How to Eat for a Long Life

 

If you’ve ever wondered how to eat for longevity, then listen up because I’m going to tell you about what I learned from my education, research, and personal experience eating my way back to health over the past seven years. I was given a hard diagnosis in 2016 that I had two auto-immune disorders and one of which could quickly take me down. I was told that I would die if I didn’t have my thyroid removed. But I believed in the ability of my body to heal itself and I refused the surgery and have spent every day since then researching my way into remission through trial and error and I have dedicated my life to helping people know that, they too, can restore their health from the inside out – and better yet – how to be proactive so they never have to face a chronic illness.

Much like politics and religion, the topic of nutrition can be pretty controversial. There are die hard vegans and meat eaters the same as there are die hard democrats and republicans. And there may be disagreements around the edges of nutrition science, but there are certain principles that are universal. Nutrition is not a one size fits all, but there are a few universal principles that we should all be following. 

1. Quality

The highest quality food is going to create the highest quality input and information to your biology. High quality food is defined by the nutrient density of the food. So that’s the phytochemical richness, the amount of fiber, the vitamins and minerals, the quality of the fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Food is information and it’s literally sending instructions with every bite to regulate every function of your body, including the biological process of aging. Eat fruits and vegetables, high quality protein, lots of nuts and seeds, good quality fats, no processed food and very little to no refined sugars and starches. These are really simple principles that by following, can change your life. 

1. Food isn’t just calories, it is medicine

Food is actually a medicine that can either be used to heal your body or toxify it. It sends us either towards health or away from it. So before you put something in your body, you should think about what information you are about to give it. Good information or bad? If it comes in a package, there is a high likelihood that the majority of it isn’t even food. To turn on our longevity switches, we want to be eating an unpackaged, nutrient dense diet that is rich in colors, polyphenols, antioxidants and phytochemicals. We need to be eating clean food that isn’t sprayed with chemicals, because herbicides and pesticides aren’t only killing weeds and bugs, but they are also killing the nutrient density of the food and polluting your system, adding to inflammation and fueling disease. The information that powers and informs your body comes from food. YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.

3. Most of our diet should be plants

Seventy to eighty percent of our plates should be filled with veggies and should vary in color and variety. We should be eating plants that are blue, yellow, purple, red, orange, green and yellow. These natural, whole foods are the best medicine for our bodies. This includes vegetables and fruits. But it is important to make sure if you’re going to eat fruit, you eat the entire fruit, otherwise you are missing the fiber and spiking your blood sugar. Dried fruit is not a good thing. For most people, think of it as candy, it’s okay to have a little bit, but not too much. The focus for plant foods should be on vegetables.

4. Protein is SO extremely important

But not all protein is created equal, and herein lies the controversy. I could write a ten page article just on protein. But I’m not going to (today). First of all, let me start by saying that I totally understand that you may choose not to eat meat because you don’t want to eat another being. I fully get it and respect that choice. But for you guys, finding a protein source, and eating enough of it, that has a high enough level of all the essential amino acids that you need in a day is of utmost importance, especially as you age. It can be done, but you will need to eat, for example, about 3 cups of chickpeas, 3 times a day in order to get the same amount of protein and essential amino acids you would get from a palm sized piece of meat. You absolutely can hack plant proteins, but it’s much harder to use those for building muscle and you have to eat a lot more in order to get what your body needs. Being a vegan or vegetarian in your 20’s is much easier on your body than being a vegetarian or vegan past the age of 40.

As you age, it’s important to get quality protein because after the age of 40 we naturally begin to lose muscle. It becomes really critical that you don’t have a deficit of protein as you get older, because one of the keys to longevity is keeping muscle (for multiple reasons), and the only way to build muscle is with protein. And consuming protein in the form of muscle is the most efficient way.

When it comes to consuming meat, the first thing to know is that eating meat is not bad – in fact – the contrary. But if you are eating industrial meat, that’s really bad. If you’re eating factory farm meat, that’s really bad. And really bad on multiple levels. You consume antibiotics and hormones through industrial meat, billions of stressed animals are mutilated and confined to cramped and barren cages for their entire lives and factory farming systems displace local and sustainable food production. If you believe in karma, this isn’t the route you want to go.

