For a piece of university coursework, I’ve been doing a lot of research about growing food and the effect it can have on your diet. Our task is to design a study on a research topic of our choosing, and I decided to look at the relationship between growing food and a person’s overall diet. Basically, thinking about if the diet of a person who gardens some food is different to someone who doesn’t, beyond the fact that the person who grows some food is likely to eat that food. Naturally, I’ve been reading a lot of studies that have already looked into this field of research. Although I picked this topic because I was already interested in it, I didn’t expect to find all the current research so fascinating. And there’s nowhere better to talk at length about my findings than right here!
So, what does the research say so far on the effect of growing food on your diet? Most of the research done on growing your own food (usually called something like ‘food gardening’ or ‘urban agriculture’) has looked at whether fruit and vegetable intake is influenced by the act of growing food. This makes sense - if you grow vegetables, you are most likely going to eat them! So a lot of the research I have read has looked at whether overall intake of fruit and vegetables is increased following growing food, and just a few studies so far have looked at the influence on the overall diet.
Growing vegetables = eating vegetables
One randomised control trial (this type of research is considered the ‘gold standard’ in science) looked into the differences in the amount of fruits and vegetables eaten in people who were provided with a community garden plot, plants and seeds, and gardening classes, compared to people who remained on a waiting list for a plot. The researchers found that the people with the community garden ate more vegetables over the autumn harvest season (0.63 portions more per day, to be exact), but this increase in vegetable intake didn’t persist into the winter months (Alaimo et al., 2023). What I found interesting about this trial was that the participants were given no nutrition education alongside the gardening plot - which means that the seasonal increase in eating vegetables happened just because they had the garden plot and tools. I know that seems obvious (of course you need to grow food in order to eat the food you grow), but I think it’s really cool that through growing your own food, you may end up eating more vegetables without even really having to think about it.
Even though the participants didn’t maintain the increases in vegetables eaten into the winter, I think this research leaves space that suggests including nutrition education classes, or even sessions teaching people how to preserve and store the vegetables they grew, may help people continue to eat more vegetables over the winter. If different methods are employed together, I wonder if people would end up eating more veggies year-round - which is a good thing!
Some other research that combines food gardening with nutrition skills training has also found increases in fruit and vegetable intakes. Another piece of research I read found that a digitally delivered intervention teaching food gardening, cooking and nutrition skills to people who were at risk of heart disease moderately increased the amount of fruits and vegetables they ate (Veldheer et al., 2023). And, the amount of (or lack of) fruit and vegetables eaten is correlated with heart disease (Boeing et al., 2012), so increasing the amount someone eats can reduce their risk. This study by Veldheer et al. does have some drawbacks that are important to point out, however. It was a small (30 participants) study with no control group, so we can’t compare results to people where nothing changed. This is important so we know if any changes we see are because of the intervention, and don’t draw incorrect conclusions. In this case, the study was designed to be a feasibility test of whether a large-scale, controlled trial would be worthwhile, as running a trial like that would be much more expensive and time consuming. Luckily, the article concluded that it would be worthwhile and feasible to run a larger trial, so we will have to watch this space!
Can growing food make your overall diet better?
It seems quite logical that growing vegetables can increase the amount of vegetables you eat. But, do people who grow food have a better diet overall? While there does seem to be a gap in research at the moment, I found a piece of research that investigated whether there is a correlation between ‘urban agriculture’ and diet quality (Mead et al., 2021). The researchers surveyed adults in the UK on their diet quality and engagement and proximity to urban agriculture (defined as formal and informal food production that ranges from community gardens and home growing to commercial urban farms). The results didn’t find a direct link between urban agriculture and diet quality, but they did find indirect links. They found that growing food is related to perceived access to fruits and vegetables, health- and ethics-related food choice motivations, and a feeling of connectedness with nature, all of which are associated with diet quality.
Due to the nature of this type of study (it used a cross-sectional study design), we can’t find causation, only correlation. This means it would be wrong to outright say that urban agriculture or growing food indirectly causes a better diet quality. However, we can say that there’s an association between the two - we just don’t yet know which direction the causality lies in. For example, while urban agriculture may improve someone’s health-related food choice motivations, in turn influencing their diet quality, someone may also engage with urban agriculture because of their health-related food choice motivations. I think it would be really interesting to investigate whether introducing someone to growing food will eventually affect their diet quality and food they choose to eat, on the subconscious level. Of course, this depends on the causality working in the way we hope - that engaging in urban agriculture will influence your motivations around food choice!
