Nature’s solution for physical and mental health
It’s time to spring into the garden!
Along with ultra-fresh fruits and vegetables, a sense of pride and accomplishment, and a direct connection to nature, gardening provides proven physical and mental health benefits for adults and children alike. Growing your own food also gives you the power to go pesticide-free, so you can avoid the toxins that come with most commercially grown produce.
So grab your trowel and your watering can and get ready to give your health a natural boost.
Top 5 Health Benefits of Gardening
Spending time with plants and nature—especially through gardening—delivers a multitude of benefits for your health. Gardening is a win-win-win proposition. The act of gardening does wonders for your physical and mental well-being. It gives your family direct access to the freshest possible organic fruits and vegetables with their maximum nutrient profile. And it can dramatically cut your grocery bill at the same time.
Here are the top 5 health benefits of gardening.[1,2,3]
- Whole body exercise. Gardening offers a complete workout that can include squats and lunges, aerobic exercise while digging and raking, weight training carrying bags of fertilizer and topsoil. It offers as much of a workout as walking or biking.
- Improved cardiovascular health. Research shows that gardening can help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.[4]
- Stress reduction. Gardening fosters mindfulness in the relaxing presence of nature, helping your nervous system fully calm down. Research shows that gardening helps reduce cortisol levels (the stress hormone), providing relief from acute stress.[5]
- Boosted brain power. In fact, studies show that daily gardening reduces the risk of developing dementia by 36%.[6]
- Improved mental health. Research shows that gardening helps reduce symptoms of anxiety and stress. Other benefits include better quality of life, better sleep quality, and increased happiness.[7]
And when you get the kids involved, you can set them up for a lifetime of better health too!
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Get the Kids Involved for Lifelong Wellness
Digging in the dirt delivers even stronger benefits for kids. Unfortunately, these days most kids don’t spend much time outdoors.[8] But numerous studies—and plain common sense—tell us that the more exposure children get to nature, the healthier they’ll be for their entire lives.
That’s because gardening involves a lot of mud and dirt, and exposure to those helps strengthen your child’s immune system. It also increases the beneficial bacteria in their gut microbiome, which is foundational for robust immunity. A study conducted in Finland found that children in daycare who got to play in areas with dirt and plants had more biodiversity in their guts than kids who spent more time indoors.[9] A second study, which ran for two years, found that spending plenty of time outdoors around soil and vegetation shaped the children’s gut microbiomes with bacteria linked with immune regulation.[10]
Along with that critical benefit, family gardening also encourages children to exercise, enjoy the outdoors, and eat more fruits and vegetables. It also gives them access to the freshest possible produce that hasn’t been sprayed with countless pesticides. That sets them up for a lifetime of healthier eating habits while fostering a love of nature.
You Can Garden Anywhere
Space can be one of the biggest roadblocks to creating a garden area. But it doesn’t have to be.
You can garden with very limited space—even in a small apartment. Many plants can thrive in a small sunny corner as long as you tend them regularly. All it takes is the right-size container, some high-quality organic potting soil, the right fertilizer, and water.
Some of the easiest plants to grow with limited space include:
- Microgreens
- Herbs like parsley, mint, thyme, and basil
- Leafy greens including lettuce, arugula, kale, and spinach
- Cherry tomatoes
- Strawberries
- Chili peppers (hot peppers take up less space and are less fussy than sweet bell peppers)
Plus, indoor and balcony gardening provide the same health benefits as gardening outdoors. And that includes extra support for your gut microbiome.
Tending Your Inner Garden (Your Gut Microbiome)
Nature has always provided everything you’ll ever need to keep your gut microbiome—the trillions of bacteria in your gut—in healthy balance. And since your gut microbiome lays the foundation for your immune system, metabolism, brain function…virtually every piece of your well-being…it's important to tend to it regularly.
That starts with spore probiotics, the kind that naturally live in the dirt. The kind that nature meant for us to ingest. That dirt got on the fruits and vegetables we pick in our gardens. It got on our hands as we tended the earth and foraged in the forest. And we consumed those spore probiotics without even realizing it.
Those spore probiotics lie dormant in the dirt until they reach an environment that tells them it’s time to spring back to life. As soon as they reach your small intestines, spore probiotics begin to emerge from their protective shells—just like seeds growing in your garden. They transform into fully functioning probiotic bacteria when they reach your gut. And they begin colonizing and clearing out unwanted pathogens to create a welcoming space for a diverse population of beneficial bacteria.
Our ancestors consumed plenty of spore probiotics naturally while they were gardening and foraging. But then our lifestyles changed dramatically. We started washing everything we ate and sanitizing our hands, and food production became industrialized, meaning our crops and the soil they are grown in became sterilized, so we lost those natural sources of spore bacteria.
The best way to add them back is with high-quality spore probiotic supplements.
And just like the seeds in your garden, beneficial gut bacteria need their own “fertilizer” to nourish them. That’s where prebiotics come into play.
Prebiotic “Fertilizer”
When our food production changed, our food supply also shifted away from fresh prebiotic fiber-rich plants. That made it much harder to consume enough prebiotics through diet alone to sustain a vibrantly healthy gut microbiome. As with spore probiotics, taking a high-quality prebiotic supplement is the best way to feed your gut in modern times.
