Tangible health benefits of growing your own food?
 

I'm just getting my feet wet at growing my food. I should though report an accomplishment of not purchasing lettuce, scallions, radishes and various herbs for over two months now. And, for two weeks now I have only home-grown eggs because my hens started laying. Of course, this spring a reasonably large garden is started and hopefully I will not have to buy any tomatoes or tomato products this year. But that aside, we are both in generally good health, and other than emotional, I cannot tell if eating home-grown food has affected our health in any way.

About five years ago I completely gave up aspartame (diet coke) and any processed foods, other than occasional condiment, such as tartar sauce, etc. I used to get pimples on my body a lot, and cold sores twice a year as a rule. Since giving up the chemicals in my diet the pimples and cold sores are gone for good, and it's been five years. I also don't get colds at all, well maybe some sniffles in the season, but that's it.

What I'm looking for is some inspiring stories of some Real health changes, like before and after you started eating mostly your own grown food. Like did you have some ailment and it went away, etc. etc. Of course, not a medical advice, :nono: but as an inspiration and guidance in improving my family's health and well being by consuming clean natural foods.

The calories you expend in raising your own food will offset the calories you take in consuming it. There is also pride. Pride is not a dirty word. You have the pride of knowing that you can take care of yourselves come what may. You can easily raise more than you can consume and sell or give the rest away. Many of these benefits are intangible, and only you can assign the value of them.

As we age, we tend to have fewer colds.
Homegrown or not, an increase in fresh vegetables displaces the processed foods in our diet. Is it the increase in fresh vegetables or the elimination of the junk or both? Hard to prove.

On the meat side, we find that home raised has much more flavor. My family enjoys beef on the rare side, and knowing how it was handled at butcher time brings peace of mind.

It's more the pride and satisfaction of knowing where your food comes from and that it didn't have to travel Lord knows how many miles to get to your table! What is that worth??? We don't do the processed foods unless it is absolutely necessary and we don't eat off of styrofoam or plastic. Don't use them in the mircrowave - don't use the microwave but rarely. Alot of what you use sometimes is a carcenogen (sp??) and that's the main thing we don't want....

It's a big relief to come to the table and know that everything on it came from your own hands! We're into back to basics and that's our goal!

Its no secret that fresh picked veges start loosing nutrients immediately when picked. So by growing your own you know that food is at its best nutritionally speaking and has not been sitting in the market for days or weeks.
Could be part psychological but we seem to feel healthier when we are getting fresh picked veges from our gardens in the summer, starting with Asparagus.
Also, freshly picked veges that are frozen for later dining retain most of their nutrients.
And of course you know they haven't been laced with chemicals for growing and bug protection.
Miracle grow for dinner anyone ?

Two things come to my mind, the first of which has been mentioned. Growing your own food is great exercise. Because it involves a variety of movements, gardening is especially good for extending range of motion and burning calories, most of which are fat calories unless you're working hard enough to be in the aerobic heart rate range.

Second, nutritional content of commercially grown vegetables has declined dramatically since the early to mid-1900's, particularly the mineral content. We can be sure that our home grown vegetables grown in soil that hasn't been exhausted by 'green revolution' techniques of monoculture and synthetic fertilizer application will be much more nutritious than even "organically" labeled veggies offered by your local grocery.

I just thought of a third, stress relief. I don't know many people who would argue that gardening is a stressful endeavor. Some of the best time I spend is in the garden, pulling weeds and planting seeds and it's the first place I head after a hard day at work.

i know that when i am outside working in the garden starting in spring through fall it lessens my arthritis pain..and i know i'm getting alot of natural vitamin D from the sunshine..both are benefits a lot of people might not think of..Ron says also that when he is outside in the sun his skiin is healthier..(so much for skin cancer)..there are super healing benefits just to the sunshine and fresh air

I have severe MCS -- Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, among other things. I react horribly to many chemicals. Two of my favorite processed foods used to be potato chips and Archway cookies. Can't eat either one anymore because of how they're processed and the preservatives that are put in them that cause negative reactions in me.

