The influence of social involvement, neighborhood aesthetics, and community garden participation on fruit and vegetable consumption.

OBJECTIVES: We considered the relationship between an urban adult population's fruit and vegetable consumption and several selected social and psychological processes, beneficial aesthetic experiences, and garden participation. METHODS: We conducted a population-based survey representing 436 residents across 58 block groups in Denver, Colorado, from 2006 to 2007. We used multilevel statistical models to evaluate the survey data. RESULTS: Neighborhood aesthetics, social involvement, and community garden participation were significantly associated with fruit and vegetable intake. Community gardeners consumed fruits and vegetables 5.7 times per day, compared with home gardeners (4.6 times per day) and nongardeners (3.9 times per day). Moreover, 56% of community gardeners met national recommendations to consume fruits and vegetables at least 5 times per day, compared with 37% of home gardeners and 25% of nongardeners. CONCLUSIONS: Our study results shed light on neighborhood processes that affect food-related behaviors and provides insights about the potential of community gardens to affect these behaviors. The qualities intrinsic to community gardens make them a unique intervention that can narrow the divide between people and the places where food is grown and increase local opportunities to eat better.

Connecting food environments and health through the relational nature of aesthetics: gaining insight through the community gardening experience.

Current environmental and health challenges require us to identify ways to better align aesthetics, ecology, and health. At the local level, community gardens are increasingly praised for their therapeutic qualities. They also provide a lens through which we can explore relational processes that connect people, ecology and health. Using key-informant interview data, this research explores gardeners' tactile, emotional, and value-driven responses to the gardening experience and how these responses influence health at various ecological levels (n = 67 participants, 28 urban gardens). Our findings demonstrate that gardeners' aesthetic experiences generate meaning that encourages further engagement with activities that may lead to positive health outcomes. Gardeners directly experience nearby nature by 'getting their hands dirty' and growing food. They enjoy the way vegetables taste and form emotional connections with the garden. The physical and social qualities of garden participation awaken the senses and stimulate a range of responses that influence interpersonal processes (learning, affirming, expressive experiences) and social relationships that are supportive of positive health-related behaviors and overall health. This research suggests that the relational nature of aesthetics, defined as the most fundamental connection between people and place, can help guide community designers and health planners when designing environment and policy approaches to improve health behaviors.

Collective efficacy in Denver, Colorado: Strengthening neighborhoods and health through community gardens.

Community gardens are viewed as a potentially useful environmental change strategy to promote active and healthy lifestyles but the scientific evidence base for gardens is limited. As a step towards understanding whether gardens are a viable health promotion strategy for local communities, we set out to examine the social processes that might explain the connection between gardens, garden participation and health. We analyzed data from semi-structured interviews with community gardeners in Denver. The analysis examined social processes described by community gardeners and how those social processes were cultivated by or supportive of activities in community gardens. After presenting results describing these social processes and the activities supporting them, we discuss the potential for the place-based social processes found in community gardens to support collective efficacy, a powerful mechanism for enhancing the role of gardens in promoting health.

Epinephrine-induced hyperpolarization of islet cells without KATP channels.

This study examines the effect of epinephrine, a known physiological inhibitor of insulin secretion, on the membrane potential of pancreatic islet cells from sulfonylurea receptor-1 (ABCC8)-null mice (Sur1KO), which lack functional ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channels. These channels have been argued to be activated by catecholamines, but epinephrine effectively inhibits insulin secretion in both Sur1KO and wild-type islets and in mice. Isolated Sur1KO beta-cells are depolarized in both low (2.8 mmol/l) and high (16.7 mmol/l) glucose and exhibit Ca(2+)-dependent action potentials. Epinephrine hyperpolarizes Sur1KO beta-cells, inhibiting their spontaneous action potentials. This effect, observed in standard whole cell patches, is abolished by pertussis toxin and blocked by BaCl2. The epinephrine effect is mimicked by clonidine, a selective alpha2-adrenoceptor agonist and inhibited by alpha-yohimbine, an alpha2-antagonist. A selection of K+ channel inhibitors, tetraethylammonium, apamin, dendrotoxin, iberiotoxin, E-4130, chromanol 293B, and tertiapin did not block the epinephrine-induced hyperpolarization. Analysis of whole cell currents revealed an inward conductance of 0.11 +/- 0.04 nS/pF (n = 7) and a TEA-sensitive outward conductance of 0.55 +/- 0.08 nS/pF (n = 7) at -60 and 0 mV, respectively. Guanosine 5'-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) (100 microM) in the patch pipette did not significantly alter these currents or activate novel inward-rectifying K+ currents. We conclude that epinephrine can hyperpolarize beta-cells in the absence of KATP channels via activation of low-conductance BaCl2-sensitive K+ channels that are regulated by pertussis toxin-sensitive G proteins.