Authors: Chris Kresser
Tags: #Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / Diets, #Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / Weight Loss
Your Personal Paleo Code: The 3-Step Plan to Lose Weight, Reverse Disease, and Stay Fit and Healthy for Life (32 page)
In his book
Last Child in the Woods,
Richard Louv refers to this disconnection from nature and its effects as nature-deficit disorder. It affects children and adults of all economic, social, and cultural backgrounds and leads to “diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.” According to Louv, the disorder can affect individuals, families and communities, perhaps even changing human behavior in cities, since the absence of parks and open space has long been associated with high crime rates, depression, and other urban maladies. Louv and other commentators point to a growing body of evidence suggesting that regular contact with nature is important to health, and a lack of such contact contributes to both physical and mental problems. For example:
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Natural environments have restorative and rejuvenating effects, reduce stress and blood pressure, and improve one’s outlook on life.
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Patients in hospital rooms recover faster when they’re exposed to plants or nature; prison inmates whose cell windows face nature have fewer illnesses than those whose cell windows face the prison courtyard; and office workers with views of trees and flowers feel that their jobs are less stressful and more satisfying than those with windowless offices.
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Spending even a little time outdoors can reduce the symptoms of ADHD—even among kids who failed to respond to medication.
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Nature can improve the capacity to tolerate stress and can reverse mental and physical fatigue.
What’s happening here? Why is contact with nature so essential to health? The simplest answer is that nature is in our DNA. For hundreds of thousands of generations, humans lived, worked, ate, played, and slept outside in undeveloped, natural environments. Living indoors with artificial light, air-conditioning, and central heating has been common for only a few generations, and we’re still biologically adapted to life on the savanna. This concept—that humans have an innate affinity for the natural world—was labeled the biophilia hypothesis by Harvard University scientist and Pulitzer Prize–winning author E. O. Wilson. It’s supported by more than a decade of research demonstrating how strongly people respond to open, grassy landscapes, scattered stands of trees, meadows, water, winding trails, and elevated views—exactly the environment that humans evolved in. But there are other reasons contact with nature improves our health. Studies using geographic information databases have found a strong correlation between greater amounts of parks and open, green spaces in an area and increasing levels of cycling, walking, and other forms of physical activity. In preschool children, time spent outdoors is the single most predictive factor of how physically active they will be. In addition to encouraging activity, nature protects against the harmful effects of air pollution. According to the California Air Resources Board, indoor air-pollutant levels are 25 to 62 percent greater than outside levels, and this difference poses a serious risk to health. And while crowding, high temperatures, and noise have all been linked to increases in aggression and violence, natural settings appear to have the opposite effect.
Here are a few tips to increase your exposure to nature:
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Put plants in your home and office.
Studies have shown that caring for and seeing plants in your home and workspace has beneficial effects on health.
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Get to know your local parks.
Many urban environments have great parks and open green spaces you can take advantage of without leaving town. Studies have found associations between use of urban green spaces and stress reduction, regardless of an individual’s age, sex, or socioeconomic status.
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Limit your screen time (and your children’s):
Studies consistently show that increased screen time leads to less time spent outdoors.
•
Exercise outdoors.
Outdoor exercise has some unique benefits, which I’ll cover in the next section.
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Go camping.
Camping is a great way of getting out of the city and interacting with nature.
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Get a dog.
Dog owners are more likely to be physically active, and having a dog may make you more likely to visit nature—especially if you have good off-leash hiking trails where you live.
•
Get closer to nature.
People who live and work closer to nature—including urban parks and green spaces—tend to be healthier overall than people who don’t have access to nature. This is even true if all you do is look at nature: people with offices and homes that have views of nature tend to be healthier than those who look out on completely human-made environments.
Rick, age twenty-eight, came to see me complaining of difficulty concentrating and memory issues, mental fatigue, depression, and malaise. “I used to have such a zest for life,” he told me. “Now I just feel like I’m going through the motions.”
Rick worked for a high-tech company in Silicon Valley—and that’s about all he did. On most days he’d arrive at the office at 8:30 a.m. and wouldn’t leave until after 9:00 p.m. He worked during the weekends and on vacations, when he got around to taking them (which wasn’t very often). I asked Rick about his childhood and what he loved to do. I noticed that almost everything he mentioned involved contact with nature: camping, going to the beach, surfing, snowboarding, and hiking in the mountains.