But if you’re eating meat that’s organic and regenerative or if you are a hunter and you are eating wild animals, that is wonderful. If you’re eating animals that roam free and eat grass and a wide variety of plants, this is amazing because they are actually rich in phytochemicals because they eat the plants that are rich in phytochemicals. This type of meat can actually be anti-inflammatory. So if you’re going to eat meat, make sure it’s regenerative, grass fed, and organic. It is better for you, it is better for the planet, it is better for your karma and it is much more humane.

Now let’s talk about eggs. Unless you explicitly have an allergy, please do not be afraid of them. Yes, they have cholesterol, but the inconclusive dietary guidelines set forth in the 1980’s that said the consumption of eggs leads to high cholesterol has been debunked. Even the dietary guidelines themselves have gotten rid of that recommendation. They’re a great source of protein, vitamins, B12, and they have a high amount of choline, which is great for your brain and liver. But back to the factory farming point – it is really important to make sure you are buying pasture-raised eggs.

Fish? Fish is great. But, unfortunately we polluted the oceans. So most fish today are full of micro plastics and mercury. We should focus on fish that are low in mercury and toxins. These are salmon, mackerel, sardines, anchovies, and herring. You can check out cleanfish.com for an extensive list of fish that are safe to eat.

5. Get your fat from whole foods

By whole foods, I mean nuts, seeds, avocados, pasture raised eggs, and small fatty fish like sardines and mackerel. With olive oil, you have to be careful. Most olive oils are processed, so you want to make sure you are buying extra virgin olive oil because it is made in a special way that doesn’t degrade the oil. Avocado oil is great for higher heat cooking. Extra virgin coconut oil can be great unless you are like me and sensitive to consuming saturated fat because it spikes your cholesterol. 

Fats that are highly saturated can be completely ok or horrible and it all depends on your own biology. So it’s important to check that. Nuts and seeds are great for weight loss, diabetes, heart disease, and dementia. They can also be great for lowering cholesterol because they are full of monounsaturated fats and phytosterols. They’re full of minerals, protein, good fats, and they have a lot of fiber. With all of that said, if you have auto-immunity, it is best to leave nuts and seeds out for a month and slowly reintroduce them back in and see how your body reacts.

6. Go through your cabinets and throw away or compost all of your vegetable oils

And by vegetable oils, I mean safflower oil, sunflower oil, canola oil (modified rapeseeds), corn oil, cottonseed oil, peanut oil, soybean oil and rice bran oil just to name a few. These oils are highly inflammatory and should not be a part of the diet for anyone. Unlike coconut oil or olive oil which can be extracted by pressing, these new-fangled oils have to be extracted in very unnatural ways. They are also extremely high in polyunsaturated fats, which are highly unstable. These types of fats oxidize easily and cause inflammation and mutation in our cells. That oxidation is linked to all sorts of health problems from cancer, heart disease, endometriosis, PCOS, etc. Vegetable oils are bad news. They are far, far off the road to longevity.

7. Reduce or stop eating conventional dairy

This is a two part conversation. The first part is a repeat of the factory/industrial farm conversation we had about protein. Conventional dairy is loaded with antibiotics and hormones and by buying it you are supporting a system with the inhumane treatment of animals.

The second part of the conversation is about the different types of protein in dairy, depending on the type of animal the dairy comes from. Most cows have a protein called A1 casein and this can be highly inflammatory for the vast majority of the population, whether you feel it immediately or not. It can cause congestion, sinus and digestive issues, asthma and acne. Dairy is often a silent instigator for a lot of things. Sheep and goats, however, produce a type of protein called A2 casein and we are able to digest this much better and it doesn’t cause too many issues. But again, you want to make sure that the goat and sheep dairy also comes from a regenerative farming practice to make sure everything you are feeding your body is clean. I still would advise against eating any dairy regularly and eat it more as a ‘treat’ on occasion.

