As a student, practitioner and chef of Life Foods living, I strive to grow younger every day. At thirty eight, I feel lighter and younger than I did at twenty one or twenty eight or at any age for that matter. I want to share my story with you and the steps I took to emerge as the Life Foods chef, boxer, yogi, professor, father, runner, author, mentor and revolutionary that I am today. What follows is a combination of storytelling, testimony, autobiography, nutritional analysis and what motivated this book in the first place—the Destarchifyer’s own Recipe Book. Here within, I share with the world what I put into my tank to achieve supreme training results, a high amount of energy and production and maximum whole brain functioning.
What does Life Foods consist of?
The premise of Life Foods—the school of nutrition founded by Dr. David Jubb and Annie Padden Jubb — is that the best foods for our minds, our bodies and our environment are fruits, vegetables, seeds, sprouts and nuts that are living foods in nature and have their life force and digestive enzymes intact. This facilitates the digestive process freeing up energy for the brain and central nervous system to function at optimum capacity. We do not use dairy, meat, or any cooked food. Cooking food kills the digestive enzymes and alters the chemical structure of the food. What animal in history has ever used a stove besides us humans? My journey has taught me that as I let go of cooked food I was able to experience life more vividly. What could radically altering your sustenance do for you?
Unlike veganism, Life Foods living discourages the consumption of rice, oats or any grains. Life Foods also rejects legumes such as chickpeas, beans or lentils. Both grains and legumes are strange indigestible proteins that are taxing on the liver and gall bladder and can cause degenerative effects on brain and digestive functioning over time. As many people can testify, beans can cause flatulence and distention.
Life Foods differs from Raw Foods because it rejects “starchy hybrid foods with runaway sugars such as potatoes, rice, corn, wheat, all grain-flour products, all tuberous vegetables like carrots, beets, commercial bananas and dates. Other hybrids to avoid, especially by those healing cancer, are commercially grown strawberries, pineapples, mushrooms, kiwi and soybeans.”[1] Hybrids are foods that are man-made, meaning that have been cross bred over time. According to Dr. Jubb’s microscopic investigation these selectively bred items are not as easily absorbed as cellular fuel and are spit back out into the bloodstream in the form of indigestible runaway sugars.
A basic premise is that less is more for the body. By saying no to harmful foods, through proper Life Foods fasting, the body can heal itself from any manifestation of dis-ease. Say goodbye to indigestion, heartburn, stomachaches, headaches, acid reflux, gastritis, ulcers, constipation, gout, diarrhea, nausea, and fatigue. The key to health is digestion. All these unnatural conditions are localized expressions of the reality that we are introducing harmful things to our bodies and overburdening our digestive track.
At first glance, I can relate to how unrealistic and austere this must appear to the average American. When I first learned about natural healing, I dismissed it as some crazy, bizarre hippie thing. I want to share with you my story and what elevated me to where I am today. I would not approach Life Foods as if you are going straight to step 10. It took me years of experimenting and zigzagging to get to where I am today. In another ten years, I will surely have grazed previously undiscovered lands. We never stop growing. Life is not a linear path but rather a dialectical maze where we learn from our missteps and continue to push forward. Take your first steps at your own pace. Even if you only take away a few life-lessons from this book, you will be taking steps in the right direction. You cannot go wrong. You have nothing to lose but your gastric chains!
[1] Annie Padden Jubb and Dr. David Jubb’s Lifefood Recipes Book Living on Life Force provides a more complete explanation of this nutritional school of thought which grows out of Ann Wigmore’s Living Foods movement. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. 2003.
As I am spending my Sunday enjoying your blog this post resonates so strongly with me. My youngest is 18 months and for the first 9 months of her life I followed a strict diet. I was nursing, I still nurse, and so much of what I traditionally ate upset her new gut. As she got older I slacked off and as a result I have had a reemergence of acne. It’s like I’m 13 all over again! And I’ve been researching so many lifestyle changes to assist me kick this acne. It’s hard because I am constantly back sliding — yogurt, cheese pizza, Chipotle’s. Definitely going to research more of the Judd’s way of life.
Piiiiiizzzzza! Falafels oh my goodness I love that stuff. Sometimes I have to go into full sprints coming out of work with my teaching clothes on to resist the temptations lol Yeah I think some deep, upstream cleansing can uproot the dis-ease causing that breakout. I’ve been amazed at the difference in people’s skin complexion when they life foods it up. That is the liver breathing free. Thanks for reaching out Mrs. Cruz