We all know that what you eat is a big part of being healthy but we often don’t think beyond the actual food available in front of us. In the broad sense, we don’t go beyond the kitchen. Today’s selection of food is immense and endlessly varied, even if we only focus on whole foods. Don’t get me wrong, if you just give up highly processed food for whole foods, you are making a huge step forward in regards to your health but for those who are ready to take it to the next level, for you and the planet, this article is for you.
In case you need a little motivation, this scene in WALL-E is becoming more and more of a reality due to the way industry, convenience and “progress” are shaping us. Breaking free from this fate has a lot to do with making inconvenient choices, at times, but ones that are actually far more natural than our current modern lifestyle.
I could write countless pages on the environmental benefits of eating LSD (locally, seasonally, diurnally) but that’s not what this article is about and the connection should be obvious. For those not connecting the dots, when you eat what is available now, close by and doesn’t require fancy technology to grow, you reduce the carbon footprint by diminishing transportation, refrigeration, etc.
While that pineapple in front of you is infinitesimally superior to that candy bar, it might not be the right choice if you are looking for the nutrition for optimal performance, disease prevention or healing opportunities.
What this article is about is the often neglected and unrealized benefits of eating the right food at the right time from the right place.
Note: If you are struggling to choose a salad over KFC, then this article is probably too advanced for you. Feel free to read it but don’t stress about implementation. You might want to focus on the final section: The Reasonable Factor.
Second Note: Beyond this point, let’s assume that all the food I am discussing is organic and non-GMO to keep things simple.
RELATED: Engage Your Environment
Beyond the Kitchen: The Local Factor (L)
When you choose to eat an apple or any other piece of produce that comes from your region rather than California, Mexico or Australia (unless you live in California, Mexico or Australia), you are benefiting not only from the valuable nutrients in the apple but also from the particular soil it was grown in. Each region has its own soil makeup which contains particular microbes. The microbiome of the regional soil is actually primed to assist our microbiome in digesting and assimilating the food that is grown from it. It’s a wondrous act of nature to not only provide us food but positive bacteria to aid in the optimal absorption of that food. When we respect that we can expect to get more benefits from the food and fewer issues.
Simply put, an apple coming from our backyard basically comes with a “digestive enzyme” for the people living around it, whereas an apple coming from across the globe comes with a different sequence that isn’t as well suited for digestion.
Fresh is best
Beyond this consideration is the basic idea that the closer the apple originates to us, the fresher it is. Many people acknowledge fresh fruit as having more prana or chi. Imaging has shown this to be the case. But if you don’t want to dive down that rabbit hole, just know that the longer food is exposed to light and oxygen, the more it breaks down. Oxidation is what occurs when things are exposed to oxygen and this is a real factor in aging. Eating aged food, might not age you faster, maybe, but it will provide you with fewer nutrients.
Fresh is best. Local is the way.
Consider that about a century ago how hard it was to get any food that wasn’t local. Now we can get a pineapple in December in Canada. We also suffer from higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease than ever before. Many consider these diseases and the like to be the ills of excess.
Beyond the Kitchen: The Seasonal Factor (S)
You probably figured out that freshness plays a role in seasonal eating as well. Good job! It also does with latitudinal eating. But there’s more to it than that.
Once again, I have to tip my hat to nature. She is one smart cookie. Nature provides the right type of food for the season. She offers abundance, variety, and scarcity. All things that build health and resilience. Yes, even scarcity is valuable.
The thing is we live in an “endless summer” mentality and environment. We expect to get our summer foods all year round and never to have to deal with being deprived. Our environment is thermostat controlled and always comfortable. Well, constant comfort breeds weakness and constant indulgence lead to those dis-eases of excess I mentioned earlier.
Our ancestors never had these luxuries. They learned to be resourceful, patient and respectful of the inevitable cycles of nature and life.
For every season
“For every season…” is a phrase that does well to keep in mind for nutrition and just about anything else in life. When we embrace cycles and change, we are better poised to handle it.
Heraclitus said, “There is nothing permanent except change.” This is worth meditating on when you are considering getting a shopping cart full of fruit in the heart of winter.