I suspected Rick was suffering from nature-deficit disorder, so I prescribed a regular program of getting outside and interacting with the natural world. At lunch, he drove to a hiking trail not far from his office and took a walk. He cut back on his work and started surfing again a few days a week. He enrolled in an outdoor tai chi class. And he scheduled a regular camping trip once every three months. Over the course of a year, Rick gradually regained his enthusiasm for life. “I don’t dread getting out of bed like I used to. In fact, I look forward to my days now,” he told me. “And the best part is, I’m getting even more done at work in less time.”
A little bit of nature can go a long way!
Outdoor exercise provides more exposure to beneficial sunlight and more contact with nature. But there are additional advantages.
Running outdoors, for example, tends to affect your muscles differently than running inside on a treadmill; you flex your ankles more, and since you probably run up-and downhill at some point, you use different muscles in your legs. Outdoor exercise in general is often more strenuous than indoor exercise, in part because of wind resistance and changes in terrain. (Think of cycling, where wind resistance can cause significant drag and thus much higher energy expenditure.) There are also less tangible benefits of outdoor exercise. Compared with exercising indoors, outdoor exercise is associated with greater feelings of revitalization and positive engagement; decreases in tension, confusion, anger, and
depression; and increased energy. Joggers who exercise in a natural, green setting with trees, foliage, and landscape views feel more restored than people who burn the same number of calories in gyms or other man-made settings. Those who exercise outdoors are also more likely to exercise longer and more often than those who exercise indoors. One study outfitted men and women over sixty-six years of age with a device that measured their activity levels for a week. Those who exercised outside got about thirty minutes more exercise during the week than those who walked or did other forms of exercise indoors. Exercise in natural (rather than man-made) environments appears to have benefits above and beyond simply exercising outdoors, especially for children. Research in Norway and Sweden compared preschool children who played on flat playgrounds to children who played for an equivalent amount of time on varied, natural terrain. At the end of the one-year study, the kids who played among the trees, rocks, and uneven natural surfaces tested better for balance, agility, and other markers of motor fitness. Here are some suggestions for boosting your outdoor exercise:
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Choose sports and hobbies that encourage outdoor activity, such as hiking, trail running, surfing, rock climbing, or snowboarding. If you swim or play tennis year-round, do it outside as much as possible.
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Consider a morning or an evening walk with your partner, dog, or children as a daily ritual. This will not only get you moving outside but also give you an opportunity to connect and play with those you love.
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Do your own yard work and gardening.
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Join an activity group that involves outdoor exercise, such as a running, cycling, or hiking club.
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Buy some high-quality all-weather gear so you won’t be deterred from going outside when the weather is bad. You won’t get the benefits of sunshine in these cases, but all of the other advantages of outdoor exercise still apply.
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Get approximately fifteen to twenty minutes of midday sun exposure without sunblock two to three days a week. Actual exposure time should vary based on skin tone, sun intensity, latitude, and time of year.
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Avoid sunburn by using safe, effective sunscreens, covering up with clothing and hats, or shading yourself with an umbrella or a canopy.
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Spend as much time in contact with nature as your schedule and lifestyle permit. Aim for, at a minimum, two excursions into nature (urban parks and green spaces included) each week.
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Put plants in your home and workplace. If you have outdoor space, plant a simple garden (a container garden is one easy option) and sit outside. If you have a choice, live in close proximity (and preferably in sight of) natural environments.
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Exercise outdoors whenever possible on varied terrain that includes hills, trails, rocks, and other natural features.
Notes for this chapter may be found at ChrisKresser.com/ppcnotes/#ch16.
Get Serious about Play
Play Quiz
Complete the quiz below and use the answer key to determine your play score.
I am a playful person.
Points
: 1
I play with pets or children at least three times a week.
Points
: 1
I play individual or group sports at least once a week.
Points
: 2
I engage in playful/fun physical activity (e.g., surfing, snowboarding, ultimate Frisbee, and so on) at least once a week.
Points
: 2
I play board games or other games at least once a week.
Points
: 1
My work involves creativity and innovation.
Points
: 1
I have a playful relationship with my spouse or partner.
Points
: 1
I make time for play and consider it a priority.