So many foods have so many chemicals that I went back to growing most of my own food. And what I don't grow, I'm very careful to eat as little as possible. Or I purchase them locally from people I know. Of course, I still face chemicals from other people's perfumes, laundry detergents, etc., and whatever is in our water, but I'm trying to detox myself as much as possible. I truly don't seem to be on "overload" as often as I used to be.

So for this one factor alone -- eliminating at many toxic preservatives from your body -- is well worth growing as much of your own food as possible.

I started eating nothing but homegrown food a little over a year ago.
Before that I ate nothing but overly processed nothingness. I drank a LOT of pepsi and hardly any water. I had no energy and was not active at all. I ballooned up to 275lbs.
I married forerunner a year ago in December and since then I have lost over 100lbs, without really dieting, just eating good homegrown food and cutting out white sugar and white flour completely. I have also been extremely active since moving here and now I actually have the energy to anything I want.
My skin looks healthier, my hair has grown about 6 inches, I have no more aches and pains, and no more sores in my mouth. My chronic sinus problems have been reduced to an occasional, short lived allergy attack.
At one point in my life I was diagnosed as being bipolar and chronically depressed. I was put on medication, which I haven't taken in over a year and I have had no problems whatsoever with depression since then.
Whenever I go someplace and eat processed foods now I sure feel it. I feel sluggish the next day and sometimes have headaches. Also, if I allow myself to drink a pepsi, I feel pain in my lower back on the right side afterwards.
So, in my experience and my opinion, only good things happen when you cut out processed crapola and eat only healthy, homegrown goodness :)

Haven't been sick in 17 yrs. Although I still indulge on a few things. It's scary if you really know what is in that processed food. Even the little mundane stuff(like veggie oil, High fructose corn syrup) has some REALLY nasty stuff in it. Let alone all the stuff you can't even pronounce. Chemicals = Cancer

The biggest thing I've found is that the foods TASTE better. It's that fresh taste...just BURSTING out of the veggies. (and the meats and eggs). And that makes me want to eat the salads, the eggs, etc. AND because the taste is so intense, you don't need to eat as much to feel satisfied.

Chicken and turkey are SO different from store bought that it's like comparing beef to chicken. The texture of our homeraised is dense and flavorful all on it's own. VERY low in fat when I roast it, too. So...what happens is that we eat a lot less at a meal. Instead of Artificer eating a full leg and thigh and probably going back for anothr helping...he eats ONE thigh and he's full. That means fewer calories, and since I know there were no added anythings to the chicken...

You know...I just thought of something. Since I've been cooking with our own meats, he's had ZERO headaches. (other than the one caused by dropping a steel I-beam on his head the other day) Headaches used to be horrible here. ... I wonder....

My experiance isn't so much me, as it is the children that come around, and my daughter. I have noticed that my daughter, and the children of friends and family seem to want to eat the homegrown food more, and that comes from helping in the raising of it. When the gardening starts, my daughter has allways helped, and would rather have the vegies she picked from the garden rather than anything else, the same goes for eggs that she collects. I watched a friends son on Friday, and we collected eggs before dinner. When we went in to eat of all the suggestions I gave he chose the one thing I didn't offer.....eggs. This coming from a boy that rarely eats eggs according to his parents. What are the health benifits for kids gardening rather than being inside with TV?

Their minds are being stimulated, they ask questions and get answers, sense of pride and accomplishment at growing their own food and helping to provide for their family. This is opposed to TV- which if used extensivels as a "babysitter" makes kids into mindless zombies whose value systems are those of whatever they watch alot of and that is usually not the morals nor values that most parents want their children to learn.

There is also the exercise and fresh air factors, DH commented on Christmas afternoon this past year that when he was a kid, everyone would get sleds for christmas and would all be riding them down the hills christmas afternoon. Not one kid was riding a sled on christmas afternoon that we could see. Actually, we didn't see ANY kids outside. Made him sad.