A great way to realize the seasonal factor is to shop as much as possible at the farmer’s market. It brings awareness to the changing harvests and what our ancestors dealt with. When we eat summer harvests in winter, we actually increase the potential for those higher carbohydrate foods to turn to body fat. Fruit in the summer cools the body, provides the nutrients that help with greater activity levels and match the extra sunlight we get.
Counter to most of our current perception, winter is naturally a time to lose weight. With less abundance and variety of foods, it was traditionally a period when we would fast more and our diet would end up being more ketogenic in essence. Returning to this alignment not only supports the natural ebb and flow of the seasonal changes but also gives our body a chance to experience a variety of foods and nutrients as well as a break from the natural indulgence of summer.
Winter foods also tend to be warming and hearty, supporting us through the cold and lending themselves to more rest. Think about hibernation, or partial hibernation, as a natural winter state.
Beyond the Kitchen: The Latitudinal Factor
The latitudinal factor is similar to the local factor but in some ways has more leeway. Living in Canada, I can eat latitudinally but pick foods that come from 5000 kilometers away. This isn’t ideal but I’ll get more into that in the Reasonable Factor section below.
Essentially, eating latitudinally matches up with the amount of sunlight that is available to the crops at that time of year. This is kind of like a cross between seasonal and local factors. While the soil microbes might be somewhat mismatched, the sunlight that goes into those crops at the same latitude creates a match for the people living at that latitude.
This might seem like a very abstract connection for many but consider the generations of humans who use to only eat food that came from their growing zone and how their biology adapted to certain foods, you might appreciate how this would be optimal for us.
Also, when we consider the role photosynthesis plays in providing energy for foods to grow and how that energy is transferred to us, we might become aware of how, in many ways, we are eating the photons and energy of the sun. Matching the sun’s energy to our location would be a way to align the nutrients we would naturally be receiving.
Beyond the Kitchen: The Diurnal Factor (D)
Eat during the day. Simple. ‘Nuff said. Okay, I’ll elaborate.
Humans are diurnal. Period. While there might be some slight personal circadian rhythm differences, there is no such thing as a truly nocturnal homo sapien. That’s the way of Count Dracula and other vampires. We need sunlight and our body is comprised of receptors like the retina, skin, liver, etc. which all respond to zeitgeibers – external cues, like light, that set our biological clock.
Beyond the Kitchen with Zeitgeibers
Our body is designed to receive these zeitgeibers which implies that we are designed to be exposed to them. This happens in the day. Our biology functions best and avoids decline when we respect daytime rules and night time rules, i.e., being active and resting.
These zeitgeibers are certainly beyond the kitchen in the way most people consider “you are what you eat” to be the ultimate nutrition maxim.
Eating is a form of being active. Your digestive tract, liver and various other systems are all working through the process of food preparation, intake, assimilation, and elimination. This is daytime, in the light, activity. This is not an ideal activity suited to night time and darkness.
When we flip this and disrespect our diurnal nature, we function less than optimally. If we continue to do so, we begin dysfunction and then move toward di-ease. Ignoring this state of affairs leads to weight gain, diabetes, heart disease and more.
Insulin released in the presence of melatonin is an obesigenic combination. Insulin arises from blood sugar elevation which occurs when you eat and melatonin arises from the darkness. This is just one example of how eating at night is a recipe for poor health.
Having to digest food when you try to sleep also interferes with both one’s ability to fall asleep, quality of sleep and the restorative processes that occur when you are asleep. Food is for energy. The day is the time when we need that energy.
Beyond the Kitchen: The Reasonable Factor
Yes, everything above is true. It’s also pretty strict and I would say unrealistic – at least, to maintain all the time. If you can do an 80/20 with this stuff, you’re doing really well. If you have a disease, it might require even more diligence to aid in healing. Planning to win an Olympic gold medal? It might also require a degree of strictness unachievable for most of us. Just like that gold medal is unachievable for most of us.
Being aware of the nature of things, the pinnacle of action, allows one to make an informed decision as to how to proceed. In the end, you have to weigh things out for yourself. You have to decide what is reasonable for you.
Eating that pineapple in December in Canada for a late night snack might be worth it. If you do it all the time, it might not. You have a choice and to put that in perspective for 99% of human history, your ancestors did not. They were always going beyond the kitchen and they ate LSD all the time.