Points
: 2
I make a point of learning new skills and participating in activities that I think will be fun.
Points
: 1
TOTAL
Give yourself the correct number of points for all of the questions you answered yes to. Then use the information below to determine your Play score.
Total Points
: 6+
What Your Points Mean
: You are probably getting adequate amounts of play.
Your Personal Paleo Code
: Complete the
Your Personal Paleo Code
3-Step program. No additional personalization is required.
Total Points
: 3–5
What Your Points Mean
: You may benefit from more focus in this area.
Your Personal Paleo Code
: Complete the
Your Personal Paleo Code
3-Step program, and read this chapter for additional tips on how to bring even more play into your life.
Total Points
: 0–2
What Your Points Mean
: You are likely not playing enough.
Your Personal Paleo Code
: Complete both steps above. This should be a major focus for you, and ignoring this area may stand in the way of improvement elsewhere.
Imagine a life without play: no games, sports, movies, art, music, jokes, stories, daydreaming, flirting, make-believe, or roughhousing. Such a life would hardly be worth living. “If you think of all the things we do that are play-related and erase those,” says play expert Dr. Stuart Brown, “it’s pretty hard to keep going. Without play, there’s a sense of dullness, lassitude and pessimism, which doesn’t work well in the world we live in.” We all start out playing naturally as kids; no one needs to teach us how to do it. It is effortless, spontaneous, and universal. As we grow older, though, we’re often made to feel guilty for playing. Play is seen as a waste of time, and since “time is money,” play is almost like throwing money down the drain. Yet despite these cultural attitudes, a growing body of evidence suggests that play is as fundamental to life as sleep, dreams, pleasure, and connection. Play is not simply a frivolous luxury; it’s necessary for the
development of empathy, social altruism, and other behaviors needed to handle stress. It keeps our minds and brains flexible, and it helps us adapt to a changing and unpredictable world.
Play is part of our evolutionary heritage. It emerged and became more prevalent in warm-blooded animals with larger brains. In fact, the smarter an animal is, the more it plays. Dogs, snow leopards, dolphins, otters, killer whales, grizzly bears, and even ravens and ants devote time to play. They even have special play signals, such as a relaxed, open-mouth expression (the play face), that are recognized across species lines.
Why would this be? Evolution favors behavior that improves a species’ chance of surviving and reproducing. On the surface, play appears to be a waste of time—and if there’s anything nature doesn’t tolerate, it’s waste. But scientists now believe that play is “training for the unexpected”: it encourages flexibility and variability in behavior and adaptation to a changing environment. And in an unpredictable world that presents constant challenges and obstacles, anything that helps a species adapt will also help it to survive and reproduce.
This may explain the findings of ethologist Robert Fagen, a professor at the University of Alaska, who spent fifteen years studying the behavior of bears in the wild. He discovered that the bears who played the most often throughout their childhood lived longer and healthier lives and thus left more offspring behind. Other studies of animals suggest that play may directly contribute to the growth of regions of the brain responsible for motor control, balance, and coordination. Professor John Byers, a zoologist at the University of Idaho, found a strong correlation between how often an animal plays and the growth of its cerebellum during childhood. Along the same lines, Canadian neuroscientist Sergio Pellis showed that rats that are deprived of play develop abnormalities in their brains. This research suggests that play is particularly crucial during the period of rapid brain development that occurs during childhood in both
animals and humans. In adults, playfulness is associated with several positive behaviors, such as creativity, productivity, flexibility, optimism, empathy, social altruism, and the capacity to handle stress. It encourages cooperation, promotes problem solving, and fosters a sense of community and belonging. Perhaps above all, play helps us to face what play scholar Brian Sutton-Smith refers to as our existential dread—it opens us to possibilities and gives us hope for the future. This may explain why the human drive toward play exists even under horrific circumstances: children continued to play in concentration camps during the Holocaust.
However, play does diminish when basic needs are unmet or when children suffer long-term, chronic deprivation or abuse. The absence of play in these situations may have catastrophic consequences. Dr. Stuart Brown, a psychiatrist and author of the book
Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul,
studied a group of twenty-six young murderers in the Texas prison system. He found that 90 percent of the murderers he interviewed had been deprived of play or had major “play abnormalities” as children. Less than 10 percent of the nonviolent comparison group in the study had suffered play deprivation or abnormalities. In Dr. Brown’s clinical psychiatry practice, playless lives were characterized by depression, over-control, driven ambition, envy, and, eventually, personal breakdown.