Prebiotics work for probiotics the way fertilizer works for your garden. These special types of dietary fiber nourish your gut bacteria so they can function even more effectively.
Unfortunately, just like some fertilizers feed the weeds along with your tomatoes and lettuce, some types of prebiotics also feed harmful pathogenic bacteria… and that can lead to an imbalance, like a garden overrun with weeds. That’s why you’ll want to choose only prebiotics that probiotic bacteria love but pathogens aren’t interested in. These targeted prebiotics include:[11]
- Fructooligosaccharides (FOS)
- Galactooligosaccharides (GOS)
- Xylooligosaccharides (XOS)
While there are many other types of prebiotics out there, you can’t be sure they won’t feed the weeds. So if you decide to try prebiotics, look for forms specifically designed to sustain only beneficial probiotic bacteria.
Just Thrive Gut Health Products
Nourish Your Gut Garden with Just Thrive
Just like a garden needs plants and those plants need the right food, your gut microbiome needs the right probiotics and prebiotics to flourish.
Just Thrive Probiotic contains four clinically-proven spore probiotics:
- Bacillus indicus HU36™
- Bacillus subtilis HU58™
- Bacillus coagulans (SC-208)
- Bacillus clausii (SC-109)
This proven effective combination of spore probiotics helps keep your gut microbiome in optimal balance to support abundant energy and overall wellness. Just Thrive Probiotic promotes a healthy gut environment that’s welcoming to a wide variety of probiotic bacteria that deliver plentiful health benefits.
Just Thrive PREbiotic contains an exclusive blend of FOS, GOS, and XOS, specifically designed to feed the diverse population of beneficial bacteria you want in your gut microbiome – while leaving unwanted bacteria to go hungry. Just Thrive PREbiotic acts like fertilizer for only probiotic bacteria, nourishing and encouraging only the most desirable strains.
In conjunction with health-promoting activities like gardening, daily proactive care is the best way to support a healthy gut microbiome… and now is the perfect time to start.
>> Keep your inner garden flourishing with Just Thrive Probiotic and PREbiotic. (Bundle & save!)
But if you’re unsure about trying Just Thrive Probiotic or PREbiotic, we can help.
EVERY Just Thrive purchase is covered by our Bottom of the Bottle, 100% money back guarantee.
That means you can try Just Thrive Probiotic and PREbiotic to see how well they work for you… and we’re confident that you’ll notice a positive difference.
But if for any reason you don’t feel a difference, you can ask for a full product refund at any time. Even if it’s 3 months or 3 years later. Even if the bottle is empty! You’ll get your money back any time, no matter what.
Sources
- Soga M, Gaston KJ, Yamaura Y. Gardening is beneficial for health: A meta-analysis. Prev Med Rep. 2016 Nov 14;5:92-99.
- Howarth M, Brettle A, Hardman M, Maden M. What is the evidence for the impact of gardens and gardening on health and well-being: a scoping review and evidence-based logic model to guide healthcare strategy decision making on the use of gardening approaches as a social prescription. BMJ Open. 2020 Jul 19;10(7):e036923.
- Jimenez MP, DeVille NV, Elliott EG, Schiff JE, Wilt GE, Hart JE, James P. Associations between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 30;18(9):4790.
- Veldheer S, et al. Gardening Is Associated With Better Cardiovascular Health Status Among Older Adults in the United States: Analysis of the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2023 May;123(5):761-769.e3.
- Van Den Berg AE, Custers MH. Gardening promotes neuroendocrine and affective restoration from stress. J Health Psychol. 2011 Jan;16(1):3-11. doi: 10.1177/1359105310365577. Epub 2010 Jun 3. PMID: 20522508.
- Simons LA, Simons J, McCallum J, Friedlander Y. Lifestyle factors and risk of dementia: Dubbo Study of the elderly. Med J Aust. 2006 Jan 16;184(2):68-70. doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00120.x. PMID: 16411871.
- Ainamani HE, Gumisiriza N, Bamwerinde WM, Rukundo GZ. Gardening activity and its relationship to mental health: Understudied and untapped in low-and middle-income countries. Prev Med Rep. 2022 Aug 8;29:101946.
- Loebach J, Sanches M, Jaffe J, Elton-Marshall T. Paving the Way for Outdoor Play: Examining Socio-Environmental Barriers to Community-Based Outdoor Play. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 31;18(7):3617.
- Roslund MI, et al; ADELE research group. Biodiversity intervention enhances immune regulation and health-associated commensal microbiota among daycare children. Sci Adv. 2020 Oct 14;6(42):eaba2578.
- Roslund MI, et al; ADELE research group. Long-term biodiversity intervention shapes health-associated commensal microbiota among urban day-care children. Environ Int. 2021 Dec;157:106811.
- Pham VT, Calatayud M, Rotsaert C, Seifert N, Richard N, Van den Abbeele P, Marzorati M, Steinert RE. Antioxidant Vitamins and Prebiotic FOS and XOS Differentially Shift Microbiota Composition and Function and Improve Intestinal Epithelial Barrier In Vitro. Nutrients. 2021 Mar 29;13(4):1125.
