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The Surprising Effects Trees Versus Grass Have On Your Mental Health
Everybody knows that being around nature can make us happy, healthy, and even improve our mental well-being – but we’re human, and we’re inexplicably picky. Not all foliage is created equal when it comes to having a positive effect
July 31, 2019
Everybody knows that being around nature can make us happy, healthy, and even improve our mental well-being – but we’re human, and we’re inexplicably picky. Not all foliage is created equal when it comes to having a positive effect.
In a study published last week in JAMA Open Network, researchers at Australia’s University of Wollongong attempted to figure out what sort of green space in any given city would provide the biggest mental benefit. Would it be a giant park? A small little patch of grass with a bench? A community garden? Rooftop gardens?
For the study, the researchers compared three types of green spaces: tree canopy (mature trees whose leaves and branches provide coverage of the ground when viewed from above), grass, and low-lying vegetation (like shrubs).
Almost 47,000 Australian adults over 45 reported whether or not they lived near these different types of green spaces, but also their self-reported mental and general health. They were surveyed twice, with the second survey six years later.
Researchers found that exposure to nature can definitely have positive mental health benefits – but it depends on the type of greenery.
Tree canopy was the best. Exposure to 30% or more total green space that included tree canopy is associated with 31% lower rates of psychological distress. The people who reported living near tree canopy reported living one mile from it.
Exposure to only low-lying ground vegetation, however, has no effect. Sorry, shrubs.
Grass wasn’t especially helpful – exposure to 30% or more of grass was associated with 71% higher odds of psychological distress. The researchers noted that the study was based on self-reported surveys that did not show the full spectrum of participants’ mental health. They warned that “this finding not to be interpreted as evidence for removing existing grassy areas or defunding the planting of new open grassy areas.”
Yes, let’s please leave the grass alone. As poet Walt Whitman wrote in Leaves of Grass, “Do anything, but let it produce joy” – the true lesson for spending time in nature.
Meanwhile, in a related study just released, researchers have began to create a framework for how city planners and municipalities worldwide can measure the mental health benefits of nature, then merge those into plan and policies for cities and residents.
The study was led by the University of Washington and Stanford University.
“Thinking about the direct mental health benefits that nature contact provides is important to take into account when planning how to conserve nature and integrate it into our cities,” said Greg Bratman, lead author and an assistant professor at the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
Lead Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK
Need For Fresh Office Fruit Is Growing Steadily In Germany
Many companies now offer their employees free fruit. People can organize that themselves or can employ a delivery service. These are now available in almost every town, says the Handwerksblatt.
Number of Delivery Points is Increasing At A Rapid Pace
Many companies now offer their employees free fruit. People can organize that themselves or can employ a delivery service. These are now available in almost every town, says the Handwerksblatt.
Enzio Reuß has been the proud managing director of Fruitful Office since 2011. The delivery service is based, among others, in Frankfurt a.M. - Pictures: Freshplaza.de
Once or twice a week, a fresh fruit basket will be delivered to the office. Bananas, apples, pears, grapes, peaches or kiwis. Employees can pick whatever, whenever. "Fresh fruit is probably the simplest and most cost-effective method of sustainably increasing the quality of life of employees," says Enzio Reuß, who founded Fruitful Office in 2011, a nationwide delivery service for fruit baskets.
Identification with the company
Reuss is convinced that a serving of fruit a day already helps to reduce absenteeism. In addition to this, it helps to increase the loyalty to the company when management regularly supplies fresh fruit.
For more information:
Fruitful Office GmbH
GF: Enzio Reuß
Central: Dieselstraße 37
60314 Frankfurt
+49 69 43008208-0
enzio@fruitfuloffice.de
www.fruitfuloffice.de
Publication date: 7/19/2019
US (HI): Researchers Help Waimānalo Families Use Aquaponics, Improve Health
Three researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa have won a national fellowship and will receive $350,000 funding over three years to assist Waimānalo families with backyard aquaponics to sustainably produce healthy food.
The project will connect the modern technology of aquaponics with Native Hawaiian food practices. Aquaponics taps into the power of the natural symbiotic relationship between fish and plants, and combines the raising of plants in water with raising fish in tanks to create a sustainable, contained food production system.
From left, Ilima Ho-Lastimosa, Ted Radovich and Jane Chung-Do
The fellowship was awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to promote health equity in the U.S.
The research team is comprised of Jane Chung-Do, an associate professor with the UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies in the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work; Ilima Ho-Lastimosa, community coordinator at the Waimānalo Learning Center and an education specialist in the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Science (TPSS) in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources; and Ted Radovich, a TPSS associate specialist.
