Don’t Just Take My Word for It

Gardening makes you healthier, happier and live longer. Many reputable institutions have published studies proving just that. Recently, famous cardiologist and frequent Oprah guest, Dr. OZ published some of this evidence on his RealAge website (RealAge.com). In the article The Hobby that Leads to a Longer Life Dr OZ says “Know which hobby has probably added years to the longest-lived people in the world? It’s gardening. Okinawins – whose men typically live to age 78 and women to age 86 – have a long tradition of working the soil…Older Okinawins are active gardeners and walkers.”

National Geographic writer Dan Buettner studied the areas of the world where people live the longest. In his book The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, one of the common factors he found was gardening. “It’s a source of daily physical activity that exercises the body with a wide range of motion and helps reduce stress” he wrote.

According to Charles Downey who wrote the RealAge.com article Gardening for the Health of It, "an hour of gardening can burn as many calories as a 3-1/2 mile walk.” I think that an hour of gardening is actually better since you can cross off 2 things from the "To Do" list at the same time. For example, you can exercise and get the leaves racked or clip the shrubs in your yard. Many claim to hate exercise for just for exercise sake. Many like the idea of ‘functional’ exercise – exercising while getting something done.

I love to garden. But, just like most people, I frequently fall to sweet and fatty temptations. To make the expert opinions above more real, I matched the calories burned from several garden tasks with the equal calories of some favorite guilty pleasure foods.

General gardening = 272 cal/hr = Starbucks® Whole Milk Latte

1 hr pushing power powered lawn mower = 374 cal/hr = Snickers® bar + glass of wine

Digging = 340 cal/hr = 2 slices thin crust cheese pizza

Trimming shrubs and trees = 306 cal/hr = 2 regular beers

Weeding = 306 cal/hr = McDonalds® regular cheeseburger

Planting seedlings = 306 cal/hr = 4 homemade choco-chip cookies

Raking the lawn = 272 cal/hr = 1 cup Kozi Shack® rice pudding (full fat!)

Walking while watering = 102 cal/hr = 1 can Coke® classic

All activity calorie and food calorie equivalents were found on the Calorie Count website (CalorieCount.about.com).

My favorite example is the lawn mowing. I figure that I could mow the lawn, have a glass of wine afterwards and still be ahead of the game because I didn’t eat the Snickers® bar.

Gardening burns calories aerobically, but it also builds muscle through weight-bearing activities. Most people have heard by now that weight lifting prevents heart disease and osteoporosis. According to the Gardening for the Health of It article mentioned earlier, a University of Arkansas researcher studied 3,300 women over fifty and found that only one other activity equaled the benefits of pumping iron in the gym – gardening!

Stay tuned to this blog for great gardening muscle moves like “Clipping for Cleavage” and the “Day Lily Deep Knee Bend.”