Trend Watch February 2023

Living a Healthy Life by Harvard University:

Experts at Harvard University have released a collection of articles focusing on healthy living. The collection identifies and examines seven core precepts: ‘what we eat’, ‘how we move’, ‘what we feel’,‘how we rest’, ‘what we moderate’, ‘how we live longer’ and ‘how we find joy’.

In one article they recommend to “spend time outdoors, it’ll improve your health.” This may be an obvious statement though we can easily forget this wisdom in our increasingly time-poor lives.

Professor of nutrition and epidemiology Heather Eliassen says that some of the benefits include “improvements in sleep, blood pressure, cognitive function and physical activity, as well as reduced risks of chronic disease, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.” 

Whether it’s a picnic in the park, kicking around a soccer ball or a hike into the wilderness, there are so many health benefits to spending more time outdoors. Read the Harvard article.

Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash.

“Cities should not just build green transport but actively dismantle car infrastructure”

No one likes traffic congestion and no amount of horn honking is going to get us moving. Dezeen’s writer, Phineas Harper shares how we may be able to solve this problem in an unconventional way.

Harper says, rather than building new roads we should reduce road space. He suggests “narrowing roads, replacing car lanes with bus and bike routes, removing car parking spaces from streets”. According to reports by French planner, Paul Lecroart, across 60 cities the removal of lanes has reduced traffic by 14 per cent.

“No amount of new roads will ever eliminate congestion because the more roads get built, the more people drive.”

Harper says sustainable travel activists think encouraging green transport options will reduce car addiction and congestion. He feels this idea is ‘critically flawed,’ as “car-based urbanism, electric or not, is inherently unsustainable.”

Read Harper’s full article on Dezeen.

Photo by Aleksandr Popov on Unsplash.