They will expand their work with families in Waimānalo to develop an aquaponics program to grow fresh fruits and vegetables and raise fish that families can use to prepare meals and Hawaiian medicines. This builds on the decade-long work that Ho-Lastimosa has been promoting in her community of Waimānalo.
The researchers will recruit Native Hawaiian families in Waimānalo to participate in aquaponics lessons and will guide the families in building and maintaining backyard systems. The researchers will follow up to see whether the systems are successful in helping the participants increase their intake of and access to fresh fruits, vegetables and fish, as well as promote healthy eating habits. In addition, impacts on participants’ mental wellness, cultural identity, family strength and community connectedness will be measured.
Ilima Ho-Lastimosa feeds fish in an aquaponics set-up, while Jane Chung-Do looks on.
“Our goal is to restore Native Hawaiian practices related to food and community,” said Chung-Do. “The study embraces the perspective that health is holistic and interconnected with our culture, families, communities and the ʻāina.”
As a public health scientist, Chung-Do has worked to enhance the wellness of children and families in Hawaii, especially in rural and minority communities.
Radovich was born and raised in Waimānalo and holds a PhD in horticulture. His expertise is in sustainable and organic farming systems.
Ho-Lastimosa grew up on the Waimānalo Homestead and holds masters degrees in social work and acupuncture; she is also a master gardener. The community leader and cultural practitioner in Waimānalo founded God’s Country Waimānalo, a group that initiated a food sovereignty and sustainability movement in the community.
Source: University of Hawai'i (Theresa Kreif)
Publication date : 10/11/2018
The Case For A National Institute of Nutrition
BY DR. JOON YUN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 10/09/18
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
© Getty Images
The time has come for Congress to explore the merits of creating a federal agency solely dedicated to nutritional science — specifically, the establishment of a National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), under the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Here’s why.
The economic impact of managing diet-related chronic conditions in the United States is estimated at over $1 trillion per year and growing. Yet, the evidence base for making many specific dietary recommendations remains suboptimal and often contradictory. Robust, independent research in nutritional science is an urgent public health priority.
The way federal priorities are currently organized, nutritional science is not the primary focus of any federal agency. None of the 27 institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health (NIH) focus on nutrition.
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) oversight is largely limited to food labeling and safety. Research funding from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is predominantly dedicated to science as applied to farming and food manufacturing, not nutritional science on the effect of food on humans.
The aggregate sum of research funding set aside for nutritional research across these and all other federal agencies is estimated to be only $1.5 billion annually. To put this into perspective, national spending on candy is about $50 billion per year.
Given the modest level of available support from public institutions, food scientists rely to a significant degree on research funding from industry sources. On one hand, the industry funding fills an important gap in food science research and has contributed significantly to the body of knowledge. On the other hand, disproportionate reliance on industry sponsorship for research funding poses its own set of risks to public benefit over the long term.
The NIH recently had to shut down a $100 million trial — one that could have enshrined alcohol as part of a healthy diet — because NIH officials running the trial had violated policy by soliciting funding support from industry. Such solicitations of private interests are in no small part a result of the lack of public funding for nutritional research.
The NIN’s mission would be to seek fundamental knowledge about food and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness, disability, and their associated costs. The establishment of the NIN would provide robust, independent, and much needed new evidence on health effects of foods as well as independence in translation of this evidence-based nutritional science into national dietary guidelines.
Improving the nation’s health through better nutrition will pay enormous dividends. The NIN could more than pay for itself over the long term through scientific advances, food and nutrition innovations, and cost savings for the HHS.
As it stands today, direct and indirect costs of managing diet-related chronic conditions in the United States are estimated at over $1 trillion annually and growing. Private businesses are being crushed by rising healthcare costs. Two-thirds of active duty military personnel are overweight or obese, and obesity is the leading medical reason that otherwise qualified recruits cannot join the military.
Our food system is also a leading cause of environmental impact, for water, land, forests, oceans, and climate. Poor eating also contributes to disparities, especially for children: a vicious cycle of bad health, lost productivity, increased health costs, and poverty. Indeed, given the growing role of diet in human diseases, and the fact that one in four federal dollars is spent on health care, we may not be able to afford not having a National Institute of Nutrition.
Congress launched the National Cancer Institute through the National Cancer Act of 1937 because it recognized that the time had come to seriously address cancer at the national level.
We are at a similar tipping point for nutrition and health.
Dr. Joon Yun is president and managing partner of health care hedge fund Palo Alto Investors. Board certified in radiology, Yun served on the clinical faculty at Stanford from 2000-2006. Yun is a member of the President's Circle of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.Yun launched the $1 million Palo Alto Longevity Prize in 2013 to reverse the aging process and recently donated $2 million to launch the National Academy of Medicine Aging and Longevity Grand Challenge.