Absorbing nature leads to healthier food choices, new research finds

01 May 2024 --- Spending time in nature or looking at green spaces outside of the window helps nudge people to make healthier food choices compared to being in a less natural, urban environment, suggests a study by the INSEAD business school. The researchers found similar results in five experiments based on outdoor walks or online studies and various foods and beverages, contexts and nationalities. 

Moreover, the researchers replicated the effects before and during/after the COVID-19 pandemic, as the experiments took place from 2016 to 2023. 

“Our studies suggest that it was not the urban view that led to unhealthy food choices but rather that nature influenced people to eat healthier,” says Pierre Chandon, one of the study’s co-authors and the L’Oréal Chaired professor of marketing at INSEAD. 

Experimenting with nature 
For the first experiment in the study, published in Communications Psychology, 39 participants were randomly assigned to take a 20-minute walk through a park or busy streets in Paris. Afterward, they could choose from a buffet of healthy snacks (e.g., fruits and nuts) and less healthy snacks (e.g., cookies and chips). 

All participants ate similar amounts of food, but the group who had walked in the park preferred healthier choices — 70% of their selections were more nutritious snacks, compared to only 39% for people who walked in the city. 

In follow-up experiments with a larger group of participants, the researchers placed people in simulated “hotel rooms” with different window views — a green pasture, city streets or a control condition (a blank wall with closed curtains). 

They asked participants to choose a lunch from an in-room service menu with healthy and unhealthy main courses, beverages and desserts. Again, people with a view of nature opted for more nutritious foods than the other groups. 

In one of the experiments, the researchers offered participants three types of snacks — diet and light, healthy and natural or tasty and indulgent — without giving specific food options. 

The authors note: “We found that experiencing nature increases the importance of health in driving food choices while decreasing preferences for reduced-calorie or indulgent foods.”

People with views of city streets made similar unhealthy choices as people where the environment was hidden.Urban environment 
According to the research, not all natural environments have the same effect, suggesting that the setting’s vividness and level of greenery play a role. They also note that the characteristics of the landscape itself may matter. For example, the scenery did not influence food choices when snow covered a natural or urban view. 

The authors note that nature drives healthier food choices, although exposure to urban environments does not lead to unhealthy decisions. People in an urban condition, with views of city streets, made similar unhealthy choices compared to participants in the control condition, where the green environment was hidden from view. 

They theorize that, as most people in industrialized countries live in urban environments, these have become, de facto, the “normal” environment. 

According to the researchers, the findings “provide practical insights for consumers, parents, food manufacturers, schools and employers, who are invested in their own and possibly their children’s, students’ or employees’ food choices.”

Follow-up research 
The study authors recommend that future research test multiple potential mechanisms simultaneously to compare their importance and the conditions under which they operate. They also note that future work should explore the conditions associated with the found effects and determine how long the benefits derived from nature endure.

Moreover, they recommend studies to examine the role that “affect, stress, priming, perceived restorativeness, delay discounting and self-perception” may play in explaining why exposure to nature increases the motivation for healthy eating. 

The research team suggests exploring whether some aspects of “vitality or awe” could be altered to enhance or suppress nature’s influence on food choice. 

Finally, they recommend testing whether effects vary according to population characteristics and exploring what it means to eat healthily. 

By Jolanda van Hal