If You Suffer from Constipation, Then You Need a Garden

You know that expression "nature calls"? Start a vegetable garden, and I promise you, nature will be calling you more often.

I know that GI issues can be a little embarrassing to discuss, but we have to go there if you're having trouble going. I recently watched a video about constipation, and the comments—which were both hilarious and appalling—made me realize just how many of us are constipated.

I used to be super constipated back in my 20s. My mom told me to eat fiber cereal, and that gave me the worst gas ever. I ended up taking prescription drugs until my symptoms basically disappeared after my family started a little garden in our backyard. I don't have that problem at all anymore, and I can attribute the change almost entirely to gardening.

So let's look at how having a garden can make sitting on the white throne easier and healthier. Don't worry—I'll keep this as clean as possible.

And please note: I’m a gardener, not a medical professional. If you’re experiencing pain or any type of severe/ongoing issue, talk with your doctor.

Gardening Is Good for Your Gut Microbiome

We live in an increasingly clean world. I mean, think about all the items you've sanitized with Lysol since 2020. Cleanliness is important when it comes to killing viruses we don't want to catch, but it's overall not great for our guts. That's because antibacterial sprays and wipes can't distinguish between good microorganisms and bad ones.

Our gut microbiome is home to trillions of microorganisms: bacteria, plus viruses, fungi, and even parasites. Maintaining a delicate balance between all these tiny lifeforms is what keeps us healthy. But we're threatening this balance by sanitizing and sterilizing a bit too much.

We're also spending way more time indoors than our ancestors. Instead of being outside and rolling in the grass, we're lying on the couch, watching Netflix. We're missing out on those opportunities to interact with nature and breathe fungal spores in through our nose and pick up some soil bacteria underneath our nails.

You're probably thinking, "Eww, I don't want bacteria under my fingernails!" But the truth is our bodies became what they are because of our interaction with nature. Bacteria is necessary for our health.

Having a garden means you're going to get your hands dirty. You're going to pick up bacteria every time you put your hands in the soil to sow seeds or transplant seedlings. You're also going to harvest food that's covered in more microbes than what you find at the store.

Garden-Fresh Food Has More Microbes

I know, I know, it sounds gross, but again, it's so much better for us. When you harvest something from you garden, you probably give it a quick rinse before enjoying it, cooked or raw. But the food you find at the store has been washed and sanitized so that it barely harbors any microbiota from the soil at all. A 2021 study found that less than 2% of the original microorganisms from the soil were still present on supermarket produce.

This helps explain why recent studies have shown that gardeners have a much more diverse gut microbiome than non-gardeners. Having a diverse gut microbiome is important not just for your digestive tract, but also for your immune system, your skin health, and so much more.

Gardening Provides Fresher Foods Than What You Buy from the Store

We all know we need to eat more fiber. And maybe you're protesting right now that you buy fiber-rich foods from the grocery store, so why do you need to grow them yourself?

The nutrients you get from grocery store produce counts, but not as much as the foods you pull fresh from your garden. And the reason comes down to freshness. The fresher the vegetable, the better it is for us. Plain and simple.

Most of the vegetables you buy at the grocery store were harvested two to three weeks ago. They were packaged and treated to last through the journey, and then they traveled thousands of miles to an aisle near you. Some produce sits on the shelf for another week or two before you buy it, and then, let's be honest: it comes home and sits in your refrigerator before you finally eat it. That means some veggies take as long as six weeks to go from the field to your body.

When you have a garden, you can enjoy your veggies right then and there. You pick something, bring it inside, and turn it into a dish. This morning, I picked kale, Swiss chard, and chives for an omelet that I ate for breakfast. It was garden to table in five minutes. The fact that this food is so much fresher is important to going number two for two reasons.

Fresher Food Has a Higher Water Content

Water is critical for digestion. It helps us break food down, absorb all those nutrients, and then softens our stool so we don't get constipated. So to poop better, you need more water, and one way to get more water is to eat fresh foods that have more water in them.

