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FIVE WAYS GARDENING IS
GOOD FOR THE BODY
• Increased flexibility
• Exposure to Vitamin D from
sunshine helps body absorb
calcium • Burns up to 330 calories per hour
• Lowers risk of heart attacks by
27 percent as you age
• Lowers blood pressure:
30 minutes, three times a week
Start cultivating a mindset about
gardening that removes it from the
“to-do” list and puts it squarely on the
“lifestyle” list, integrating the natural
world into your daily life by starting
with the garden.

And speaking of growing healthy
food, we’ve heard so much in recent
years about how healthy spinach
and kale are, haven’t we? I’m going
to assume for the moment that we
know that the dark leafy greens are
nutrient powerhouses. What many of
us don’t know is the extent to which
many other fruits and vegetables
deliver a healthy punch. While we
don’t necessarily need to memorize
lists of nutrients and which foods carry
them, it’s a good practice to reach for
the brightly colored foods — fruits
and vegetables that are red, purple,
orange, black, blue and dark green are
known to carry significant amounts
of nutrients and chemical compounds
that are good for us.

You don’t need to create an orchard
or have a full acre of vegetable garden
to grow nutritious foods. Use your
balcony railing, potted herbs/tomatoes
on your patio or deck or a small
in-ground garden in your backyard.

Keep it simple, plant the powerhouses
and eat up!
Fun fact: When you dig around in the
soil, planting flowers and harvesting
vegetables, you are coming into contact
with something called Mycobacterium
vaccae, beneficial bacteria that help
to stabilize mood and promote better
sleep. What’s even more interesting is
that you don’t even need to dig to be
exposed, because simply being outside
in the garden and inhaling can do the
trick quite nicely. We are trained to
think that all bacteria are bad, but that
is not necessarily the case: Exposure
to these “good” bacteria in the soil can
help strengthen the immune system,
optimizing health.

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As you continue gardening, expanding
your skills and knowledge base, start
thinking of other activities that you
can bring out to the garden. Begin
with activities that you used to only do
inside, and then figure out a way to do
them outside in your garden. Create
areas in your garden that help you do
these things more easily, like small,
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