Children who live near forests appear to have better nutrition, according to a large-scale study across four continents.
No, they’re not eating pine cones and acorns. But they probably do have a more diverse diet,the study published in the journal Science Advances said, and that helps with overall nutrition.
In their analysis, the authors found that the children living close to forest edges had 25 percent greater dietary diversity. The study showed it also increased the chances children would be eating vitamin A-rich foods by at least 11 percent and iron-rich foods by 16 percent.
"Dietary diversity is a good proxy for micronutrient intake and tells us a lot about the overall health of a community," Brendan Fisher, a professor in UVM's Environmental Program in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, and a co-author on the new research, told ABC News.
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5 comments:
Not only that but they often play outdoors and get exposed to things that boost their immunity. Sitting in doors playing on phones and computers has made kids weak and unimaginative. Put the kids out like the dog and let them play with sticks and dirt.
Don't you just love how these researchers provide correlations? Of course people who have money to live in wooded areas probably have more money than those who live in urban areas, consequently they and their kids have the opportunity to eat better. Duh!
It's true! I ate TONS of pine cones when I was a kid.
The money part is not necessarily true. There are plenty of poor rural people who leave near forests.
We were anything but wealthy and lived with a forest in the back yard. We grew a huge garden, got milk and cream from the next door neighbor's dairy farm, had free range chickens for eggs and meat, ate venison, rabbit, pheasant, quail and fish from the nearby streams and the lake about five miles away.
We shake our heads in disbelief at how few kids have any idea at all of what it's all about.
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