Get more exercise. Eat right. Make new friends.
Funded by the American Cancer Society, the first-ever, randomized, controlled trial of community gardening found that those who started gardening ate more fiber and got more physical activity—two known ways to reduce risk of cancer and chronic diseases. They also saw their levels of stress and anxiety significantly decrease.
[...] "These findings provide concrete evidence that community gardening could play an important role in preventing cancer, chronic diseases and mental health disorders," said senior author Jill Litt, a professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at CU Boulder.
[...] "No matter where you go, people say there's just something about gardening that makes them feel better," said Litt, who is also a researcher with the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.
But solid science on its benefits is hard to come by. Without evidence, it's hard to get support for new programs, she said.
[...] To fill the gap, Litt recruited 291 non-gardening adults, average age of 41, from the Denver area. More than a third were Hispanic and more than half came from low-income households.
[...] By fall, those in the gardening group were eating, on average, 1.4 grams more fiber per day than the control group—an increase of about 7%.
[...] Study participants also saw their stress and anxiety levels decrease, with those who came into the study most stressed and anxious seeing the greatest reduction in mental health issues.
[...] "Even if you come to the garden looking to grow your food on your own in a quiet place, you start to look at your neighbor's plot and share techniques and recipes, and over time relationships bloom," said Litt, noting that while gardening alone is good for you, gardening in community may have additional benefits. "It's not just about the fruits and vegetables. It's also about being in a natural space outdoors together with others."
Journal Reference:
Jill S. Litt, Katherine Alaimo, Kylie K. Harrall, et al., Effects of a community gardening intervention on diet, physical activity, and anthropometry outcomes in the USA (CAPS): an observer-blind, randomised controlled trial, Lancet Planet Health, 7, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00303-5
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Friday February 24, @04:46PM (13 children)
There's no money to be made (at least by pharmaceutical companies) by telling people that, if they just gardened and made friends, they would live happier, healthier lives. Pharmaceutical companies are looking for a pill solution and so is everyone else who just wants X thing to be fixed, right now! No matter that it took you 10 years to gain all the fat you're now carrying around with you.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 24, @06:47PM (12 children)
It's not even about the food, it's a lifestyle thing. People who garden undoubtedly are also more conscious of the environment around their homes. None of these things are good for the consumer/pharma/industrial triad.
Foremost: people are spending their time and money on dirt, fertilizer, weeding, seeds, irrigation - these are not high profit margin industries, that free cash could be going toward other things like: insulin, new cars, IMAX movies, etc.
Sure, their strawberries are costing them anywhere from 5x to 50x what you could buy them for in the store, but they actually do taste better and are going to hurt commercial strawberry sales as a result. Instead of buying 20 lbs of commercial strawberries per year for $32 (and wasting over half of them to spoilage) people will be spending hundreds of dollars growing their own 2 lbs of strawberries, enjoying those and snubbing the store bought ones. Lettuce, OMG it is so easy to grow hydroponically, more than you and all your neighbors will ever practically consume, and much much better quality than anything that has been packaged and shipped. Compound problem: they're eating less, visiting the grocery stores and buying processed food less, and having less medical problems, less doctor visits, less pharmaceutical sales, even less time spent driving around to the doctor and pharmacy: all terrible things for the economy.
So, yeah, expect all kinds of "news" stories about how home gardening is dangerous, hazardous to your health, etc. because: it will have real negative effects on industries who have plenty of spare cash for "thought and behavior shaping campaigns."
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Interesting) by vux984 on Friday February 24, @09:11PM (9 children)
1 - if i eat 20 lbs of strawberries, why would i only eat 2 lbs when i garden? Sure they do taste better, but 2 lbs of strawberries a year isn't enough. I'd still buy the other 18 lbs.
2 - and ill be lucky to get 2 lbs; lol. in real life, my space outside is pretty limited, and where i live the deer and rabbits and whatever else come and eat anything I plant outside; the space i have _inside_ for a garden is pretty limited.
Hardly. Healthy populations are great for the economy. They're contributing to the GDP. That's great for the economy. Sure healthcare spending is also spending, but the money is coming from savings, taxes, and/or the insurance premiums of the people who are working; the people its being spent on aren't producing anything so the total productivity relative to a healthy population is less.
It really won't though. Gardening is like exercise... nobody pushing pills is really wasting effort on concern their customer base are going to get healthy and stop consuming their product of their own volition.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Friday February 24, @09:42PM (7 children)
In most cases, the Deer and the Rabbits you're feeding are also considered food, and more than 2lbs.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 24, @10:17PM (4 children)
Rabbits are kind of a pain to clean, and your daughters and their friends would be crushed if you ever...
