3 Foods for a Healthy & Joyful Life

1. Dark Green Leafy Plants:  Recent research published in the Journal of Cell Science and conducted at Columbia University Medical Center found that, shockingly, your body’s mitochondria is able to produce ATP—the cell’s energy currency—with the simple combination of sunlight touching the skin and the presence of chlorophyll molecules in your bloodstream.¹ Why is this important? ATP, produced in the mitochondria of our cells, drives all energetic processes in the body and is essential for good health. Our bodies cannot function without ATP and suboptimal production leads to accelerated aging and disease. So go green and eat plenty of dark leafy plants like kale, bok choy, mustard greens, lettuces, and even algaes such as chlorella and spirulina—then spend some time in the sun—to power up your cells, and your health! Dark green plants are also chock full of minerals and phytonutrients, and packed with fiber to support healthy gut bacteria. 
2. Fermented Foods: Speaking of healthy gut bacteria, the bacteria in your GI tract are not only crucial for your immune system, digestion, and nutrient absorption, but also crucial for your ability to create feel-good neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. Fermented foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, yogurt, and certain hard cheeses can help tremendously by encouraging a wide variety of the gut “flora” necessary for this.
3. Clean, Mineral-Rich Water: You may not consider water to be a “food” per se, but since you put it in your mouth and it travels through your digestive tract, let’s make the assumption for now that it can fall into that category. So why water, and especially clean, mineral-rich water? Consider these facts: 1) Your heart needs hydration to efficiently pump smooth blood (rather than sludge) through your arteries and veins; 2) Beta-oxidation, the process of burning fats for energy, is impossible without a water molecule; 3) Water that has been sitting in plastic bottles or storage containers, or exposed to the chlorines, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals found in most municipal water supplies, passes through your cell membranes far less readily than water that is vibrating with life and structure and frequency. When it comes to the health benefits of water, this list could go on and on, but you get the idea: drink plenty of clean water full of minerals. (This means that if you drink heavily filtered water, you may need to add a pinch of good sea salt to get minerals back into it, since filters remove many important minerals.)

3 Supplements for a Healthy & Joyful Life

1. Multivitamin: Sure, if you could obtain all the nutrients you need from your food, then a multivitamin would not be necessary. Unfortunately, this is simply not possible because today's food supply does not contain near the adequate amounts of nutrients for average people living in the world today. The sad truth is that our soils have been depleted because of modern farming techniques that utilize fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium only, instead of traditional farming methods like crop rotation, mulching, manuring, and other techniques that increase soil nutrient quality. Additionally, our gut’s ability to absorb the small amounts of remaining nutrients has been compromised by the use of pesticides and herbicides. Commercial ripening, harvesting, shipping, storing, and processing further degrades nutrients in our food and all of this strongly suggests that food alone cannot and will not provide enough vitamins and minerals necessary for optimal health. So unless you are living on a pristine Himalayan mountaintop, it is crucial for your health to “cover your bases” with a multi. 
2. Fish Oil: Signals used in thought, memory processing, and yes—happiness and joy—bounce around in your brain and are transferred from one brain cell (neuron) to another through a synapse, the point at which the signals cross a physical channel before moving on to the next neuron. The walls through which these signals need to pass are composed of cell membranes that are about 20 percent essential fatty acids—like the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil. Specifically, these omega-3 fatty acids may make the membranes that form these walls more elastic, making it easier for signals to spread throughout the nervous system. With inadequate omega-3 fatty acids, these walls lose flexibility, and electrical impulses are impeded. But as little as two grams a day of omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil can improve mental function.
3. Vitamin D: Vitamin D is a crucial fat-soluble vitamin and can stave off depression, improve mood, and result in a host of additional mental and physical benefits. Optimal amounts of vitamin D can enhance immunity, cognition, and even reduce your risk of a number of different cancers. Studies in active, athletic populations suggest that maintaining adequate vitamin D status can reduce stress fractures, total body inflammation, common infectious illnesses, and impaired muscle function, and may also aid in recovery from injury. There are actually receptors for vitamin D in the central nervous system and in the hippocampus region of the brain (governing memory and spatial recognition) too! One recent study investigating vitamin D and cognitive function found that the lower a person’s vitamin D levels, the worse that person performed on mental tests. Another study found that people with lower vitamin D levels process information more slowly—with this effect being more pronounced in individuals older than sixty. To get all these vitamin D benefits (especially if you live in a northern climate or get limited sun exposure), include a few teaspoons of cod liver oil frequently in your diet, eat beef and butter, have calf’s liver now and then, and take approximately 2,000–4,000 IU of vitamin D daily. Finally, I highly recommend keeping an eye on your vitamin D level by having it tested annually—your goal should be a level between 40 and 80 ng/ml.

