People Choose Healthier Food After Experiencing Nature

• A series of five experiments published in Communications Psychology found that individuals exposed to or imagining natural environments tend to choose healthier foods.
• The effects were present across various foods and beverages and 3 different countries.
• They were detectable both when individuals were walking in a park and when they were looking at photos of nature and imagining the scenery.

People enjoy being in natural environments. Of course, most still like to be comfortable in those environments, but many will also accept different levels of hardship to enjoy nature. Many people travel regularly just to visit nature. Providing opportunities to experience delightful natural environments is also important to tourism.

Nature and health

Not only is nature enjoyable, but studies show that time spent in nature or living near areas of natural vegetation, such as parks, gardens, or forests (particularly urban forests within cities), i.e., so-called green spaces, is associated with better health. It is even associated with a lower risk of dying, particularly of cardiovascular diseases (Gascon et al., 2016). Children living near green spaces tend to have better cognitive development. Studies indicate that the overall well-being of individuals living near green spaces or experiencing them often is better (Dadvand et al., 2015; Ma et al., 2019; van den Berg et al., 2015)

Living near bodies of water, such as rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans, is also associated with similar benefits (Gascon et al., 2017).

 

Studies indicate that spending time in nature may also improve or help improve mental health.

 

Studies indicate that spending time in nature may also improve or help improve mental health. For example, one study found that hiking in nature reduced suicidal tendencies in individuals with high tendencies. Another study found that group walks in nature can buffer against the effects of a stressful lifestyle and protect one’s mental health (Marselle et al., 2019; Mitten et al., 2018; Sturm et al., 2012). This is just a selection of such studies.

The current studies

Study authors Maria Langlois and Pierre Chandon note that some studies indicate that experiencing nature might also benefit food choices. However, the quality of these studies was limited (Langlois & Chandon, 2024). To overcome this, they conducted a series of 5 experiments.

Their hypothesis was that experiencing nature outdoors or through a virtual nature scene would lead people to make healthier food choices than they normally make while experiencing urban environments. More precisely, their expectation was that nature exposure increases the feelings of connectedness to nature, leading to healthier attitudes and increased respect for one’s body. This, and not just the desire to lose weight, might be what leads to healthier dietary choices. Previous studies already reported a link between nature-relatedness and food choices (Miliron et al., 2015).

The procedure

In the first study, 39 Paris, France, residents took a 20-minute walk either through a large local park (the nature environment group) or nearby city streets (the urban environment group). The experiment was conducted with one participant at a time. After the walk, participants accessed a snack buffet offering 4 healthy snacks (bananas, apples, dried fruits, and mixed nuts) and four unhealthy snacks (strawberry cookies, apricot cookies, potato chips, and brownies). The study authors recorded which participants selected which snack.

Participants of the second study were 698 U.S. residents recruited through Prolific. Their task was to imagine being in a hotel room. They were randomly assigned to imagine that from their imagined hotel room, they could either view a scene of nature, an urban scene or that the window curtains were closed. They were shown photos to illustrate these situations. Participants would then write a sentence describing the scene and choose what they would like to eat from a food service menu containing 12 items of different healthiness.

In the third study, 883 U.S. residents viewed a photo of an urban environment or nature used in study 2 (without window frames). They would imagine being in that environment and selecting food they would take as a packed lunch. Afterward, they rated the healthiness of that food. Study 4 was similar but included additional steps to ensure participants paid attention to the photo. Also, instead of picking specific foods, they were selecting between “a natural, healthy snack,” “a tasty, indulgent snack,” or “a diet, light snack”.

In the 5th study, 913 U.K. participants imagined being in a hotel with a window through which they could see the scene in the photo they viewed. The photos showed either a waterfront view with green cliffs or a modern building in a clean city without people. After imagining the scene, participants selected food and beverages they would like (see Figure 1).

 

Figure 1. Study procedure (Langlois and Chandon, 2024)

 

Nature experiences lead to healthier food choices

In the first study, participants who walked through the park chose healthy snacks more often than participants who went on an urban walk. The two groups of participants did not differ in the quantity of snacks they ate.

