Ikigai Daily
Menu
StillnessWellbeing insight

In a 2019 study of nearly 20,000 people in England, those who had spent at least 120 minutes in nature in the previous week were more likely to report good health and high wellbeing. The benefit peaked at around 200 to 300 minutes, and it made no difference whether the time came in one visit or several.

Public-health research

Health

The story behind the card

The study, led by Mathew White at the University of Exeter and published in Scientific Reports, used a national survey of how people in England spend time outdoors. It shows a link, not proof that nature causes better health, but other research points the same way. In 1984 the researcher Roger Ulrich found that patients recovering from gallbladder surgery in a Pennsylvania hospital went home sooner and needed fewer strong painkillers when their window looked out on trees rather than a brick wall. Suggested explanations include more exercise, cleaner and quieter surroundings, and attention restoration theory, proposed by the psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan: natural scenes hold our attention gently, which gives the mind a rest from constant concentration.

Türkçe oku
2019'da İngiltere'de 20.000'e yakın kişiyle yapılan bir araştırmaya göre, önceki hafta doğada en az 120 dakika geçirenler sağlıklarının iyi olduğunu ve kendilerini iyi hissettiklerini daha sık söylüyordu. Fayda haftada 200-300 dakika civarında en yükseğe ulaştı; sürenin tek seferde ya da parça parça geçirilmesi fark etmedi.

Araştırmayı Exeter Üniversitesi'nden Mathew White yönetti; sonuçlar Scientific Reports dergisinde yayımlandı. Veriler, İngiltere'de insanların açık havada nasıl vakit geçirdiğini soran ulusal bir anketten geliyordu. Bu bir bağlantı gösterir, doğanın sağlığı iyileştirdiğini kanıtlamaz; ama başka araştırmalar da aynı yönü işaret ediyor. Roger Ulrich 1984'te, ABD'nin Pennsylvania eyaletindeki bir hastanede safra kesesi ameliyatı olan hastaları inceledi: Penceresi tuğla duvar yerine ağaçlara bakan hastalar daha erken taburcu olmuş, daha az güçlü ağrı kesiciye ihtiyaç duymuştu. Olası açıklamalar arasında daha fazla hareket ile daha temiz ve sessiz bir çevre var. Psikologlar Rachel ve Stephen Kaplan'ın dikkat restorasyonu kuramı da bir açıklama sunar: Doğal manzaralar dikkati zorlamadan çeker ve zihin, sürekli odaklanmanın yorgunluğundan dinlenir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Nature therapy
Get the mobile appAbout our cards

Related cards

These cards share a subject or reading mode with the card above.

DrivePhilosophy

He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.

English quotation books have called this an “Arabian proverb” since at least the 1860s; Tryon Edwards's A Dictionary of Thoughts (1891) is one, but these books give no Arabic original, so the label is best taken loosely. The idea is widely shared: good health gives people the strength to plan and to recover from setbacks. Turkish says “Her şeyin başı sağlık”, health comes first, and when a glass breaks people say “Sağlık olsun”: never mind, as long as everyone is well.

Spanish, Arabic variants ProverbRead card
DriveHealth

Protein helps with satiety, the feeling of fullness that lasts after a meal. Meals that include beans and lentils, eggs, fish, dairy or other protein sources can help people feel full for longer, although appetite and digestion vary from person to person.

In studies that compare meals with the same number of calories, the higher-protein version usually keeps people satisfied for longer, although the effect is modest. One reason is that protein prompts the gut to release more of the hormone PYY, which tells the brain that food has arrived; a 2006 study led by Rachel Batterham at University College London found the strongest PYY response after high-protein meals. Another is that the body works harder to process protein: a 2004 review by the Maastricht University physiologist Klaas Westerterp reports that digesting and using it burns 20 to 30% of its calories, against 5 to 10% for carbohydrate and up to 3% for fat. UK guidance puts adults' needs at about 0.75 g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day, around 45 g for women and 56 g for men, and average intakes are well above that.

NHSRead card
StillnessHealth

The fibre we eat comes from plant foods: fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds. Meat, fish, eggs and dairy naturally contain none.

Fibre is the part of plant food that our digestive enzymes cannot break down. Much of it comes from the walls of plant cells, which give stems, peel and seeds their structure. Animals do not make these substances, so meat, fish, eggs and milk contain none. Mushrooms, which are fungi rather than plants, also supply a little fibre from their own cell walls. Nutritionists divide fibre into two kinds. Soluble fibre, found in oats, barley, apples and beans, dissolves in water in the gut, can form a gel and helps lower cholesterol. Insoluble fibre, in wholegrains, brown rice, nuts and the skins of fruit and vegetables, adds bulk and helps food pass through. Once fibre reaches the large intestine, gut bacteria ferment part of it into short-chain fatty acids, compounds that feed the cells lining the bowel.

NHS InformRead card
StillnessHealth

Whole fruit keeps its fibre and cell structure, so it takes longer to eat and fills you up more than juice. Juicing breaks the cells open and frees their sugars, which are harder on teeth. The NHS therefore counts juice as one of your five daily portions at most, and advises no more than 150ml a day.

In a 2009 study at Pennsylvania State University, Julie Flood-Obbagy and Barbara Rolls gave 58 adults an apple, apple sauce or apple juice 15 minutes before lunch, each with the same weight and calories. After the whole apple, people felt fuller and ate about 15% fewer calories across the starter and lunch together than on days with no starter. Juice did not have that effect, even with the apple's fibre added back. A larger Harvard analysis of about 187,000 American health professionals, published in the BMJ in 2013, found that people who ate more whole fruit, especially blueberries, grapes and apples, were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, while those who drank more fruit juice were slightly more likely to. Long-term observational studies like this show a link rather than proof of cause, but the two kinds of evidence point the same way.

NHS InformRead card
StillnessHealth

Water makes up about 60% of an adult's body weight. The body needs it to control its temperature, keep blood flowing, digest food and keep organs working. When lost fluid is not replaced, thirst can come with tiredness, headache, dizziness and poorer concentration.

Every day we lose water in urine, in sweat and even in our breath, and more in hot weather or during exercise. About a fifth of what we take in comes from food, especially fruit and vegetables, and the rest from drinks. The NHS suggests 6 to 8 glasses of fluid a day, and water, lower-fat milk, tea and coffee all count. Thirst is the body's alarm: when the blood becomes slightly too concentrated, sensors in the hypothalamus, a small region at the base of the brain, trigger the urge to drink. This alarm weakens with age, which is one reason older people become dehydrated more easily. A simple check is the colour of urine: the NHS advises drinking enough to keep it a clear pale yellow, and darker urine is a sign to drink more.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthRead card
Next card in the archive'Companion' comes from Late Latin companio, built from com, 'with', and panis, 'bread'. Literally, a companion is someone you share your bread with.Read next →