I know that for myself, I eat a much more varied diet than I did when all my food came from the store. I used to be such a picky eater, ate only a handful of veggies, didn't care at all for pork, liked a few fruits.

Then I started growing my own. Some things I planted at the suggestion of my dh even though I didn't 'like' them. Guess what? I eat TONS of vegetables! They're delicious! You just have to eat them FRESH and prepared in the right way. I absolutely hated asparagus, now I'm the one sucking it down like it's a delicacy every spring :)

Blueberries from the store: yuck. Blueberries picked off the bush and eaten by the handfulls: mmmm, I'm going to ruin my dinner! Raspberries I hated, but when I'm picking blackberries in the woods and happen upon a 'real' raspberry cane, oh I'm in heaven!

And pork? Mmmm, nothing like farm raised pork. I also eat bear, venison, elk, pheasant. . . all things I never would have considered eating before. Still working on fish, but since the smell makes me nauseous and even a small bite makes my throat feel like it's constricting I'm not so sure I might have a fish allergy rather than a fish aversion.

So for me, I know I am eating a better diet that is more complete in minerals and nutrients because I eat a much bigger variety of foods now.

I know I eat way more vegetables when we grow our own. When I have to buy veggies, I eat less cause they are expensive and don't look very good. I crave good peas and spinach, and tomatoes, but the ones in the store do nothing for me.

Wonderful thread. We ordered a juicer in hopes of downing more fresh fruits and vegetables into our system. Can't wait till it arrives. I am also erecting a 100 ft. long cold frame so that we can extend our growing season in early spring and late fall. In hopes of being able to grow lots of greens all year long. All of this in hopes of eating a lot better and getting away from processed foods.

One thing for sure, switching over to fresh veggies will help eliminate salt in our diet. We do need some salt but not anything near what we all get when we eat processed foods. By eliminating a lot of salt in our diets we will loose a lot of excess water we carry. Making for a healthier life for us.

Do any of you all use a juicer or food processor of some sort? If so, how does it work and what do you enjoy?

I use a Victoria I bought many years ago from Lehymans. I do all my juicing when the vegs are ready and just can them. I have a very large blueberry patch (way over 100 plants) which I juice some for syrups and vinegars. Try vegs with tomatoes it really cans up nicely.

Of course if your looking fresh, you will not having any juice in the winter unless you buy the vegs.

Not really an ailment but store bought eggs make me gassy. The eggs from my ducks or Mom's chickens don't have the same effect.

Just as a side note, when I was a kid we raised almost all the food we ate. Starting when I was a teenager and Mom moved out on her own up until a few years ago I ate a lot of processed food and junk foods. Very little fruit and veggies because nothing tasted "right". Back when I was a kid I rarely got sick. During the time I ate processed food and junk food I would get sick pretty often. After going back to mostly home grown food I have felt better, lost weight, and had more energy. Could be coincidence, could be nutrient related. All I know is home grown tastes better. I will not ever buy tomatoes from the store, ICK!!!!!

dh would not eat tomatoes when we met to the point that he picked them off of sandwiches. now he can be caught standing in the garden with a tomato and a salt shaker.
i think it is about adding more living to the life, processed foods will do harm that you may not see for years, but if you eat mostly whole foods you wont see that harm at all.

Everyone here has said great things and I agree with it all. I just wanted to add that growing your own fruits and veggies means that whenever you hear that on a national level they recall spinach or tomatoes or onions or peppers or whatever the latest recall is because of ecoli or whatever...........you can just laugh. I KNOW where my veggies come from! They don't need to be recalled! I can safely eat my spinach and tomatoes and hot peppers. We don't use chemicals, everything is organic. It is pure food. I kinda feel sorry for the poor folks in cities who can't have gardens and they have to buy their veggies from the store only to be told they are unsafe to eat because of the latest scare of some kind of contamination.