3 Lifestyle Practices for a Healthy & Joyful Life

1. Low-Level Physical Activity Throughout the Day: My father-in-law is a skinny ex-Montana rancher who now manages a sheep farm at the University of Idaho. When our family visits him, I get to witness his daily routine: an early morning of feeding hungry sheep followed by a day of walking through pastures, lifting farm machinery, and fixing equipment. He doesn’t ever step foot in a gym, yet he stays lean and strong year-round. If you’re lucky enough to be a farmer, gardener, builder, or personal trainer, or to work in any other profession that involves daily moving, lifting, bending, rowing, pushing, pulling, lunging, or squatting, you know how your body feels at the end of the day—energized, awake, and alive. It’s quite a contrast to the stale, burned-out state that most people are in after long periods slouched in a chair staring at a computer screen. I’m not saying that you should quit your office job, but you do need to “hack” that lifestyle to simulate the huntergatherer lifestyle as much as possible. Think about strategies such as replacing your traditional desk with a standing desk. Install a pull-up bar in the door of your office. Never sit for longer than an hour without getting up and doing jumping jacks, a few squats, or some hip opening stretches. After all, research has shown that when it comes to health and longevity, it doesn’t matter how hard you exercise if you spend the rest of your day in a seated position. So think about how you can adjust your daily routine so that your body is constantly active. 
2. Gratitude Journaling: Gratitude improves physical health. Grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and they report feeling healthier than other people. Grateful people are also more likely to take care of their health. They exercise more often and are more likely to attend preventive health check-ups, which can contribute to longevity. Gratitude also reduces a multitude of toxic emotions, ranging from envy and resentment to frustration and regret. Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., author of The Science of Gratitude, has conducted multiple studies on the link between gratitude and well-being. His research confirms that gratitude increases happiness and reduces depression. When you actually pen your grateful thoughts by writing in a gratitude journal, it has been shown to both strengthen the immune system and help you sleep better and longer, and individuals who practice gratefulness report fewer headaches, less congestion, and less stomach pain. 
3. Love & Relationships: Finally, we arrive at the most important item of all—the one item that in any research on happiness and longevity easily beats out any food, supplement, biohack, or other fancy lifestyle strategy. It’s love and relationships and it’s this simple: humans are social animals who thrive on touch, eye contact, hugs, conversation, singing, dancing and generally “hanging out” with other members of our biological tribe. When you remove those components from the life of a human being, you produce a lonely, sad, and ultimately unhealthy and short-lived person, but when these factors are present, as they are in all the longest-lived populations on the planet, you reach your ultimate healthy and joyful potential. So go out of your way to spend time with family and friends, and to build and maintain quality relationships. 

So that’s it. Let’s do a quick review: eat plants, eat fermented foods, drink clean water, start your day with a multi-vitamin, fish oil, and vitamin D, then stay active during the day, journaling things you’re grateful for while including close relationships with those you love. 

Compared to spending tens of thousands of dollars at a longevity institute, racking up doctor’s bills and pharmaceutical costs, or spending your hard-earned money on fancy meal replacements and diets, this list really isn’t too difficult to achieve, is it? Enjoy your newfound healthy and joyful experience.

Reference

1. Xu C, Zhang J, Mihai D, Washington I. “Light-harvesting chlorophyll pigments enable mammalian mitochondria to capture photonic energy and produce ATP.” J Cell Sci 2014;127:388-399. http://jcs.biologists.org/content/127/2/388.long