We’ve been focused on health, nutrition, and fitness at 3mph.org since the beginning (six years ago). We were interested before; we just didn’t take it as seriously. Once we graduated into our sixties, however, it became apparent that we couldn’t afford only to be interested, we needed to be fully invested and hyper-focused.
For the last six years, we’ve read dozens of books, reviewed hundreds of research papers, and listened to a variety of podcasts. All in the interest of learning what we needed to do to live our best lives as senior citizens. It was obvious to us that the general recommendations didn’t work. The population of the United States is fatter and sicker than at any time in history.
“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” ~ Jim Rohn
Our mission was to figure out how to avoid the health crisis eating away at our society’s senior citizens. What we found was startling. Much of what we thought we knew about eating right and being healthy was the opposite of what we’ve learned recently. There’s space for dozens of articles about the misinformation that abounds around health, and we intend to continue writing on the topic.
We want to look at the perfect food in this article, but let’s start with the opposite. Let’s begin with bleached, enriched white flour; then, we’ll add industrial sugars and seed oils. That’s the big three, and they are the primary ingredients in most processed foods, along with a long list of toxic coloring, stabilizing, and texturing agents. Many of these chemical agents aren’t allowed in food in other countries, but the FDA seems to think they’re okay. They’re not!
So, the opposite of the perfect food is anything that contains enriched white flour, industrial sugars, and seed oils, comes in a box, can, or bag, and contains more than a few ingredients or any ingredient that looks like a chemical instead of food. That’s the center aisles of every grocery store in America.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ~ Hippocrates
When we started this journey, we made plenty of mistakes as we accumulated knowledge and experience. Six years ago, we were eating a 100% whole food, vegan diet. We understood the dangers of processed foods and worked diligently for nearly a year on gardening, creating plant-based meals, and learning everything we could about balancing a vegan diet.
We eventually discovered that we couldn’t supply our bodies with the complete nutrition they wanted on a vegan-only diet. There were deficiencies in critical fatty acids, essential amino acids, and many important vitamins and minerals. We did lose a significant amount of weight in our vegan experiment, but our goal was health, not weight loss; they’re not the same.
The problem with the vegan experiment was we started feeling sluggish, and when we reviewed our blood panels after the annual physical, we noticed several important markers were off. That’s when the real research began. We learned that our physical health was directly correlated to our metabolic health. When we fed our mitochondria a clean substrate with plenty of oxygen and sunlight, the energy flowed through our bodies like a rushing river.
In our mid-sixties, we’re healthier, fitter, and stronger than two decades ago. There are several reasons for our improved health, like quality sleep, plenty of sunlight, aerobic exercise, and strength training, but one of the biggest factors is quality protein. The majority of seniors are protein deficient, and we were, too. As we age, it becomes difficult to add new muscle, and without enough protein, it’s impossible.
“Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” ~Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Many seniors develop sarcopenia and begin wasting away in old age, but we’ve been increasing our skeletal muscle mass for nearly three years. Resistance training is important, but quality protein is a necessity. It’s possible to build new muscle with plant-based protein, but the highest quality, most bio-available protein sources come from animals. And of all the animals in the Great Wide World, ruminants are the best. Ruminants are magical beasts that can turn inedible forage sources into high-quality protein and beautiful, dense saturated fat.
Their superpower is a four-chambered stomach that turns trash into gold. They’re the Rumplestiltskin of the cloven-hoofed community. There are roughly 200 species of ruminants, of which nine have been domesticated. Along with their meat, they produce a large variety of dairy products; milk, cream, butter, yogurt, and cheese are a few of the most important. They are rich sources of essential amino acids and high-quality fat. Superfoods that fire up your metabolism and keep your mitochondria producing the energy you need.
The real magic is they can even eat grains high in unstable polyunsaturated fatty acids without passing it through to the meat. A magic trick that chickens and pigs aren’t capable of. When chickens eat a diet high in DHA or linoleic acid, their eggs and meat will contain it. The chicken producers call it Omega 3 and suggest that it’s an important nutrient for brain health, but it’s the same unstable fatty acid that makes seed oils so toxic. Pasture-raised chickens and pigs are the way to go. Grass-fed cattle are better, too, that’s what their four-chambered stomach is designed for.
“What most people don’t realize is that food is not just calories; it’s information. It actually contains messages that connect to every cell in the body.” ~ Dr. Mark Hyman
Our diet is filled with a variety of fruits and vegetables. About half of our daily calorie consumption comes from these important carbohydrates. But carbohydrates are only half the equation, the body requires essential amino acids to build and repair itself. Saturated fat provides the nutrients for vital hormone production. High-quality meat and dairy are the perfect substrate to keep your mitochondria healthy and happy. A big problem with the Western diet is that it’s filled with high glycemic carbs, which make up the bulk of heavily processed foods.
Know what you’re eating, read the labels, track your macros, and get plenty of protein. When mixed with a few tubers, fruits, and veggies, ruminant meat and dairy are perfect foods that put your metabolism in high gear and nourish your body. Interestingly when I did an internet search on Ruminants, the top returns were about burps, farts, greenhouse gases, and climate change. It seems folks don’t appreciate the magic of ruminants the way we do.