Fresh veggies are so expensive and old by the time they get up here to Alaska I'd probably rarely eat them if I had to buy them year round. I'm having to buy fresh salad fixin's and I can't WAIT until my own are ready to eat. There's just no comparison between home-grown and store bought veggies. As for meat, I haven't eaten store-bought meat in years, we depend on moose and deer. In fact, the last time I ate a store-bought beef steak I had a headache within an hour that lasted all evening --and I never get headaches.
Besides, I love love love being outside getting dirty.

Like upnorthlady, while I don't want to gloat, every time there's e-coli in the spinach or whatever, and I have a 20 ft row of my own, I'm SO RELIEVED! ldc

All I know is that it frankly doesn't matter if I pick a single tomato or can any green beans. Working in my garden makes me utterly content and happy. I head out to the garden each morning and evening for an hour or so. Pretty soon, I find myself humming or singing. I am contented and it spills over into the rest of my day.

I vote for all of the above.
The peace and joy that I feel from working in the sunshine and smelling that great spring earth smell.
The FLAVOR of just-picked vegetables.
Knowing that we're eating good clean food and not pesticides and fertilizer (of course, I did get a little queasy when I saw two nicely steamed little worms in the leftover broccoli four summers ago! (first year organic)
I don't have any sign of the diverticular disease that is rampant in America due to so many highly processed foods in the Standard American Diet.

Oldcountryboy: I use an Omega juicer and love the results. I have used two inexpensive centrifugal juicers first, and this one beats them handsdown. I get much more juice from the veggies (very dry pulp), but still do not waste the pulp. It gets used in meatloaf, thickening beef stew, sometimes just cooked with a little yocheese added...
My favorite juice is a little of just about everything: 1 apple, 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 beet, one carrot, one stalk celery, a handful of parsley, a green onion, and a garlic clove or two. It is not very attractive, looks like muddy water thanks to the beet, so I drink it from a covered travel mug. It tastes WONDERFUL. This is primarily a summer juice, but a neighbor gave me her recipe for her V6 juice that I make in late summer/early fall to can. It uses tomatoes, onions, celery, carrots, green pepper and garlic, YUM.

I have a cattle ranch so of course we eat our own home grown beef.
How different does moose taste. I have a lot of deer on my property along with wild hogs but not into their taste. I was just wondering if moose tasted like deer.

While I do not grow a large percentage of our own food (probably only 30-50%), most of our purchased food comes from local farmers and is primarily organic. We raise our own chickens for meat and eggs, and trade with friends who hunt or fish, so we usually eat a lot of venison and rarely eat beef or pork.

The big change that I've noticed is that my allergy problems have been reduced significantly.

Dawn

Some living organism, somewhere on the planet, has to give up all or part of its life for every morsel of food that goes into our mouth. That's what food is, the transfer of life from one organism to another. The instant that organism is killed it starts decaying and losing its built of "life" potential and therefore its nutritional value. So do you want a spinach leaf that was picked two weeks ago ( or two years ago and canned) or the one you just picked 2 seconds ago?

This is the real health benefit of growing your own. There is no possible way to get fresher food. No chemicals, excellent flavor and texture, pride and satisfaction...those are just nice bonuses.

fantastic thread!!!!!!!!! i am just starting to provide our own. and besides the gzillion health benefits, the shear satisfaction feels great. the taste, no comparison! and if done nice, a garden is so pretty!

I can testify to what changing to a home grown organic diet has done to change my life! I was a sickly child from the day I was born. I had TB at year old, rheumatic fever at five, pnemonia was my almost constant companion every winter as was the flue. I was tired, under nourished and by the time I was having babies in my twenties I was taking 14 different vitamins a day just to function.Then I developed an environmental illness and allergies to flowers, trees and everything green and that smells like smoke or perfumes.I was weak and tired all the time.

