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Brom42 t1_j4qr2sd wrote

Reply to comment by Humbud in Living in a greener residential area increases the diversity of oligosaccharides in breastmilk. This in turn may affect the child’s health, as the oligosaccharides in breastmilk can protect the infant from harmful microbes and reduce the risk of developing allergies and diseases. by universityofturku

It's the exposure to nature. I live in northern WI and have 2' of snow on the ground. Being out in the winter forest has all the same effects on me (reducing heart rate/blood pressure, levels of stress hormones, etc.) as being out there in the middle of summer.

Being surrounded by nature, whether it is snow, sand, forests, a park in a city has significant positive health effects.

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farmerbrit t1_j4rbmwj wrote

715 represent!

I'm nursing my first while reading this article and I'm very glad he gets to be around cows and nature.

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Bulzeeb t1_j4socc6 wrote

The research article specifically mentions diversity of green vegetation, and not just exposure to any vegetation or other natural features, to be the biggest factor in its findings. In other words, not just being exposed to nature, but a diverse array of species of green vegetation, which would likely be more present in, say, a forest during spring than during the winter, or the desert.

So for the purposes of increasing the diversity of oligosaccharides in nursing women, simply being in nature at all is only weakly helpful. Certainly exposure to non-diverse nature is still good for the reasons you mentioned, just less so for oligosaccharide diversity.

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