I think one of the most important pieces of advice I could give to anyone that is interested in up-leveling their diet is diversity. Diversity. If you stop for a moment and really think, what does my diet consist of? How much variety am I really getting? The answer could surprise you.
Spin the clock back over ten thousand years ago, in the days when humans had to forage and hunt simply to survive, and you find that the majority of our ancestors had an incredibly diverse diet. Wild plants, herbs, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, animals of all sorts (and eating all of the animal I might add, instead of the least nutritious flesh meat), birds, and depending on the location lots of fish, reptiles, insects, different roots, leaves, and the list goes on. Of course, all of this diversity may have been spread out over the weeks and months but nonetheless, the diet of humanity before agriculture began was so very different than it is now.
First I want to say, what a beautiful gift agriculture is. Agriculture gave humans the ability to settle down for months at a time or even all year, and that led to freeing up incredible amounts of time to other creative and lifestyle pursuits. Thanks to agriculture we can enjoy the life that we have, where we have incredible freedom and ample time to do as we please.
On the other hand, due to agriculture humans have effectively crippled the food system (nutritionally) over thousands of years. How so? The ability to selectively seed any crop. Instead of an incredibly varied and wild diet, which didn't always please the senses (bitter herbs, sour fruits, etc), we could now look at nature's most delicious tasting gems and say, "well imma grow a thousand fig trees." I can understand how that kind of thinking would be experienced at that time. Hell, I guarantee I would have done it too. Why grow some bitter herbs and sour fruits when you could grow acres of fig and date trees? I believe that blindness to the outcome of those choices has contributed to the worlds declining health. Declining health you say? Well Andrew! Look at how our life expectancy has increased. Well, I have a counter to that statement, how about look around. People are sicker then ever. And what boggles my mind is that sick has become the new norm! Obesity has become an epidemic, cancer and mental disorders run rampant, and people are dealing with all sorts of chronic health issues that didn't even exist a hundred years ago! Let me clear the air, it is not normal to have cancer. It is not normal to be overweight, it is not normal to have any chronic health challenges. It is not normal for men to have faulty prostates after the age of fifty. It is not normal to experience chronic fatigue. These things are not normal!
Fast forward to our modern day world, not even taking into the consideration the fact that most of the food at any particular store is highly processed, the reality is most of the average diet consists of just a handful of different foods. How crazy is that?! Any processed or fast food (which accounts for way too much of the average diet) is basically just a combination of genetically modified corn, wheat, and soy. The wheat, corn, and soy fed to countless factory farmed animals, and then the clever reintroduction of those three crops into everything from cereals and candy to condiments and dressings.
Just like with anything in life, diversity is vital. Diversity is vital to the person who wants to be truly physically fit. Diversity is vital to someone who wants a sharp and intelligent mind. Diversity is vital to anyone that wants to enhance their life. The body was not designed to just process a handful of selectively grown crops, it was designed to process the true abundance that is nature. The leaves, roots, barks, mushrooms, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish, meat, insects, birds, and plants of every kind.
Spin the clock back over ten thousand years ago, in the days when humans had to forage and hunt simply to survive, and you find that the majority of our ancestors had an incredibly diverse diet. Wild plants, herbs, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, animals of all sorts (and eating all of the animal I might add, instead of the least nutritious flesh meat), birds, and depending on the location lots of fish, reptiles, insects, different roots, leaves, and the list goes on. Of course, all of this diversity may have been spread out over the weeks and months but nonetheless, the diet of humanity before agriculture began was so very different than it is now.
First I want to say, what a beautiful gift agriculture is. Agriculture gave humans the ability to settle down for months at a time or even all year, and that led to freeing up incredible amounts of time to other creative and lifestyle pursuits. Thanks to agriculture we can enjoy the life that we have, where we have incredible freedom and ample time to do as we please.
On the other hand, due to agriculture humans have effectively crippled the food system (nutritionally) over thousands of years. How so? The ability to selectively seed any crop. Instead of an incredibly varied and wild diet, which didn't always please the senses (bitter herbs, sour fruits, etc), we could now look at nature's most delicious tasting gems and say, "well imma grow a thousand fig trees." I can understand how that kind of thinking would be experienced at that time. Hell, I guarantee I would have done it too. Why grow some bitter herbs and sour fruits when you could grow acres of fig and date trees? I believe that blindness to the outcome of those choices has contributed to the worlds declining health. Declining health you say? Well Andrew! Look at how our life expectancy has increased. Well, I have a counter to that statement, how about look around. People are sicker then ever. And what boggles my mind is that sick has become the new norm! Obesity has become an epidemic, cancer and mental disorders run rampant, and people are dealing with all sorts of chronic health issues that didn't even exist a hundred years ago! Let me clear the air, it is not normal to have cancer. It is not normal to be overweight, it is not normal to have any chronic health challenges. It is not normal for men to have faulty prostates after the age of fifty. It is not normal to experience chronic fatigue. These things are not normal!
Fast forward to our modern day world, not even taking into the consideration the fact that most of the food at any particular store is highly processed, the reality is most of the average diet consists of just a handful of different foods. How crazy is that?! Any processed or fast food (which accounts for way too much of the average diet) is basically just a combination of genetically modified corn, wheat, and soy. The wheat, corn, and soy fed to countless factory farmed animals, and then the clever reintroduction of those three crops into everything from cereals and candy to condiments and dressings.
Just like with anything in life, diversity is vital. Diversity is vital to the person who wants to be truly physically fit. Diversity is vital to someone who wants a sharp and intelligent mind. Diversity is vital to anyone that wants to enhance their life. The body was not designed to just process a handful of selectively grown crops, it was designed to process the true abundance that is nature. The leaves, roots, barks, mushrooms, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish, meat, insects, birds, and plants of every kind.
I don't believe it's possible to be in an optimal state of being living off of a standard diet, even if you do eat primarily organic or local foods. Due to years of mono cropping and spraying pesticides and herbicides, soil is depleted of vital life giving minerals. The number of environmental toxins that have been introduced just in the past fifty years is staggering which puts unseen stress on the body. And throw all of that together with an imbalanced overworked lifestyle and so many fear based organizations and institutions, and you have a perfect storm of destruction.
One of my huge passions the past couple years has been reading, researching, and trying out different tonic herbs. When I say tonic herb I'm not referring to herbs like oregano and rosemary, I'm talking about herbs (otherwise known as superior herbs in Chinese Herbalism) that are absolutely non toxic, and promote a long, healthy, vibrant, happy life, without side effects, even when taken for an extended period of time. Herbs like ginseng, he shou wu, holy basil, ashwagandha, goji berries, schizandra berries, astragalus, rehmannia root, reishi mushroom, just to name a few. These herbs provide a tonifying effect that normal foods simply cannot accomplish. From teaching immune cells to know how to effectively defend against invaders , to balancing gut flora, to obliterating tumors and cancer cells, to increasing the body's ability to handle stress, to enhancing mental and spiritual awareness. Tonic herbs are an incredible gift from the earth and are so very underutilized in the Western world of endless one-directional medications.
I hope this post has been informative and maybe kinda sorta inspired you to be more aware of how your diet impacts your life, and how valuable it is to reintroduce those forgotten foods (such as bitter, sour, or pungent herbs) into your diet.
The subtle energy of your food becomes your mind.
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