Do you eat to live, or live to eat? Take a moment to consider this; it’s an important question. With our stressed-out, crazy fast, and technology-driven modern lifestyles, it’s really easy to rely on food as an emotional crutch, a best friend, or an outlet for our fears and hostilities. If you’re living to eat, it may be time to reconsider your relationship to food.
Biologically speaking, food is fuel for your body. It’s as simple as that. You have been given this glorious, fleshy, fantastically powerful machine to carry you through life. It’s as amazing, powerful, and sexy as a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, or Tesla. You would be certifiably insane to use 87-octane fuel in your $300,000 supercar, so why the heck would you put crappy fuel in YOUR priceless body? It’s pure, unadulterated madness. Most of the time we treat our freakin’ cars better than we treat ourselves!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating that we become cold or dispassionate about our food or not fully enjoy it with every fiber of our being. I just don’t want you to get confused about the real reason that we need to eat. We need food for energy, stamina, and vital life force. This biological principle is simple, true, and unambiguous. So eat like you’re going to be traveling in this machine for the rest of your life—because, guess what, you are!
The Language of Food
People often find the language of healthy nutrition to be confusing at best. Counting calories, multiplying fat grams, and memorizing words like “indole 3-carbinol” can have your head spinning like Linda Blair’s in The Exorcist. Not a good look if you’re trying to score a date at the grocery store. So, let me break it down for you.
Nutrients have their own language. Whether it’s vitamins, minerals, proteins, or fats—the chemical structure of these food components is encoded in a specific molecular makeup. This chemical encoding is the “language” of nutrients, allowing them to communicate perfectly with the blood, cells, organs, and tissues of the human body in order to create health. When we eat natural, whole, unprocessed foods that are packed with high nutrient density, it’s easy to have a perfectly flowing, engaged, and happy conversation. It’s like when you meet a new person at a party and you instantly know you’re going to be great friends. The conversation flows easily and gracefully, and, at its end, you both feel amazing, uplifted, and energized.
Conversely, when you eat food-like substances that often contain a plethora of unpronounceable and artificial ingredients and their names come with a lot of “oxyl,” “methyl,” and “propyl” things in them plus combinations of strange numbers, the conversation doesn’t exactly feel good. Again, it’s like being at a party and meeting a stranger, only the conversation drains you and sucks out your life force. All you can think about is chewing off your own arm and bashing the person you’re talking to over the head with it to escape their bloodsucking, lecherous energy. A pretty vivid picture, am I right? The question now becomes, if your body can’t speak the same language as these artificial, toxic, unnatural, often petroleum-based ingredients, what does it DO after you consume them?
In all of its infinite wisdom, when your body realizes that it can’t speak “toxicese” fluently and can’t process these “foods” via normal digestive and excretory processes, it files them away in your organs or fatty tissues to deal with later. The problem is—unless you make a point to regularly detoxify and cleanse—your body doesn’t deal with them. EVER. If you aren’t diligent about detoxing from these substances on a regular basis, you can accumulate a lifetime of buildup and create a seriously toxic environment in your body.
My advice: Eat whole, minimally processed, organic, plant-based foods. Do whatever it takes to motivate and inspire yourself to eat more fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds, and occasionally superfoods. I know, I know . . . superfoods can be kinda weird and scary. Just take my hand and let’s bring it on down to veganville!
Superfoods: Not Just for Superheroes
Superfoods are a special category of foods found in natural, pristine growing environments and often cultivated by indigenous cultures that have enjoyed their benefits for hundreds or even thousands of years. They tend to be calorie sparse and nutrient dense, meaning they pack a lot of energetic and nutritional punch for their weight. They are superior sources of antioxidants, trace minerals, essential fatty acids, and vitamins—all nutrients the human body needs but cannot make on its own. Superfoods are considered highly beneficial to your health and may even help alleviate some medical conditions.
Many people are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, but with concerns over the quality of the foods we grow—including the effects of mineral-stripped soil, contaminated water, and heavy pesticide usage—superfoods are now a more intelligent choice than ever. Basically, they’re nutritious rocket fuel for your recipes. They’re just really damn good for you. And we like that. We like that a lot.
Jason’s Top Ten Longevity Superfoods
- acai berries
- chia seeds
- coconut oil
- goji berries
- hemp seeds
- maqui berry
- pumpkin seeds
- reishi mushroom
- sea vegetables
- spirulina
Let’s Alkalize, Guys!
Homeostasis—a state of perfect balance and harmony in all of the body’s systems and processes—is one of the primary keys to longevity. And when it comes to your body’s pH levels, homeostasis is crucial for vibrant health. pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline something is, and your blood pH needs to stay at a slightly alkaline level to keep you healthy. So, what affects the pH of your blood? What you eat. Some foods make your blood more alkaline, and some make it more acidic.
Most fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, seeds, and herbal teas add alkalinity. Glutinous grains, beans, meats, dairy products, fish, fast foods, and processed foods add acidity. When you eat acid-forming foods, your body brings your blood pH back into balance by releasing alkaline-rich minerals into your bloodstream, the most abundant of which are calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. And where do these come from? Your body leeches them from your bones, teeth, and organs, which compromises your immune system, causes fatigue, and decreases bone density. This makes you more vulnerable to diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer and conditions like osteoporosis, among many others. Major diseases can only thrive in one type of environment: an acidic one.
Ideally, you want to aim for a diet of 80 percent alkaline-forming foods and 20 percent acid-forming foods. For the acid-forming foods, skip the fast food meals, artificial sweets, processed foods, and animal products—which come with other health problems—and choose options like beans, legumes, and whole grains. When it comes to alkaline-forming foods, it’s important to choose organic fruits and vegetables whenever possible, as herbicides and pesticides are highly acidic and challenging for the body to detoxify.
Jason’s Top Alkalizing Foods
Foods with a pH range of 7.0 to 9.0
- artichoke
- asparagus
- avocado
- beet
- cauliflower
- fennel
- grapefruit
- kale
- kelp
- leek
- lemon
- lime
- spinach
- tomato
- watercress
- watermelon
What It’s All About
How we eat is a direct reflection of the amount of self-love we have cultivated. When we truly love and accept ourselves, we naturally gravitate toward more conscious, mindful food choices and a lifestyle that supports the desire to feel alive. That’s why I talk about changing your lifestyle. For many people, the way they eat might be better described as a deathstyle.
At the end of the day, caring for yourself isn’t just about the food you eat. It’s also about giving yourself more love. By doing this, you can be healthy, vibrant, and able to experience the joy of life—plus, you can continue to give your unique and awesome gifts to this world! The world needs you! So make a point to take care of yourself—if not for your own sake, then for the rest of us, okay?
I think we can all agree that when you choose to live a life full of joy, energy, positivity, purpose, and health, you’re naturally going to want to live as long as possible! I mean, really, who would want to get off the roller coaster when the ride is that much fun? The nourishment that you choose to allow into your body—from the foods you eat, the impressions you take in, and the thoughts you think—has a tremendous impact on your longevity and overall well-being.
Everything is beautiful when you make it with love. When you are in the kitchen, it’s important to remember to infuse all of your food with a conscious intention for the meal to nourish everyone who tastes it!
