People turn to gardening for relaxation & wellbeing

by Michael Smith (Veshengro

According to the results of a survey conducted by garden equipment retailer Lawnmowers Direct over 51% of people surveyed turn to gardening for relaxation and wellbeing.

The under-35 age group made up a significant number of the participants, suggesting that more young people are gardening than middle-aged or retired people with the most popular reasons for gardening within this age group being relaxation, maintenance, and growing their own produce.

“It's great to see more and more young people getting into gardening,” said Mark Bartram, Managing Director of Lawnmowers Direct. “Young people are becoming more environmentally and economically conscious, and are often voicing their opinions about food production, so it's hardly a surprise there are young adults who aim for self-sufficiency.”

Just under a fifth (19.2%) claimed their garden was mostly vegetables, or that a vegetable patch was a significant part of their garden and the time spent gardening varied greatly, with around 27.3% gardening for under an hour a week and 36.1% gardening for over three hours a week.

I do not think that we should be surprised by the findings and it is uplifting and enlightening to see the younger generation really understanding that quality “Grow Your Own” produce is far more beneficial to our health. By eating home grown produce everyone reduces the health burdens of the possibility of genetically-engineered foods and of pesticides to their health.

The added benefits of relaxation and being out in the outdoors is another bonus. Mindfulness, stress depletion, increased exposure to sunlight from being in the outdoors, which improves the Vitamin D level in our bodies, will all help to reduce the dreaded stress in today’s world.

Obviously there are risks to being exposed to too much UV radiation from the sun and precautions on that level must be taken, in the same way as we must take precautions when gardening to eliminate other risks of injury, be this from cuts or scratches, or from bending and lifting. But there are ways to do that with regards to most of those risks, from sunscreen to gloves and the right kind of tools and devices.

So, let's get out there and enjoy a spot of gardening and enjoyment it should be rather than a dreaded chore.

© 2015

Broccoli drink helps body fight air pollutants

A clinical trial involving nearly 300 men and women in one of China’s most polluted regions has found that daily consumption of a broccoli beverage helped excretion of benzene, a known carcinogen, and acrolein, a lung irritant

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, working with colleagues at several US and Chinese institutions, used a broccoli sprout beverage to provide sulforaphane, a plant compound already demonstrated to have cancer preventive properties in animal studies.

“Air pollution is a complex and pervasive public health problem,” said John Groopman, professor of environmental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and one of the study’s co-authors. “To address this problem comprehensively, in addition to the engineering solutions to reduce regional pollution emissions, we need to translate our basic science into strategies to protect individuals from these exposures.

“This study supports the development of food-based strategies as part of this overall prevention effort.”

Air pollution, an increasing global problem, causes as many as seven million deaths a year worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation, and has in recent years reached perilous levels in many parts of China.

Last year, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified air pollution and particulate matter (PM) from air pollution as carcinogenic to humans. Diets rich in cruciferous vegetables, of which broccoli is one, have been found to reduce risk of chronic degenerative diseases, including cancer.

Read more: http://positivenews.org.uk/2014/wellbeing/health/16518/broccoli-drink-helps-body-fight-air-pollutants/