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. 

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