But, where we lived in Houston, there was a butcher who did deer processing right around the corner from our house in Clear Lake (in the 2nd closest subdivision to the NASA front gate...)
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 28, @02:50PM (3 children)
I'm too much of a pansy to kill a rabbit. I even had pangs of guilt when the mouse I caught, didn't die immediately and instead was just trapped to the trap by it's leg. Sure, I ended it rather quickly, but would have been better, if it had died in the 0.5 seconds it took for the trap to hit it. Mice can seriously screech.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 28, @03:02PM (2 children)
Sounds like you need glue traps in the attic de-sensitization therapy... the pitiful little screeches go on for days...
I'm not actually that heartless, we trap spiders and wasps that get in the house to release them in the yard. When we had a potentially rabid raccoon, my approach was a new hav-a-hart trap rather than the crossbow.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 28, @04:19PM (1 child)
I'm more heartless towards insects. If there's enough to be invading my house ever day. There's enough to go around.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 28, @04:30PM
Yeah, I don't lose any sleep if I trap a wasp and get too lazy to walk it out to the far corner of the property and it just dies of thirst a few days later in the cup, but I figure they're beneficial in lots of ways in lots of places, if nothing else as food for birds and other creatures, let them go be beneficial outside the house.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday February 27, @06:16PM (1 child)
Except I live in the city. I'm not hunting game in the suburbs.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 28, @02:54PM
I live on the outskirts of town, technically in the city limits, but I could still kill the odd rabbit or two. I mean, with a good gun and aim, you could easily take 'em out with an air-powered pellet gun. In the event that you're not up for hunting random wild rabbits. You could raise your own meat. At least then, you'd know what's in that burger you're eating.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 24, @10:15PM
I'm not saying they're cost effective, or even "affordable" to the part of the population that spends $50 per night on drive-through food for the family of four, but you can grow a fair quantity of strawberries on one of these, indoors or out, and a ton of lettuce:
https://nutraponics.com/hydroponic-garden-tower-growing-system-48-pots [nutraponics.com]
We have something similar, and it's far more pest resistant than the strawberries in elevated pots I grew years back.
>I'd still buy the other 18 lbs.
Well, if your store-bought strawberry experience is like ours, waste by spoilage is over 50%, so you'd only be buying 16lbs for replacement, and I still contend: after growing your own and tasting the difference, you might cut back even further on your buying of store bought super-pumped red-but-tasteless strawberry-like produce product.
>Healthy populations are great for the economy.
Which economy? There are sectors that win, and sectors that lose when your population gets healthier. I agree: overall it's a win, but that won't stop the losers from doing everything they can to keep, and grow, their income streams.
>nobody pushing pills is really wasting effort on concern their customer base are going to get healthy and stop consuming their product
You've never actually worked inside the pharmaceutical industry, have you?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1) by BenCollver on Saturday February 25, @03:40PM
> Sure, their strawberries are costing them anywhere from 5x to 50x what you could buy them for in the store, but they actually do taste better and are going to hurt commercial strawberry sales as a result.
Commercial strawberries are bred for mass production and shelf life. Market forces stamp out any remnants of flavor, joy, and nutritional value. If you have ever eaten wild strawberries in their peak, you will know that they are night and day different. They are a fraction of the size, but they truly taste 100 times better. Here are some relevant quotes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25, @09:10PM
Perhaps TFA should be about the health benefits of being rich enough to afford a garden and free time to meander around in it smelling the roses.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 24, @05:09PM (8 children)
I'm rather lazy, and I dislike doing all the work myself. Can I get a bunch of people to come out and share the work?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by vux984 on Friday February 24, @06:27PM
You sure can, it's called buying produce at the grocery store. They'll do all the gardening for you and pile up the produce in a convenient location, for a small fee. If you are really lazy, they'll even bring it to your house and put it in your fridge for another fee.
That's what you meant when you said "share the work" right? I'm pretty sure that's what "sharing" means now, right? Like when i want to go somewhere, I can "share" someone elses car by paying them to drive me where i want to go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @07:01PM
No health benefits for you then. They call sloth [wikipedia.org] deadly for a reason.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday February 24, @07:26PM (1 child)
You can try, but they'll stop pretty quickly when they realize you aren't contributing anything to the effort, and word will get around pretty quickly among people who do that sort of thing that you're a lazy freeloader that's wasting volunteer's time.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday February 25, @03:26AM
"I know! I'll pick out the most attractive ones that would look great in your kitchen, and you can have those. I'll take the ugly-looking ones [www.cbc.ca] and put them in my car, then get rid of them for you. I'm so helpful!"