When I married my second husband at thirty-one I could hardly walk because I had back and bone problems. My thirties were awful health wise even though I was now eating organically home grown food. By the time I was fifty I was doing much better. I had more energy, never took vitamins or any medicine. I had to overcome debilitating bone problems with exercise. Then had to fight off diabetas and high cholesterol which is hereditary with me. Even though I eat good I couldn't lose weight so exercised more.I don't eat prosessed food, white sugar, pop or bad fats. Our food is mostly what we raise both fruits, vegetables, meat and eggs.

At 63 and a half I have more energy, feel great, ride a bike to get around and sometimes bike 40 miles to visit a daughter. I biked all winter on an recumbant exercise bike working up to 40 mles a day but almost hurt myself. I went down to 24 miles a day which feels fine.I haven't had a cold or flue in at least twenty years even though the whole neighborhood gets sick.

My cholesterol is under control and I am nor diabetic which is all controlled through diet.I only have two relatives left because everyone else has died of cancer, heart disease and a multitude of other problems. I would have been dead too had I not changed my diet and life style. I have a hereditary degenerative bone disease that hasn't gotten any worse. I take extra calcium and vitamin D for that. It took many years to correct damage done to my health in my young life through neglect and sickness. But the tide has changed and I feel younger than I did at twenty!

I have two problems. One is I was born not seeing from one eye and the other eye has an unoperatable catarct. The good news is it hasn't gotten any worse in years.The other problem is my feet fell and turned partly from a deformity and from neglect. I always wore second hand shoes and walked way to much in my life time. I now have special orthotics and shoes so I can walk again better.

I tell everyone it is well worth it to take care of your health. Eat only good food, naturally grown without chemicals and pesticides. Avoid anything made of white flour, white sugar and excessive alcohol except for an occasional dessert. Don't eat chips and pop and junk food. Do eat fruits and vegetables. Drink water, milk , tea and juice.Work hard, exercise and keep a positive attitude. I now look forward to getting older and being healthier.

Thanks Imrose!! Eating healthy is not an instant cure nor will you see immediate results, but it does get you there.
Marc, Faith and I all eat as much of our own food as we can, including our raw milk. That's where we've seen the most change. Marc used to take a handful of Tums before going to bed so he could sleep through the night, sometimes getting up to take more. Now he drinks a tall glass of milk and sleeps like a baby. I can't drink store bought milk as it sits like a lead brick in my stomach and gives me pains and cramps. I can drink our raw milk with absolutely no problems. We've challeneged a lot of our customers to drink your milk as well.... as long as they are just lactose intollerant instead of allergic! Most of them have no problems. We know of another customer whose son hadn't had a solid stool in his 5 years. After drinking our raw milk for two weeks, he had his first firm stool! We have many other customers with testimonials as well. I aught to put them on our web page.... duh.
I DO believe in eating healthy will make you healthier. Fresh picked instead of green picked and shipped has more vitamins and minerals and tastes a whole lot better! Home raised meats have more texture and flavor, it's not mush! Try it, you'll love it.
-Catherine

hmmm. well. before she became citified, my oldest child would drink the raw goat milk from the goats eating the poison ivy and oak and her breakouts would not be anywhere near what they were before that. she now thinks milk is gross. go figure.
this is the first year in 5 yrs i have not milked year round. it is the first year in 5 yrs any of us have been more than minorly ill with a slight cold or stomach bug. we are in public school and i teach, so we are exposed to it ALL! i got sick, and so did my children, several times from mid november (i stopped milking around the first week or so of nov) on. hmmm. seems there might be a connection.
most of the girls my dd's age are...well developed. they all eat...store bought milk and meat and eggs. dd-is not (younger dd) as...developed as the majority of her peers-she eats mainly home grown milk, meat, and eggs, without hormones. hmmmm. connection?
yes, there are benefits. many benefits. too many to list on here. i don't have that much spare time. :)
besides, a lot of them have already been mentioned, physical, mental, spiritual,