Grow Your Own Food, Boost Your Mood
The link between tilling the soil and mental health
Dig. Plant. Nurture. Grow. Change Lives. It’s a cycle that is deeply imbedded in our culture at Fresh Ministries. Urban farming and aquaponics are programs we work globally to improve lives, help eradicate poverty and eliminate food insecurity. As it turns out, growing your own food has another life-changing benefit for who anyone who digs in the dirt: mental health also blooms.
A recent University of Florida study took a group of healthy women who had never gardened before and had them attend gardening classes twice a week. Scientists found that participating in these biweekly gardening activities lowered stress, anxiety and depression.
Horticulture therapy and growing your own food leads to a garden variety of benefits that impact mental (and overall) health. These include:
Breathe Easier. People tend to breath deeper when they are outdoors and around plants. Long, deep breathing increases oxygen levels in blood and improves immune response.
Eat The Rainbow. According to Mayo Clinic, gardeners who grow their own vegetables are more likely to have a diet that includes more fresh fruit and vegetables. A healthier body leads to a healthier mind.
“Happy Hormone” Lift. The very act of touching earth and soil can be an instant mood lifter. Bristol University and University College London researchers discovered that serotonin – aka the “happy hormone” – is activated when we touch soil.
Fresh Ministries operates farms on all corners of the planet – from Native Fresh aquaponics farm in Jacksonville, FL to Island Fresh in the U.S. Virgin Islands to the rooftop gardens at Jubilee Housing in Washington, D.C. and our newest farm in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
At all our farms, we try to always incorporate local young people, to teach them skills that will grow with them throughout their lives – from self-sufficiency to habits that improve their mental health.
Want to find out more about how these are farms are changing lives, and how you can get involved? Visit www.freshministries.org.