Sure, the veggies from the grocery store have some water them, but it's nothing compared to the leaves, roots, and fruit you pull from your garden and eat that day. Veggies are in the process of losing their water content the minute they get harvested. So the faster you can eat a plant part after it comes off the plant, the better.

Veggies you can grow in your garden with the highest water content include cucumbers, romaine lettuce, celery, tomatoes, spinach, zucchini, radishes, and bell peppers.

Fresher Food Has More Fiber

Fiber absorbs water and helps with digestion. It's what keeps things moving right along. It also feeds our good gut bacteria and lowers our blood sugar.

The fruits and veggies you buy from the grocery store lose their fiber along with their water content. They're basically on their way to decomposing, and we're just trying to catch them before they become too far gone to consume safely. Garden-fresh veggies have way more fiber and are therefore better at preventing constipation.

Foods you can grow at home that are high in fiber include strawberries, carrots, beets, broccoli, peas, beans, sweet potatoes, kale, and pumpkins.

Gardening Exposes You to a Wider Variety of Foods

The grocery store only carries certain varieties of fruits and vegetables that travel and store well. They don't want to stock something if it won't last on the shelf for several days, if not weeks.

You don't have to worry about storability when you're selecting the plants to grow in your garden. You can grow all different kinds of things. You can grow carrots in five different colors. You can grow five different types of kale. You can grow 20 different kinds of tomatoes! There's basically no limit to the colors and shapes and flavors you can grow.

Our guts thrive when we feed them diverse nutrients. The more diverse our diet is, the more diverse our gut microbiome can be, which means it'll digest our food better.

Gardening Helps You Build a Routine

Our guts love a routine, and breaking this routine is one of the reasons we all of a sudden have trouble going when we're traveling. Your routine helps your body know when it can get comfortable and just let loose, you know what I mean?

Nothing can help you build a routine like having a garden. Why? Because it needs you to come out and do a little something every single day. Maybe it needs you to water before things heat up during the summer. Maybe you're excited to hop out of bed and check on the plant babies you planted the day before. Building up a morning routine in my own garden has made a huge difference in my body's regularity. Just four or five minutes outside with my watering can seems to do the trick. It's like I'm telling my body it has time to take care of business before my workday starts.

Gardening in the evening is also super helpful. Instead of lounging on the couch and scrolling your phone when your body is trying to digest dinner, you can head out to your garden and walk around your plants. This kind of gentle movement is so important to prevent things from getting backed up.

Gardening Helps Us Unwind & Destress

We have stress thrown at us all day long. If you're spending the day on your phone or on a computer, if you work in a "fast-paced environment", you're basically being hit with consistent shots of cortisol, the stress hormone. And stress is terrible for our GI system. It causes inflammation and bloating and heartburn and, of course, constipation. It puts our bodies in fight or flight mode. How can your stomach let loose when it's being sent constant messages that we're not in a safe place?

The garden sends us the opposite message as our screens. The garden tells us to take a breath. We're in a place of calm. Our muscles relax, and our heart rate slows down. We even breathe deeper, which can actually improve digestion.

Gardening is overall incredibly beneficial to our mental health, and that in turn improves our physical health.

Nature Is Calling You — You Need a Garden!

If you've ever had trouble going, then you've got to start a garden. And if you already have a garden, then I hope this inspires you to commit to it more fully.

You don't need to buy fiber cereal or take fiber pills or drink all those teas to heal your gut. Those products are just trying to address a problem that arose because we stopped gardening in the first place. I guarantee you our ancestors weren't constipated back in the day when they were pulling their own veggies out of the dirt every morning.

Your garden doesn't have to be big. You just need a little space where you can go every morning and evening. Where you can get your hands dirty and grow some fresh leafy greens, herbs, and fruit to bring inside and turn into a meal. Even just a few leaves of kale or a couple tomatoes straight from the garden can make a huge difference.

Let's solve our poop problem together. Tell your friends and family so they don't have to suffer from constipation either. Thanks for bearing with me through this post!

Sources

• Institute for Health in the Built Environment
• Healthline
• Mayo Clinic Health System