8. Grains and beans are okay, depending on your biology

If you are diabetic, overweight, or have trouble with belly fat, you might want to go for a short time without them to see how your body does because they can actually trigger insulin spikes which you want to avoid. All grains boost blood sugar, so try not to have more than 60-100 grams per day. Focus on low glycemic, gluten free grains such as quinoa, black rice, teff, amaranth or buckwheat. If you are going to eat wheat, make sure it is from ancient grains such as einkorn, emmer or farro, not American dwarf wheat. American dwarf wheat was created as a genetically modified wheat in 1968 because it was cheaper to produce, but it is low in nutritional value and much higher in gluten. It is what practically all packaged foods in the U.S. are currently made with.

Beans can be great. Lentils and chickpeas are the best. Stay away from big starchy beans like kidney and lima. But for any bean, make sure you soak them and cook them correctly. Beans have something called ‘anti-nutrients’ in the form of lectins and phytates which can inhibit mineral and protein absorption. By soaking them first (for roughly 24 hours) and then pressure cooking them, you remove most of the anti-nutrients and it makes them much easier to digest.

 

9. Sugar is pretty much the devil

If you want to live a long time. I’m not talking about raw honey, maple syrup and molasses – though you should also be careful how much of those you eat – but I’m talking about pure cane sugar.

The recipe for a life of longevity is eating in a way that minimizes spikes in blood sugar. If you are having a natural sweetener like honey, it is also important to eat it with something that has a bit of fat, protein and fiber, because this will reduce the spike. Most white sugar comes with coffee, ‘juices’, drinks, cookies, cakes, pasta sauces – things that do not have fat, protein or fiber. Be careful of liquid sugar calories. They’re everywhere whether it is soda or sweet tea (my sincere apologies go out to my fellow Southerners – this is slander I’m speaking). Fruit juice is terrible. Coffee shop coffee drinks have all kinds of junk in them. Sugar is omnipresent but to live a life of longevity, you want to stay as far away from it as possible.

Your body sees refined starches and carbohydrates the same as it does sugar and your body can’t tell the difference between a bowl of corn flakes and a bowl of sugar once it gets below your mouth. Refined sugars, starches and carbohydrates raise blood pressure, increase chronic inflammation (one of the hallmarks of chronic disease and cancer), contributes to weight gain, diabetes, fatty liver disease, and increases your risk for heart attack and stroke. In a hundred years (and hopefully sooner) our grandkids will look back in awe at the amount of sugar the older generations consumed. It is a drug and it is amazing that it is still legally allowed to be added to practically every packaged food despite the spiraling health crises we are in.

One of the most basic take home messages is that we shouldn’t eat stuff that’s not food. This means packaged food, processed food, all these colored shapes of chemically extruded, food-like substances – just don’t eat them. Whether it’s Twizzlers or Oreo cookies, these do not grow out of the ground. If the natural world didn’t produce it, don’t eat it. If man made it, unfortunately, it is probably not a good idea to eat.

Get away from foods with pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, hormones, processed ingredients, chemicals, additives, dyes, and artificial sweeteners. They’re just not good for us and there’s no reason to eat them.

An Example of What I Eat in a Day

  1. Breakfast
    Eggs scrambled with turkey, spinach and shitake mushrooms (or) a smoothie with protein powder, medicinal mushroom powder, vanilla, cinnamon, and frozen strawberries and blueberries
  2. Lunch: 
    Salmon filet with steamed broccoli, drizzled with lemon and olive oil
  3. Snack 
    Apple with almond butter
  4. Dinner 
    Chicken, kale, brussel sprouts, ½ sweet potato (I interchange many different vegetables for dinner throughout the week)
  5. Desert

    A spoonful of organic goat cheese drizzled with honey

I also drink lots of water, matcha tea and hot lemon water with ginger throughout the day.

We are all genetically and metabolically different in terms of our preferences, our culture and what we like and don’t like, so it is important to personalize your approach. There’s no one size fits all, so you should focus on what works best for you. But for all of us, it needs to be designed to be low glycemic and low in refined starches and sugar because those drive disease and aging. It should be rich in good proteins, fats, and plant foods, which we need in order to turn on the pathways of health in our body. Our diets should be detoxifying and healing, no matter how healthy you already are. And that’s really the basic foundational principles of nutrition. Food is medicine and your fork is the most powerful tool you have to change your health and your life. 

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