2 minute read
Seeds + Soil + Sun = Healthy Fun
Whether you like growing vegetables and herbs or cultivating flowers, gardening is a rewarding way to spend a sunny afternoon. But beyond growing tasty food, many people don’t realize the health benefits associated with this fulfilling pastime. No matter if you’re a hobby-level gardener or a professional-level horticulturist, understanding gardening’s many health advantages may help you enjoy it even more.
Gardening helps you build strength and maintain a healthy weight
Work done in the garden is often considered aerobic exercise. Activities such as tilling, raking and weeding can be considered light to moderate exercise, while shoveling and digging are typically classified as more vigorous exercise. And planting and pruning are a great way to work in some squats!
Regardless of intensity, gardening uses every major muscle group in the body. Don’t be surprised if you wake up feeling sore the next day!
Gardening helps boost your mental health
Gardening offers outstanding mental health perks. Studies have shown that gardening at least once a week during warm months helps to decrease risks of dementia, lower your stress and even promote better overall sleep.
And the act of caring for a living organism releases oxytocin, the “feel-good” hormone. It also provides a mini escape from life’s stresses by giving you something to focus on with positive expectations.
With spring in full swing and summer on the horizon, consider carving out time for gardening to help boost your health. Even if you’re simply tending a small indoor container garden or a few potted porch plants, you’ll begin to reap some of these benefits.
Outdoor gardening may help your body fight disease
Your skin uses sunlight to help make one of the nutrients essential to good health – Vitamin D.
Spending as little as a half hour in the sun produces between 8,000 and 50,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D in your body, depending on factors such as your clothing and skin tone.
Vitamin D is responsible for numerous body functions, such as strengthening your bones and immune system, but it has also been shown to reduce your risk of cancer and certain autoimmune disorders.
