Nutrition and the Forest Garden

 

The most extensive study of the relationship between diet and health, The China Study, was published in 2006 by researcher Dr. Colin Campbell and guidance was subsequently offered in the book ‘The China Study Cookbook’ in 2013 by Leanne Campbell, presenting a range of recipes following the study’s conclusion that a Whole Food Plant Based Diet was the most suitable to ensure optimum health. Another independent researcher Dr Michael Greger who has a team of researchers scrutinising all publicised and ongoing research into the relationship between diet and health and revealed daily on his website ‘Nutrition Facts’ is following the same reasoning i.e. the value of a Whole Food Plant Based Diet for optimum health. His provocative titled book ‘How Not To Die’ is a mine of information and takes in fifteen major diseases, with a supporting update each year as he reviews the recent research on his website.

In what has been described as ‘The Garden Approach’ by Leanne Campbell, she shows how the Forest Garden is ideally suited to delivering this optimum programme of health from nutrition. Listed below are the suggestions in both of these studies –

 

THE GARDEN APPROACH - Leanne Campbell               THE DAILY DOZEN – Dr Michael  Greger-                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                    from his Book – How Not to Die                                                                                                                                

 

FRUITS

GRAINS

LEAVES

ROOTS

LEGUMES

FLOWERS

NUTS

MUSHROOMS

It’s possible to take the reasoning further by pursuing the message in Masanobu’s last book ‘Sowing Seeds

In The Desert – Natural farming, Global restoration, and Ultimate Food Security’ .In a review of Mr. Fukuoka’s work ‘One-Straw Revolutionary’ there is the following quote.

 

‘There are evergreen and deciduous trees of all sizes growing together with shrubs, berries vegetables, and ground cover plants. There are also kiwis, grapes and other vines growing up into the trees--- the three

dimensional use of space is entirely different from a commercial orchard’.

 

Below are two examples of this practice taken from the Towans Forest Garden.  

 

 

Sunberry climbing Autumn Olive   

 

   Economising on space.  Wild vegetables,

   Shrubs:  wild cabbage, choke berry,

    Nanking Cherry.   Trees: Sunset Apple,

   Himalayan Tree Buckthorn, Bramley and

   Kentish Cob Nuts.

 

JUST CHANGING OUR DIET WOULD IMPROVE OUR HEALTH, OUR PLANET AND OUR FUTURE  

 

BEANS

BERRIES

OTHER FRUITS

CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES

GREENS

OTHER  VEGETABLES

FLAX SEEDS

NUTS

SPICES

WHOLE GRAINS

BEVERAGES

EXERCISE