There are a number of Health Benefits Of Gardening. Gardening is good for your overall health. As per researches, gardening is not only good for physical fitness but it is also good for mental health.
Here are the Health Benefits Of Gardening:
Being outside: When you spend time gardening, you get fresh air exposure to sunlight. Sunlight is the biggest source of vitamin D which helps you fight depression. When you are working out your plants in the garden, your mind is completely busy and focused on doing that job. This helps you prevent the worthless, unhappy or negative thoughts entering the mind. One thing to be kept in mind is to wear sunscreen as you go out in open sun for protection from skin damage. You get fresh air from the plants which is very good for tissue health.
Life quality: Studies conducted by a top university shows that people who spend time in gardening are likely to be happier than the people who do not do gardening at all. You get the feeling of happiness and satisfaction when you see the entire life cycle of the plant or you see seeds growing to big fruit giving tree. This gives you the feeling of living a productive as well as purposeful life. The feeling of being useful brings a feel good factor in your daily life.
As exercise: Gardening is a physical activity that involve lots of moves and hidden exercises. It is a set of physical activities that you enjoy without even realizing that you are actually doing an exercise. Moves like bending down, concentrating weight on one leg, hauling heavy things like fertilizers or gardening tools, dressing the plants etc are the activities that makes your body strong and reduces the risk of bone problems among the aged people. Studies shows that people get involved in gardening actually get good sleep over night and have reduced risk of heart related problems.
Fresh fruits and vegetables: The major “Health Benefits Of Gardening” is that you get fresh and your own grown fruit and vegetables. Vegetables that you grow yourself are different and healthier to eat than those we get from market. Vegetables and fruits grown for commercial purpose are fed with chemicals and other not so good stuff for their growth. Also, these vegetables are sometimes 2 – 3 days older or more. Whereas home grown vegetables are totally fresh and, so, helps you to stay healthy and fit.
Other Health Benefits Of Gardening : You can lose weight by gardening. Since you stay active during the gardening doing one activity or other, you continuously stay in the calories burning mode. Activities like digging, raking etc are like strength training which burns lot of calories in short time.
Studies shows that 30 minutes of gardening can burn following amount of calories:
Digging, shoveling: 250 calories
Lawn mowing: 195 calories
Weeding: 105 calories
Raking: 100 calories
It makes the muscles strong and raises the body metabolism. So, you burn more calories while you are sleeping or resting.
Staying in one position for quite long time increases the flexibility in the muscles. Weight transfer in different positions helps to strengthen your joints. Being a physical activity, it decreases the blood pressure and helps in controlling the cholesterol level in the body.
According to a study conducted by the horticultural therapists, elderly people can get great benefits from gardening. As per them, gardening can stimulate memories as well as all senses providing interesting sounds, tastes, textures, sights and scents.
Digging, hedge trimming help you get your arms in shape, strengthens your shoulders and tones these muscles. Also, gardening helps you get your body in shape.
Overall, there are lots of other Health Benefits Of Gardening other than listed above.