Growing Your Own Food Benefits: Gardening for Gut Health & Nutritional Wellness
The Farm believes in the power of locally sourced food ingredients, encouraging guests to grow their own food for long-term health benefits. Gardening is directly proportional to nutritional wellness and one’s overall well-being. In this busy world, where we are always glued to screens, gardening seems like an optional task or something that many of us don’t even think of doing. Let’s have a brief look at all the health benefits of growing your own food:
Nutritional Value of Homegrown Food
Home-grown food is no doubt the most nutrient-rich food with no added chemicals or pesticides. Fresh fruits and vegetables have a higher nutritional value compared to commercially grown and stored foods. The transportation and storage can result in a loss of nutrients in commercially sourced fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, homegrown or locally grown food is fresh and has the essential Vitamins present in their best form.
If you grow your own food, you can have better control over your diet and properly fulfill your nutritional needs. The more plants, fruits, and vegetables you add to your diet, the more likely you are to stay healthy and prevent chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc. Eating a variety of fresh plant-based produce gives your body the nutritional balance it needs.
Moreover, these fresh plant-based foods also cleanse your digestive organs and improve your overall gut health. This can further enhance your immune function, strengthening your body to fight against harmful disease, injuries, and illness.
Growing Own Food Benefits for Physical Health
Along with the benefits your body gets from the high nutritional value of self-grown foods, there are various other physical health benefits of gardening. When you grow your own fruits and vegetables, you indulge in some kind of physical activity almost every day.
All the gardening activities, including sowing, planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting, engage your muscles in regular activity, which further promotes physical fitness. It uses all the major muscle groups, including legs, arms, shoulders, buttocks, stomach, etc, which promote calorie burning. Such kind of regular physical activity promotes heart health and reduces the risk of chronic disease.
Moreover, gardening demands digging, lifting, etc, which can help strengthen your muscles, maintain a healthy weight, and improve your cardiovascular health. When you perform gardening, your body gets sunlight exposure, which is a great source of Vitamin D – an essential nutrient for bone health. In short, gardening not only improves your gut health but also plays a vital role in enhancing your overall physical well-being.
Mental Health Benefits
Studies suggest that just being around plants and getting fresh air can improve one’s mental health to a great extent. Spending time in nature can help reduce anxiety, stress, and depression, making you feel mentally relaxed. It provides a kind of physical as well as mental therapy. You can escape digital life for some time and engage your senses in the present moment. That’s what we lack today in this advanced era of digitization. By indulging in gardening to grow your own food, you can reconnect with nature and give your mind the ultimate relaxation it needs.
Other General Benefits of Growing Your Own Food
While there are plenty of health benefits of growing your own food, we cannot overlook other generic advantages of gardening. It also promotes social connectivity and environmental sustainability, which ultimately gives you a different kind of satisfaction and can have a positive impact on your mental and emotional health. Let’s discuss these benefits in detail:
Environmental Sustainability
By opting for self-grown fruits and vegetables, you can cut down plastic usage on your end. As most of these foods come packed in plastic bags or boxes, you can make your contribution toward the environment by choosing locally grown or self-grown foods.
This will also reduce fuel usage, which you might have used otherwise to buy groceries from a nearby market. You only need to travel to your own garden to bring vegetables and fruits, and by doing so, you can do your part toward reducing your carbon footprint. Moreover, you also build a deeper connection with nature, which makes you environmentally conscious.
Social Connections
When you step out of your home for gardening every day, you also get a chance to connect with other individuals sharing similar interests. You can build a community of gardening enthusiasts and build better social connections. It will also have a positive impact on your mental and emotional health.
How Does The Farm Integrate the ‘Farm-to-Table’ Concept With Its Wellness Programs?
The Farm in the Philippines is a reputed wellness destination offering end-to-end wellness solutions along with luxury accommodation and dining options. Under all the wellness programs we offer, we provide meals that are prepared using fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Following a ‘farm-to-table’ philosophy, i.e., the meals at our wellness restaurants, especially ALIVE! and Prana restaurants are prepared with ingredients that come directly from our 57,000-sqm. vegetable and herb farm. We make sure that all the ingredients reach you with their original nutritional value and freshness.
Wrapping Up
Gardening is not only beneficial for your gut health, but also enhances your physical and mental wellness in several ways. Spending a few minutes in nature promotes your mental well-being and relaxes your brain. Moreover, the dietary benefits of home-grown food always remain at the top.
Joining a wellness program with completely plant-based food can be a good starting point. Our core wellness programs, thoughtfully designed by our Wellness & Integrative Medicine team, include plant-based nutritional support from our vegan restaurant and wellness options from other outlets in the resort, as well as featuring pescetarian, Indian-vegetarian, Mediterranean, and authentic French cuisines.. Guests are entitled to a nutrition and sustainable lifestyle discussion post-program, which helps them understand which plants to grow and how to achieve a balanced plant-based diet routine.