单选题
A new study found that inner-city kids living in neighborhoods with more green space gained about 13% less weight over a two-year period than kids living amid more concrete and fewer trees. Such
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tell a powerful story. The obesity epidemic began in the 1980s, and many people
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it to increased portion sizes and inactivity, but that can"t be everything. Fast foods and TVs have been
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us for a long time. "Most experts agree that the changes were
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to something in the environment," says social epidemiologist Thomas Glass of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. That something could be a
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of the green.
The new research,
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in the
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
, isn"t the first to associate greenery with better health, but it does get us closer
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identifying what works and why. At its most straightforward, a green neighborhood
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means more places for kids to play—which is
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since time spent outdoors is one of the strongest correlates of children"s activity levels. But green space is good for the mind
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: research by environmental psychologists has shown that it has cognitive
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for children with attention-deficit disorder. In one study, just reading
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in a green setting improved kids" symptoms.
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to grassy areas has also been linked to
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stress and a lower body mass index among adults. And an
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of 8,000 Tokyo residents associated walkable green spaces with greater longevity among senior citizens.
Glass cautions that most studies don"t
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prove a causal link between greenness and health, but they"re nonetheless helping spur action. In September the U. S. House of Representatives
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the delightfully named
No Child Left Inside Act
to encourage public initiatives aimed at exposing kids to the outdoors.
Finding green space is not
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easy, and you may have to work a bit to get your family a little grass and trees. If you live in a suburb or a city with good parks, take
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of what"s there. Your children in particular will love it and their bodies and minds will be
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to you.