10 Ways to Eat More Living Food
About 5 years ago, after 20+ years of experimentation, research and study of nutrition, dozens of different diets and cleanses, and learning more and more about the ecological sustainability issues of our food system, I was as frustrated and confused as many of you about what we really should be eating for the highest level of health for us and for all life on earth.
When I look to the research there are thousands of voices arguing with each other over the molecules. The podcast space and social media is teaming with contrarians getting clicks off of making others wrong contradicting each other. And even my colleagues can not agree on a unified approach, let alone an answer.
So, I went higher…. I meditated on it deeply and asked Source.
And she said, “Eat living food, you cook yourself.”
Period.
What exactly do I mean by living foods?
Well, here is the bad news... unfortunately, most of the food in our kitchens and on our plates (or in our cars and on our laps) is a whole lotta DEAD. Why do you think processed food can last so long on the shelf? Because it already dead, there is nowhere else to go.
Living food rots.
Tanda Cook, my coauthor, and I used to joke that we should have called our cookbook Food That Rots instead of Food That Grows, but the marketing would not have gone as well.
We eat food that has been grown with unnatural fertilizers, sprayed with pesticides in dead dirt, picked weeks before ripe (never allowed to build up maximum chi, see below), genetically modified to stave off issues that single crop farming creates, factory farmed in monocultures without its plant ally’s to increase nutrition and protect from pests, irradiated on the way to storage, ultra-processed by machines, mass-cooked to oblivion, pressurized, hydrolyzed, radiated and so chemically altered that it is unrecognizable from the plant or animal it originated from.
Yum. That will make anyone loose their appetite.
Even if you are eating your 6 cups of fresh, organic vegetables and fruits our soil has become so depleted of nutrients and micro-organisms, the food grown in it is depleted as well. It is harder than ever to get everything our bodies need from a diet of whole, living food. Additionally, the way most of our agricultural industry treats the land and grows our food is devastating for the planet and contributes to the global warming crisis. As Dan Barber, chef and author of The Third Plate says: “In the rush to industrialize farming, we’ve lost the understanding, implicit since the beginning of agriculture, that food is a process, a web of relationships, not an individual ingredient or commodity.”
[Inserting moment of good news here: Watch the incredibly uplifting documentary Kiss The Ground on Netflix or Prime. We have solutions to this!]
That web of relationships includes soil, microorganisms, plants, bugs, animals, the environment, and YOU - from the farmer who grew the seed, to the truck driver who delivered the apple, and the person at the checkout counter who sold it to you.
I want you to begin to notice that you are connected to the fundamental life force energy that flows through all things. In Chinese medicine its called “chi”, in Ayurveda its called “prana”, and in Naturopathic Medicine we call it “The Vis”, or vitality, referring the the innate healing power of nature.
Foods that are high in The Vis are fresh from the dirt, tree or farm, full of color, unprocessed, naturally fermented, and made with love. These foods possess a higher vibrational frequency, which raises your body's own vibrational levels when consumed making you less hospitable to low vibration illnesses and infections. Foods that are homemade and made from scratch, by you, loved ones or local small business people committed to health, are also high in The Vis and can even raise the vitality of lower vibrational foods that may not have been grown in the best conditions!
Living foods are one of the major sources of your energy and can help balance and harmonize your body's internal energy systems, promoting physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. Eating high vibration foods always increases vitality, heals digestion, improves hormone function and strengthens immunity. The life giving enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and spirit present in these foods not only increase our health but also align ourselves with the natural rhythms and energies of the environment, fostering a deeper connection to the world around us.
I know. I know. I can hear your plea. “Sarah! It breaks my heart too, but how the hell am I going to fit this into my already stacked life???”
Well, read on for the good news.
I have some simple steps you can take to start increasing the chi of your food today - read my 10 steps below, but FIRST check out this week’s podcast.
The chi in food is impacted at every stage - starting with the way the foods is grown, the soil it lives in, the way it is harvested, and ending with how it is prepared, served, and eaten.
Ideally, you would be eating food that follows this flow:
Organic, non-GMO seeds - heirloom when possible (Check out Row 7 Seeds). Bonus: that you grew yourself!
Organic, regenerative farming practices (Check out the documentary Kiss the Ground). Not only are organic foods non-toxic they have 40% more nutrition then conventionally grown.
Purchased when in-season and locally-sourced (Check out Local Harvest to find markets and farms near you).
Made at home with love, processed by hand, with your actual hands - get dirty! (Chop veggies with a knife vs. in a food processor, knead dough by hand instead of in a mixer).
Prayed or intended over with the energy of gratitude and love to your favorite deity, goddess, or god of abundance, harvest or chocolate.
Eaten in community with lots of laughter and connection. Music, candle light and kisses optional.
Each of these steps contributes more chi, prana, and vitality and raises the vibration of the food, impacting the physicality of it and thus your body when you consume it.
Here are 10 ways you can incorporate more living food into your life now:
Make your own food whenever possible. Start with twice a month in bulk and store in fridge or freezer to be reheated. Stretch challenge: Make food from scratch, without machines. Grind your own spices, chop your garlic, knead your bread. Best if you include loved ones in this process!
Go shopping at local Farmer’s Markets or get a Community Supported Agriculture share. Find farms that are organic and regenerative. Again, see Local Harvest to find CSAs and farmers markets near you.
Educate yourself by watching one of these documentaries: The Biggest Little Farm, Kiss the Ground, Common Ground, King Corn, Cooked, Food Inc., In Defense of Food.
Buy pasture-raised meat. Buy a small freezer dedicated to this and buy in bulk. I get 1/4 cow, with organs and bones, and 15-20 whole chickens a year. Check out Eatwild.com to find local farmers who sell pasture and grass fed meat of all kinds. This resource has state maps you can look up your own area.
Buy wild, line caught seafood. Ask your local fish mongers for where to find line caught sustainable fish in your area, be ready to have to ask more then one, best bet is at the farmers markets. Check out Alaska Select Seafood for an example of whats possible (unfortunately only available in select cities but Bozeman and Salt Lake are two of them). I am trying out Real Good Fish right now. They ship to your door, a bit pricey, but so far worth the investment.
Grow your own fruits, vegetables and chickens! Even just a few deck pots can produce a lot and add SO MUCH love and fun to cooking. Also vertical garden deck planters have become so popular there are too many choices to link here. They can produce way more then you would expect and conserve water. Great for hot and arid climates like Arizona and New Mexico.
Eat the rainbow! A variety of color and about 50/ 50 raw to cooked foods - the energy of the food is different when it is kept under 118 degrees. Your body needs both. More raw foods in the warmer months, more cooked foods in the colder months.
Support farm-to-table restaurants when eating out, find local places that have seasonal menus, and prioritize local, regenerative farming practices. Many farms stay profitable only because of these restaurants buying from them.
When traveling: bring your own food from home or stop at a local grocery store, or farm stand on the way, and get organic fruits and veggies to keep in your hotel room. Hotels will often have refrigerators in the room, or will provide them upon request.
Buy my cookbook Food That Grows (and also rots!) and make these recipes!
BONUS: If you are in a bind and unable to find any living food, take a moment to bless your food. Praying over food and starting a meal with a moment of mindfulness and gratitude will raise the vibration.
I’d love to hear what practices you’re taking on - email me back and let me know!