Spending Time in Nature Could Help You Eat Healthier

It may sound surprising, but the path to a healthier diet might run straight through your backyard, your local park or even your windowsill. A new study exploring the relationship between nature interaction and dietary behavior has found a meaningful and statistically significant connection: People who spend more time engaging with the natural world tend to eat better — and the reasons behind that connection are as interesting as the finding itself.

“Our findings are some of the first to show that spending time in nature may promote healthier dietary behaviors,” said lead investigator Dahlia Stott, Ph.D., who led the study as a doctoral student in the Department of Health Sciences in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University.

What the Study Did

Investigators recruited 300 adults who self-reported how frequently and for how long they interacted with nature, everything from time spent outdoors to having houseplants at home. Participants also completed a detailed dietary questionnaire, from which two important scores were calculated: the Healthy Eating Index 2020, which measures overall diet quality, and the EAT-Lancet Index, which measures how closely someone’s diet aligns with sustainable eating patterns that are good for both personal and planetary health. Thirty participants also completed in-depth interviews to add context and depth to the numbers.

The quantitative results were clear: More interaction with nature was significantly associated with both higher diet quality and more sustainable dietary patterns. The qualitative interviews then helped explain the mechanisms behind those numbers, surfacing four distinct themes that paint a compelling picture of how and why nature shapes what we eat.

“This line of research is helping us understand that nature isn’t just a backdrop for healthy behaviors — it’s an active ingredient in health,” said co-investigator Brandy-Joe Milliron, Ph.D., an associate professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University. “We think this can help us design interventions that intentionally harness those connections.”

The Four Pathways Between Nature and What We Eat

The first theme that emerged was perhaps the most intuitive: Spending time in nature relaxes the mind, and a calmer mental state creates the conditions for healthier food choices. Stress is one of the most well-documented drivers of poor dietary behavior, and nature appears to interrupt that cycle.

The second theme reflected a bidirectional relationship between health-seeking behavior and nature: People who are motivated to take care of their health are drawn toward nature, and that same mindset positively influences what they choose to eat. Health orientation and nature connection appear to reinforce each other.

The third theme was more visceral. Participants described how a genuine felt connection to the natural world sparked a specific desire to nourish their bodies with more fruits and vegetables, as though proximity to living things translated into an appetite for them.

The fourth theme spoke to something broader: People who feel connected to nature also tend to think more carefully about where their food comes from and how their choices affect the planet. That mindfulness about the food system translated into healthier and more sustainable dietary decisions.

Taken together, the data suggest that mental state acts as a moderating factor (meaning it influences how strong the nature-diet connection is) while a deeper sense of connection to nature actually mediates the relationship, helping to explain the pathway between time spent outside and food choices made inside.

The practical implications here are accessible in a way that many health interventions are not. You do not need a gym membership, a nutritionist or an expensive meal plan to begin benefiting from what this research describes.

“There’s some different mechanisms that are potentially at play here, but if people spend more time in nature, if we as a humanity spend more time in nature, then I think that we’d be healthier overall,” said Stott. “This is finding your nearest park, your nearest green space or maybe spending time in your own backyard to promote your health. And in multiple ways, not just dietary behaviors, because we’re seeing a plethora of other mental and physical health benefits. So, I hope that this study helps to uplift the importance of spending time in nature to improve personal and planetary health.”