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Community gardening can help with diet, stress, and anxiety

By Mallika Marshall, MD

January 9, 2023 / 6:13 PM EST / CBS Boston

HealthWatch: Childhood obesity guidelines; "Damp January"; Benefits of gardening

BOSTON -- Gardening may not just be a way to spruce up the backyard, it could also improve your health.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder took nearly 300 non-gardening adults in Denver and assigned half of them to a community gardening group.

The gardening group received a free plot, some seeds, and an introductory gardening course.

Months later, the gardening group was eating more fiber, got more exercise, and reported lower stress and anxiety than the non-gardeners.

They say while solo gardening can promote healthy eating and improve physical activity, community gardening, in particular, encourages people to bond over techniques and recipes, which can provide additional mental health benefits.

Gardening

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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