In the second study, participants in the group that imagined viewing a nature scene from the hotel window tended to make much healthier food choices. Participants who imagined closed curtains and those imagining that they viewed an urban scene did not differ in the healthiness of their choices.

 

Participants who walked through the park chose healthy snacks more often than participants who went on an urban walk.

 

The link between nature experiences and healthy food choices held across countries and situations
The other 3 studies mirrored the results of the first two. Participants of the third study who imagined being in nature more often chose healthier lunch options compared to those who imagined being in an urban environment. The group that imagined nature was more likely to select lunch options they viewed as healthier.

In the fourth study, participants who viewed nature were likelier to select a healthy snack and less likely to select both a tasty and a diet snack. Participants of the fifth study who viewed the waterfront with green cliffs (nature) were also more likely to select healthy food than those who viewed the urban scene (see Figure 2).

 

Figure 2. Results

 

Conclusion

Across 5 studies and 3 countries, the link between nature experiences and healthy food choices persisted. Participants who walked through nature, imagined it, and/or viewed pictures of it were likelier to choose healthier food choices.

Additionally, these choices seem to be driven by food healthiness and not the desire to lose weight, given that, in a study that explicitly offered a choice between a diet snack and a healthy snack, participants who experienced nature more often opted for the healthy one.

 

These healthier food choices are driven by food healthiness and not the desire to lose weight.

 

The findings indicate that weight-loss interventions and other programs aimed at promoting healthy dietary habits should consider individuals’ environments and everyday experiences with nature.

The paper “Experiencing nature leads to healthier food choices” was authored by Maria Langlois and Pierre Chandon.

 

References

Dadvand, P., Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J., Esnaola, M., Forns, J., Basagaña, X., Alvarez-Pedrerol, M., Rivas, I., López-Vicente, M., De Castro Pascual, M., Su, J., Jerrett, M., Querol, X., & Sunyer, J. (2015). Green spaces and cognitive development in primary schoolchildren. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(26), 7937–7942. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503402112 

Gascon, M., Triguero-Mas, M., Martínez, D., Dadvand, P., Rojas-Rueda, D., Plasència, A., & Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J. (2016). Residential green spaces and mortality: A systematic review. Environment International, 86, 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2015.10.013 

Gascon, M., Zijlema, W., Vert, C., White, M. P., & Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J. (2017). Outdoor blue spaces, human health and well-being: A systematic review of quantitative studies. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 220(8), 1207–1221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.08.004 

Langlois, M., & Chandon, P. (2024). Experiencing nature leads to healthier food choices. Communications Psychology, 2(1), 24. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00072-x 

Ma, B., Zhou, T., Lei, S., Wen, Y., & Htun, T. T. (2019). Effects of urban green spaces on residents’ well-being. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 21(6), 2793–2809. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-018-0161-8

Marselle, M. R., Warber, S. L., & Irvine, K. N. (2019). Growing Resilience through Interaction with Nature: Can Group Walks in Nature Buffer the Effects of Stressful Life Events on Mental Health? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(6), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16060986

Milliron, B. J., Ward, D., Granche, J., Mensinger, J., Stott, D., Chenault, C., Montalto, F., & Ellis, E. V. (2022). Nature Relatedness Is Positively Associated With Dietary Diversity and Fruit and Vegetable Intake in an Urban Population. American journal of health promotion : AJHP, 36(6), 1019–1024. https://doi.org/10.1177/08901171221086941

Mitten, D., Overhold, J., Haynes, F., D’Amore, C., & Ady, J. (2018). Hiking: A Low-Cost, Accessible Intervention to Promote Health Benefits. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 12(4), 302–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827616658229 

Sturm, J., Plöderl, M., Fartacek, C., Kralovec, K., Neunhäuserer, D., Niederseer, D., Hitzl, W., Niebauer, J., Schiepek, G., & Fartacek, R. (2012). Physical exercise through mountain hiking in high-risk suicide patients. A randomized crossover trial. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 126(6), 467–475. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2012.01860.x 

van den Berg, M., Wendel-Vos, W., van Poppel, M., Kemper, H., van Mechelen, W., & Maas, J. (2015). Health benefits of green spaces in the living environment: A systematic review of epidemiological studies. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 14(4), 806–816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2015.07.008