Unfair access
There are some interesting contradictions that I want to talk about as well. A lot of the research I read about had a majority of participants who were white women, who are less likely to be facing food insecurity than people of colour. Growing food as a hobby also requires space, time, and money. These are all luxuries that not everyone has access to, and might mean that different groups of people face more barriers to begin gardening food than others. But, some research suggests that people who are the most food insecure may benefit the most from growing food or being part of a community garden. One study interviewed low-income participants in a food gardening programme (Palar et al., 2019). The interviewees said that food gardening actually made making healthy meals easier, as having fresh vegetables right there in their garden meant they didn’t have to rely on planning meals in advance. For those that didn’t have access to a car, the vegetable garden meant meals could be made healthier without either making a lengthy trip to the store or relying on someone else to drive them. And, for those most at risk of food insecurity, the vegetable garden enabled a wider variety of food to be eaten during times of the month when money was especially tight.
It does seem contradictory that something may be available to help people on lower incomes, which they can’t access. Obviously, this isn’t something unique to food gardening! I don’t have a solution, but I think it’s important to point out these polarities and address them where possible. People with less money will be more concerned with just having enough food for their family to eat, rather than whether they are getting their five-a-day. So, initiatives which can increase a person’s dietary diversity shouldn’t be overlooked.
Bigger benefits than food
Lastly (I didn’t realise quite how much I had to say about this topic!), almost all the research I looked at found other benefits of growing food outside of dietary changes.* These benefits included lower stress levels, increased physical activity and feeling more in touch with nature. Although I’ve spent the majority of this post talking about diet, I think these other benefits are incredibly important and shouldn’t be overlooked. Remaining connected to the world around us, spending time outside and having a sense of community seem to benefit us as humans in intangible ways that science hasn’t quite yet figured out how to study.
This has been a topic I have really enjoyed researching and learning about. I would love to understand if people also see this boost in vegetable intake or dietary diversity (and even sense of wellbeing) through growing very easy, cheap and space saving plants. Things like beansprouts, pea shoots or salad leaves all grow quickly and don’t require expensive equipment or a lot of know-how. Most likely, if you only have the space to grow beansprouts, you will get sick of eating them after a while… but I wonder if it has the potential to spark someone’s interest in growing food and build a habit over time? Maybe, or maybe not - but it is interesting to think about!
I understand not everyone is going to be as interested in the impacts of growing vegetables as me! But I have enjoyed having this space to write about it and share my findings. So if you made it this far, thank you!
*The study by Mead et al. did find that urban agriculture was associated with increased levels of anxiety and psychological distress (compared to those that don’t take part in urban agriculture). However, as mentioned earlier, this study only investigated associations between factors rather than causal links. The authors suggested that this result could be due to people that already have mental health struggles choosing to engage with food growing as a method of coping, rather than the act of growing food increasing anxiety levels.
References
Alaimo, K., Beavers, A.W., Coringrato, E., Lacy, K., Ma, W., Hurley, T.G. and Hébert, J.R. (2023) ‘Community Gardening Increases Vegetable Intake and Seasonal Eating From Baseline to Harvest: Results from a Mixed Methods Randomized Controlled Trial’, Current Developments in Nutrition, 7(5), p. 100077. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cdnut.2023.100077.
Boeing, H., Bechthold, A., Bub, A., Ellinger, S., Haller, D., Kroke, A., Leschik-Bonnet, E., Müller, M.J., Oberritter, H., Schulze, M., Stehle, P. and Watzl, B. (2012) ‘Critical review: vegetables and fruit in the prevention of chronic diseases’, European Journal of Nutrition, 51(6), pp. 637–663. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-012-0380-y.
Mead, B.R., Christiansen, P., Davies, J.A.C., Falagán, N., Kourmpetli, S., Liu, L., Walsh, L. and Hardman, C.A. (2021) ‘Is urban growing of fruit and vegetables associated with better diet quality and what mediates this relationship? Evidence from a cross-sectional survey’, Appetite, 163, p. 105218. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105218.
Palar, K., Lemus Hufstedler, E., Hernandez, K., Chang, A., Ferguson, L., Lozano, R. and Weiser, S.D. (2019) ‘Nutrition and Health Improvements After Participation in an Urban Home Garden Program’, Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 51(9), pp. 1037–1046. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2019.06.028.
Veldheer, S., Whitehead-Zimmers, M., Bordner, C., Weinstein, O., Choi, H., Spreenberg-Bronsoms, K., Davis, J., Conroy, D.E., Schmitz, K.H. and Sciamanna, C. (2023) ‘Growing Healthy Hearts: a single-arm feasibility study of a digitally delivered gardening, cooking, and nutrition intervention for adults with risk factors for cardiovascular disease’, Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 9(1), pp. 1–11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-023-01380-5.