Before we talk about how to bring more play back into our lives, we have to define what it is. It may seem like play is unnecessary—and perhaps even impossible—to define. But having a better understanding of what play is (and isn’t) may help us see more opportunities for cultivating it in all aspects of our lives. According to Dr. Brown, play is:
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Apparently purposeless.
Play is done for its own sake, not to achieve a goal.
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Voluntary.
Play is not a requirement or an obligation.
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Inherently attractive.
Play is fun and feels good.
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Outside of time.
When fully engaged in play, we lose a sense of the passage of time.
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Outside of self.
When fully engaged in play, we become less self-conscious. We don’t worry about whether we look good or awkward or stupid.
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Improvisational.
Play is spontaneous and doesn’t lock us into a rigid way of doing things.
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Mildly addictive.
Play makes us want to do more of it.
As you can see from this list, play isn’t limited to games or sports. Art, music, and all forms of creative expression can be play. Cooking a meal for your family can be play. Even work can be play. Conversely, activities that are often considered play may not be experienced as play if they don’t meet the criteria above. For example, if you’re frustrated, miserable, and completely preoccupied with winning a round of golf or a tennis match, that’s not play.
We live in an era where there seems to be less and less time for play—especially among children. Forty percent of elementary schools across the country have completely eliminated recess, in part to make time for an expanded academic curriculum. Many kids have a schedule that would put a busy CEO to shame, with little time for idle, creative, and unstructured play. And parents mourn that their kids don’t play the way they themselves used to—spontaneously, out on the street, with whatever neighborhood kids happened to be around.
One form of play that
has
increased over the past two decades is playing computer and video games. According to a poll by the Kaiser Foundation, American children play an average of eight hours of video games per week, an increase of over 400 percent from 1999. A staggering 99 percent of American boys play video games, along with 94 percent of girls.
But are video games truly play? While they do satisfy many of the criteria of play, they lack the interpersonal nuance that can be achieved only by play that engages all five senses in the three-dimensional world. This doesn’t mean video games should be avoided entirely; in fact, some studies have shown that playing video games can improve coordination, increase social behavior, and promote some kinds of learning. But it does suggest that they shouldn’t be the sole means of play in a child’s (or adult’s) life.
With this in mind, here’s a list of tips for encouraging more play in your life:
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Take your play history.
Think about the things you loved to do as a child or when you had more play in your life. What got you excited? What gave you the most joy? What activities did you lose yourself in?
•
Make a list of play activities.
Using the results of your play history above, make a list of ways you love to play and put it somewhere you will see it every day. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of life, and sometimes a quick glance at this list will be enough to remind you to do something playful.
•
Create opportunities for play.
Play is all about perspective. If you look for chances to play, they’re everywhere: throw a ball for a dog, play hide-and-seek with your kids, improvise on the piano, have a board-game night, carry a sketchbook with you, or simply go on an aimless walk in the woods.
•
Embrace “beginner’s mind.”
In Zen practice, the term
beginner’s mind
refers to an attitude of openness, curiosity, and humility and a lack of preconceived notions. This is an excellent mental state to cultivate for play, since fear of looking silly, awkward, or unskilled is one of the biggest obstacles to play for adults.
•
Follow your bliss—but don’t mistake play for fun.
Play can be fun, but it can also be absorbing, challenging, and demanding. For example, if you’ve always dreamed of building your own sailboat and sailing it to Mexico, much of that process may not be fun, but it can still be play.
•
Make play a priority.
If you’re busy with work, family, and other obligations, it can be difficult to find time for play. Schedule time for play just as you schedule time for other necessities in your life. If this seems daunting, start small—perhaps just thirty minutes a week. My guess is that after you experience the benefits of play, you’ll naturally find time for more.
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Think like a child—kids are the experts at play.
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Pick activities that bring you joy—repainting the bathroom may not sound like play, but if it meets the criteria (it feels good, you are fully engaged, you’re doing it voluntarily, and so on) then go for it. Remember, one person’s work can be another person’s play.
•
Look for opportunities to play everywhere.
Notes for this chapter may be found at ChrisKresser.com/ppcnotes/#ch17.