5 ms·
It's in the summary too: >They took account of many potential confounding factors, including age, income, marital status, number of children, employment status
by ppod 8y ago
It's in the summary too:
>They took account of many potential confounding factors, including age, income, marital status, number of children, employment status, smoking status, exercise levels (measured by days each week on which they walked for at least 10 minutes at a time) and whether they had a longstanding health condition.
>The study has limitations, however. The most important is that this type of observational study can't tell us whether the fruit and veg consumption actually causes improved mental wellbeing.
While the longitudinal design and the adjustment for potential confounding factors helps to make the results more robust, there may be something else unaccounted for at play here. The possibility that people who feel happier are more likely to choose healthier food, for example, cannot be ruled out.
Its a responsible and cautious summary.
- tapanjk 8y agoIs it fair to assume that one cannot just eat more of something without changing anything else? If yes, eating more fruit and veg can be accomplished by eating less of something else and/or increasing caloric requirement through increased physical activity. It would be very interesting to find out what that is, because that could be turned into actionable recommendation about how to eat more fruit and veg.
- oliwarner 8y agoIt could just be focussing on cooking. Less junk food. Taking longer meals. Spending more time on the toilet. Better bowel health. A litany of secondary factors. But they're all direct effects of eating more veg. That's more than correlation.