@karenb54, I am 49, but due to 15 years of military service I feel like I am 79 when I don't eat REAL food.
@luzcypher is right, when I make a salad, and it has freshly picked items from my back yard in it, within an hour I feel energized!
If you have a balcony, or windows that open, you can grow food!
Get some windows sill or balcony rail planters small enough for you to lift, then find someone in your area that composts, trade your kitchen scraps for compost, get some good organic potting soil, mix your compost into it, then plant herbs you like, and lettuce, radish, beets, chard, even short rooted carrots.
Once the planter is done, don't water it, it will be a lot lighter that way, put it in place, water straightaway.
This way you can water, weed and harvest standing up!
When you fully harvest the planter, take the old soil, and dump it into an emptied potting soil sack, take it outside or put it on a tarp on the kitchen floor, then smush the bag by stepping on it to break up the soil.
Sift out the old roots and clumped up material, add it to your compost material container, then mix in fresh compost and start over. This way you only have to buy fresh potting soil here and there.
You can keep all the materials in a plastic tub under the sink or in the garage.
I don't have a backyard but I do have a balcony. I would love to grow my own food. At least some of it. But I know nothing about where to start.... It would be quite helpful to do a post with pictures showing how one can start growing food when they live in an apartment!