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Friday February 24, @11:08PM (1 child)
Hate to say this, but I know a non-Mormon who ropes (young) Mormon missionaries (?) in the Salt Lake City area to help with yard and gardening work while talking to them about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So depending on how you define use vs abuse ... that's one option.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 24, @11:21PM
It almost sounds like he's a missionary - on a mission to enrich himself?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 28, @02:59PM (1 child)
https://study.com/academy/lesson/community-gardens-definition-benefits-rules-best-practices.html [study.com] The problem is getting neighbors who're interested/willing.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 28, @04:26PM
I was mostly joking, but, your post elicits a more serious response.
I have land that is not being put to use. I would welcome anyone who wished to put a crop in - whether that be a little square foot garden, or they wished to garden an entire acre. There's a lot of good, as well as a lot of feel-good in helping someone to feed themselves, or to feed themselves better.
Alas, there is no program that I am aware of, to connect potential gardeners to landowners. And, I have little idea how I might connect personally with people interested in gardening, who only need a little bit of ground. Oh, I really do know people who have a need, but they lack motivation.
From my own personal, selfish perspective, it would be great if someone were to plant stuff that I would never plant, then we could swap some of my excess for some of their excess. (There are a lot of things I've never grown, and this year, I'm trying leeks for the first time.) For that matter, some mutual mentoring could do a world of good.
Bottom line, though, a person has to be motivated to get out there, and work the ground. I just don't know many people with the motivation.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @07:17PM
Might as well get started early.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday February 24, @08:55PM (3 children)
Nothing quite compares to going outside, grabbing some veggies you grew from seed in the exact variety you wanted, and enjoying a meal. Garden veggies usually taste orders of magnitude better than groceries, because the grocery varieties are bred mostly to look good and ship well, not to taste great right off the plant.
Now, the weeding, pest control, varmint deterrence, etc isn't always my favorite use of a weekend afternoon, but there are dumber hobbies out there.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25, @09:13PM (2 children)
I'll still take fries with that order of magnitude, thanks.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Sunday February 26, @03:12PM (1 child)
You can pull those out of your garden too. Potatoes are one of the easiest plants to grow. You don't even have to specially buy seeds: If you bought a big bag of potatoes for something, and only used half of 'em, the other half might be starting to sprout in the bottom of wherever you stored them, so plant those ones and they'll grow into plants and give you more potatoes.
Once you dig up your potatoes, just slice 'em into fry-sized strips, and either deep fry or bake with whatever oil and spices and salt level you like. Quite tasty.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 28, @04:31PM
I'm much too lazy for that. I have a little hand operated fry cutter. Trim the potato to a size that will fit in the basket, grab the handle, and close the thing up. A plunger pushes the potato through a mesh of blades, the fries fall on the cutting board, you gather them up, season if you wish, and throw them in the air fryer or the deep fryer. If doing the air fryer, you'll want to coat them very lightly with some olive oil before spreading them on the shelf. Almost perfect fries, every time! For a person lazier than myself, they make electric fry cutters, as well.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Friday February 24, @09:48PM (1 child)
I love gardening. There is something about digging in the dirt that is so soothing to me. The things you learn over time are rewarding, and give you a great perspective on life. Just one of many examples; you'll understand why bees are good, and spraying a bunch of crap is bad, and you won't even need to read an article about it to understand it.
I enjoy watching the little critters scurry about. Usually this leads to me replanting a few things, but rarely is it an issue. I have lost all of my carrots to some of them rascally rabbits before though. A $10 1 foot high moveable fence I use year over year though, has fixed that.
Have a long meeting where you aren't saying anything? Best time to weed.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by krishnoid on Friday February 24, @11:28PM
Hardware cloth is a great configurable option for that too if you're too lazy to build a proper fence.
After COVID-19, I really think there should be one full-sized work meeting (or more) every week where it's ok to take it audio-only away from the desk/meeting room, and corporate-level approved that you're allowed to get in your day's fresh air/exercise during that period.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25, @02:40AM
https://qz.com/993258/dirt-has-a-microbiome-and-it-may-double-as-an-antidepressant [qz.com]