Nature 'can help people keep fit'

Can you remember three times you have used outdoor green areas in the past, let's say, six months?

Did you take the initiative or did another person persuade you to go?

Did you like it?

Were you aware of any benefits?

Read this BBC text. And take some of your quality time to think about it.

Getting in touch with nature can help keep people fit, reducing the burden of sickness on the health service, conservation experts say.

Natural England is launching a campaign to get people to spend more time outside among the country's wildlife and natural environment.
It said being close to nature can cut stress and increase physical activity.
The conservation agency said the aim was to help prevent ill-health, such as obesity, rather than treat it.

Natural England health adviser Dr William Bird said: "Increasing evidence suggests that both physical and mental health are improved through contact with nature. Yet people are having less contact with nature than at any other time in the past. This has to change."

Dr Bird said children with attention disorders had been shown to improve when they had contact with nature, and people recovering from operations had been shown to need less painkillers if they looked out on to green fields.

He also said people were more likely to keep up regular exercise regimes if they took place in natural settings, rather than in a gym or leisure centre. The aim of the campaign is to get people to have more contact with the natural environment where they live by promoting green spaces and encouraging health professionals to incorporate them into the advice and care plans they give to patients.

Natural England is working with the BBC and more than 300 partners, including councils and health charities, to promote its campaign, called Breathing Spaces.

For the whole text go here.

Check the text again.

1. List some of the aims of Natural England's campaign.

2. How many organizations are working together?

What will change in your lifestyle after this reading?