The choices we make (or have access to making) about what we put into our bodies, about our sources of nourishment, profoundly influence our degree of physical and emotional health.

As has been said before, food can either harm or heal. A number of life-altering conditions - including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes - are all directly linked to diet. Food affects our ability to regulate our moods, maintain our particular optimal weight, prevent and recover from disease, and protect our vital life force.

We can consider good food to be that which sustains our bodies, the earth, our communities and cultures (and delights our senses, another legitimate nourishment). While access to good food should be a right and not a privilege, obstacles to that access, along with a robust promotion of nutritionless and industrialised foods, have interrupted our ability to intuit what our individual bodies need for optimal health.

So how do we reconnect with this knowing? How do we cultivate our power to restore and preserve our health, and contribute to living long and healthy lives?

The Essence of the Longevity Diet

Millennia-old healing systems such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and India’s Ayurveda have investigated and articulated the practices shown both to prevent disease and enhance longevity. “Blue Zone” and other cultures throughout the world, where people tend towards long life, offer additional insight into the food traditions that support radiant health well into our later years.

This collective wisdom of our ancestors informs what we call the Longevity Diet, a healing, rejuvenating diet that has been the guiding force of what we’ve taught at Academy Healing Nutrition these last few decades.

The fundamental principles of the Longevity Diet include the following:

Utilising Food as Medicine: our bodies are designed to recognise and respond to the medicinal properties available in food (and herbs).
Respecting the Integrity of our Food: what we eat retains its greatest vitality when our food remains close to its whole state, is fresh, local, and grown in harmony with nature (which means sustainably or organically produced, and seasonal)
Traditional Preparations: grains, beans and nuts are soaked for hours before cooking or drying; dairy foods and vegetables are fermented to boost their digestibility and nutritional value.
Interconnection of our Bodies-Minds-Spirits: foods have a unique energetic profile that affects us on all levels and, conversely, our emotional health will impact our ability to be nourished by our food. The medicines of movement, skillful stress management, the sustenance of community, and fostering a sense of gratitude for life, are as important as our diet.

Yet regarding diet, just what are the foods commonly eaten by the different cultures of longevity?

The Essential Ingredients of the Longevity Diet

All foods are potentially medicine, used at the right time, in the right amount, and for the right person.

The following foods form the cornerstone of the Longevity Diet:

Simple, whole, nutrient-rich foods (including grains and beans)
Cleansing vegetables from land and sea
Immune-enhancing probiotic foods (fermented drinks such as kefir, kvass and kombucha; foods such as sourdough, sauerkraut, or miso)
Wild, organic, animal foods (if appropriate; grass-fed if relevant; in small amounts)
Fortifying and revitalising adaptogenic herbs and mushrooms

Creating New Habits: Five Ways to Incorporate the Longevity Diet into our Daily Lives

When we understand life to be a transformative process, and approach it with curiosity, we can welcome new ideas and practices, observing their effects in our bodies and spirits.

Consider taking just one of these actions as a way to introduce Longevity Diet principles into your life:

Visit a local farmer’s market: learn what vegetables are in season and bring home one you’ve never tried before.
Add fermented foods to your meals: stir a spoonful of white miso into a tahini sauce (to preserve its probiotic properties, be careful never to boil miso); have a small serving of kimchi with eggs or tofu and rice for breakfast.
Try soaking your grains: place steel cut oats in the amount of water needed to cook them and let sit overnight. Do the same with uncooked brown or black rice in the morning to prepare for your evening meal. You can safely use the soak water to cook the grain afterwards.
Prepare dried beans from scratch: soak beans overnight in water to which some apple cider vinegar is added. Drain and rinse before adding fresh water to cook.
Get more sea vegetables into your diet: make a batch of gomasio, a delicious sesame seed and sea veggie condiment, using the recipe below.

Pay attention to your digestion, mental clarity, and energy levels as you bring more of these deeply nourishing, anti-inflammatory, foods into your diet. Not only will you lay the groundwork for lifelong health and vitality, but you’ll invite a courage and radiant spirit to develop, the fruit of making efforts on behalf of your own lovely self, and of prioritising your wellbeing.

A Longevity Diet Recipe: Gomasio Condiment

Sprinkle gomasio on everything from rice to noodle soups to vegetables!

Ingredients

1 strip kombu seaweed

Small handful dulse seaweed

½ cup black sesame seeds

½ cup white sesame seeds

1 Tbsp sea salt

Directions

Place sea vegetables on a baking sheet in a low oven until dry and crisp (pay attention to prevent burning). Transfer to a mortar and pestle or food processor, and grind until somewhat fine.

Dry toast the sesame seeds by placing in a warm pan (ideally cast iron) over medium heat, tossing or stirring constantly. When their oil begins to release its fragrance, remove the seeds from the heat and place in a bowl to cool. Take care to prevent any burning.

Toss all ingredients together until well mixed and store in an airtight jar in the refrigerator.

Longevity Diet 101