Gardening Yields A Harvest Of Health Benefits
Want to feel healthier and boost your mood? Get gardening. That’s the conclusion of a recent study by researchers at University of Colorado Boulder who looked at the effects of gardening on 291 middle-aged adults who hadn’t previously done it. They assigned half of the volunteers to a community gardening group; the other half didn’t participate. Both groups wore activity trackers, completed surveys about their dietary habits and mental health, and underwent physical exams.
After a few months, the people in the gardening group reported eating about 7 percent more fiber than the control group. They also performed an average of 42 more minutes of physical activity a week and reported lower levels of stress and anxiety than their non-gardening peers. Although the researchers didn’t specifically look at the effect of gardening on disease risk, they say that increasing fiber and exercise are both proven strategies to help protect against cancer.
Source
thelancet/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(22)00303-5/fulltext
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