Kani Meye Food Forest
HOW GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD IMPROVES HEALTH
Growing your own food does more than just ensure you have fresh produce available at your disposal. It brings along many health benefits that you might be enjoying without even realizing it.
From increased intake of fresh fruits and vegetables to consuming pesticide-free produce, there’s a lot that growing your own food does for your health.
In this article, we’ll discuss how growing your own food improves your health. Let’s get started!
Increased Fruit & Vegetable Intake
With homegrown produce, you get to enjoy fruits and vegetables at their peak freshness. However, this doesn’t mean the fruits and vegetables found at the local market or grocery stores aren’t fresh, only that some spend days in transit to the market, while others are harvested unripe to prolong their lifespan.
So, with store-bought veggies and fruits, you can’t be sure that you get them at their peak freshness. By consuming fresh fruits and vegetables, you enjoy nutrient-dense food, which helps improve your gut health.
Eliminate the Use of Pesticides
Pesticides and herbicides used when growing farm produce have adverse effects on your health when consumed over a long time. By growing your own food, you can eliminate the use of chemicals and other harmful pesticides. You can control what goes into the soil and ultimately into your plate.
Here you can go the organic way by adopting practices such as mulching, intercropping and food forests. This ensures you consume pesticide-free food that’s good for your health.
Enjoy Better Tasting Food
Have you ever noted a difference in taste between fresh, homegrown food and store-bought foods? Yes, nothing beats the taste of homegrown food.
Homegrown farm produce is rich in natural sugars and flavors that make your meals tastier and healthier.
Reduce Your Environmental Impact
Backyard gardening significantly reduces environmental pollution by minimizing the use of harmful herbicides and pesticides that cause air and water pollution. Besides, with home gardening, no heavy vehicles are used in transporting farm produce miles away to the market, meaning fewer fossil fuels are burned, reducing air pollution.
Environmental pollution triggers various health conditions such as respiratory and skin diseases.
Lower Your Food Bills
Growing your own food also helps lower your food bills. You’ll be surprised to learn that the price of a pack of seeds is approximately equal to the cost of getting a single fruit or vegetable from the stores.
So this means backyard gardening helps you enjoy a healthy plate of food while still saving you a few dollars. You can channel the saved dollars to other important aspects of your life.
Stay Active
Gardening involves a lot of physical activities that help you stay active, thus boosting your physical health. Being physically engaged also helps reduce obesity, improves heart health, and boosts your general immune system.
Besides, by spending some time in the garden, you absorb vitamin D directly from the sun, which is vital for maintaining healthy bones and teeth.
Takeaway
Although growing your own food may seem overwhelming, tiring, and time-consuming, it has numerous health benefits as discussed above. If you don’t have enough gardening space in your backyard, you can consider container gardening, which works well for limited spaces.
Happy growing!
