Spending more time in nature was associated with a more intuitive relationship with food in a survey of 500 UK adults, published in the journal Body Image in October 2026. The study was led by Viren Swami, professor of social psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, with 11 co-authors, and reported in the press on 15 October 2026. Participants completed self-report questionnaires measuring how much contact they had with nature, how connected to nature they felt, body appreciation, self-compassion and intuitive eating, a measure of eating in response to hunger and fullness rather than to emotion or external rules. The researchers found a direct association between nature contact and intuitive eating, and also indirect pathways running through body appreciation and self-compassion, which they described as more important than the direct link. Swami said the findings "could have practical benefits for public health professionals".
What the study can and cannot show
The design is cross-sectional, meaning everything was measured at a single point in time, so it records associations and cannot establish that time outdoors causes any change in eating. The authors are explicit about this. Swami said the study had limitations, "particularly as it is based on self-reported data", and that research in other nations is also needed. The sample was 500 UK adults, so the pattern cannot yet be generalised. No funding source was stated in the reporting. The study tested no intervention. Nobody was asked to spend time outdoors and then reassessed.
What this means in practice
This is a survey about eating behaviour and body image, not about nutrients or products, and it does not test or recommend anything that can be bought. It describes a statistical relationship in one UK sample between how much time people reported in nature and how they reported deciding when to eat. Readers tracking the evidence on diet and wellbeing can note it as preliminary and correlational. The authors position the work as a basis for further research and for public health thinking, rather than as guidance for individuals.
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