Contact With Nature May Encourage Healthier Eating, New Research Suggests

Could spending more time in nature help people develop healthier eating habits? A new study suggests that greater exposure to natural environments may encourage healthier relationships with food by improving body image, strengthening self-compassion and promoting awareness of the body's hunger and fullness signals.

Published in the journal Body Image, the study was conducted by researchers at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in the United Kingdom. It provides preliminary evidence linking contact with nature to intuitive eating, an approach that encourages individuals to respond to their body's internal signals rather than follow restrictive dieting rules.

The study involved 500 adults from the United Kingdom who were assessed on their exposure to natural environments, including how frequently they noticed nature in daily life and how much time they spent outdoors.

Participants also completed questionnaires evaluating body appreciation, self-compassion, connectedness to nature and intuitive eating behaviours.

The findings revealed a positive association between greater nature contact and intuitive eating. However, researchers found that psychological factors, particularly body appreciation and self-compassion, played important roles in explaining this relationship.

Greater exposure to nature was associated with higher body appreciation, potentially helping individuals feel more comfortable with their bodies, recognise their physical needs and develop healthier attitudes towards eating.

Another important pathway involved self-compassion. Researchers suggested that people with greater self-compassion may be less likely to respond to emotional distress through impulsive eating and more likely to make food choices based on physiological needs.

The findings indicate that engagement with natural environments could potentially support healthier eating behaviours by improving psychological well-being and encouraging a more positive relationship with one's body.

However, researchers cautioned that the study relied on self-reported information and could not establish a cause-and-effect relationship and further studies are needed.

REFERENCE: Viren Swami, et al.; The nature of eating intuitively: An examination of direct and indirect associations between nature contact and intuitive eating; Body Image; DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2026.102199