Anxiety and depression affect a respective 374 and 246 million individuals worldwide, including 42.5 million in the United States. Seven to fifteen percent of the country’s filled prescriptions are for anxiety and depression; patients often receive two or more concurrent psychotropic drugs to suppress disorder-related and new-onset, medication-induced symptoms. This descent into endemic mental dis-ease and subjection to psychiatric polypharmacy has spawned a USD 18.35 billion global anxiety and depression treatment racket. Could the peach be your tool of resistance?

Peaches are an abundant source of polyphenols, including chlorogenic acid, a phenolic compound exhibiting tremendous pharmacological potential as an anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, anxiolytic, cytoprotective, and neuroprotective agent.

Among numerous properties, studies indicate the capability of chlorogenic acid to regulate insufficient serotonin and dopamine levels, inhibit neuroinflammation and neuronal damage, and produce behavioral changes comparable to the anti-anxiety effect of diazepam.

Consuming whole and unadulterated peaches provides superior antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity compared to heat-treated peach products and isolated compounds. Heat processing does not allow for the retention of naturally occurring phenolic content; isolates lack beneficial synergistic interactions between native phenolic compounds and, therefore, suffer decreased potency.