ScienceDaily: Being in nature - Good for mind, body and nutrition

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“Canadian doctors made headlines for "prescribing nature," or recommended time outdoors based on research that suggests people who spent two or more hours in nature per week improved their health and wellbeing. Knowing this, transdisciplinary researchers from Drexel University investigated how nature-relatedness, simply feeling connected with the natural world, benefits dietary diversity and fruit and vegetable intake.

Researchers discovered that nature-relatedness has been associated with better cognitive, psychological, and physical health and greater levels of environmental stewardship. Moreover, people with higher nature-relatedness were more likely to report healthful dietary intake, including greater dietary variety and higher fruit and vegetable consumption.

This work can impact health promotion practices in two ways. First, nature-based health promotion interventions may increase nature-relatedness across the lifespan and potentially improve dietary intake. And second, augmenting dietary interventions with nature-based activities may lead to greater improvements in dietary quality.

These findings highlight the potential for leveraging nature-based experiences or interventions such as incorporating green spaces or urban greening into city planning, integrating nature- and park-prescription programs into healthcare practices (similar to the Canadian model), and promoting nature-based experiences in the classroom settings, among many others.“

Read the complete article here.

💬 What are your thoughts on the findings of this study?

💬 Do you feel connected to the natural world? If so, how does it influence your lifestyle choices?

#Nature #Diet #Well-being