A review by fromtheyellowchair
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams

informative reflective

2.75

While I agree with most points made in this book I have a few problems with how they are presented and supported. First, the author continually fails to acknowledge other factors at play in studies or surveys cited. In doing so she ignores major barriers to spending the time in nature that she is advocating for and instead assumes nature is the cause of any positive effects rather than a correlation. She does acknowledge the lack of green spaces in modern cities but stops short of further analysis of factors such as race, income, disability, etc that impact one’s time spent out doors. This reduces many of her points down to “society bad because iphones” 
She also destroys her credibility by invoking multiple health myths throughout the book. No, women’s menstrual cycles do not sync up, and definitely not because of pheromones we smell on each other. Cycle syncing has been widely disproven by many studies conducted well before this book was published and there is little to no data to support the idea that humans have pheromones in the first place. Is no topic safe from misinformation about women’s bodies? 
The casual fatphobia also sucks.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Fatphobia