Garden-Based Nutrition Education and Student Health Outcomes

Garden-based nutrition education integrates hands-on gardening activities with dietary instruction to foster healthy eating habits and broader well-being among school-aged children. By engaging pupils in planning, planting, tending and harvesting crops, such programmes aim to improve knowledge, attitudes and preferences for fruits and vegetables, enhance nutrition literacy and influence long-term dietary behaviours. Evidence indicates that embedding garden work within the curriculum can bolster self-efficacy, increase home availability of fresh produce and strengthen social connections through family and community involvement. Although some interventions have reported modest reductions in body mass index and improvements in metabolic markers, the most consistent gains are observed in fruit and vegetable intake, cooking skills and nutrition knowledge. Global implementation varies in intensity and context, yet multi-component models combining garden lessons, cooking classes, family engagement and sustainability education show the greatest promise for sustained impact.

Research from Nature Portfolio

No recent Nature Portfolio content available.

Garden-Based Nutrition Education and Student Health Outcomes publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in garden-based nutrition education and student health outcomes across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Garden-based learning: An educational strategy that uses the cultivation of plants to teach nutrition, science and environmental concepts through hands-on engagement.

Cluster randomised controlled trial: A study design in which entire groups (for example, schools) are randomly assigned to receive an intervention or serve as controls, reducing contamination between participants.

Experiential learning: A learning process whereby students gain knowledge and skills through direct, reflective experience rather than passive instruction.

References

1. School Gardening and Health and Well-Being of School-Aged Children: A Realist Synthesis. Nutrients (2023).
2. A systematic review of the health and well-being impacts of school gardening: synthesis of quantitative and qualitative evidence. BMC Public Health (2016).
3. School-based gardening, cooking and nutrition intervention increased vegetable intake but did not reduce BMI: Texas sprouts - a cluster randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2021).
4. Long-term impact of a school-based nutrition intervention on home nutrition environment and family fruit and vegetable intake: A two-year follow-up study. Preventive Medicine Reports (2020).