, Study Finds

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but an orange a day might keep the blues at bay—cutting your risk of depression by 20 percent, according to a recent study.

The study, published in BioMed Central, explored how certain foods and gut bacteria work together to affect the risk of depression.

According to WHO, depression affects 280 million people worldwide, and diet may offer a promising way to help prevent and manage it.

Researchers studied decades of diet and mental health data from over 32,000 women. They also analyzed gut bacteria and blood samples from a smaller group of participants, comparing the findings with a separate group of men to confirm the results.

"We found that eating one medium orange a day may lower the risk of developing depression by about 20 percent. And the effect seems to be specific to citrus," says Raaj Mehta, M.D., study lead author and gastroenterology professor at Harvard University.

When researchers looked at individual fruit and vegetable consumption or other specific fruits like apples and bananas, they found no connection to depression risk.

People with higher levels of the beneficial gut bacteria—F. prausnitzii—were less likely to experience depression, and those who ate more citrus tended to have more of this bacteria.

Researchers believe F. prausnitzii plays a key role in a metabolic process affecting serotonin and dopamine—two neurotransmitters essential for digestion and gut function.

"These neurotransmitters regulate how food passes through the digestive tract, but they can also travel to the brain, where they elevate mood," Metha says.

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