Long gone are the days when we didn’t have to pay much mind to what we ate. The world has changed; we’re more vulnerable than ever before. Now food is everything when it comes to survival.

It matters what we eat. In a lifetime, the average person eats about 80,000 meals. That sounds like a lot—until you break it down. How many meals have you eaten that have been predominantly made up of fruits and vegetables?

Usually, fresh plant foods are more like a garnish—a banana sliced over morning cereal, or a side salad with steak at dinner.

If you’ve already eaten 40,000 of your 80,000 meals, and they were lacking in fresh plant foods, you have some making up to do. Make what’s left of your 80,000 meals count.

Paying attention to what you eat can have benefits beyond imagination. You’ve no doubt heard the expression “food as medicine.” That’s part of it. As the world advances, so does disease. If we want to stave off illness, we must be proactive and embrace the medicinal power of the Holy Four food groups.

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The Holy Four are the four groups of healing foods I feature in my book Life-Changing Foods: Save Yourself and the Ones You Love with the Hidden Healing Powers of Fruits and Vegetables - Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs and Spices, and Wild Foods. I share the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of more than 50 foods and illuminate the unique, powerful, and surprising properties of each that can help us recover our health, move forward and thrive.

The Holy Four food groups are more sacred and powerful than we can even comprehend. Because they grow from the earth and are showered by the sun and sky, enduring out in the elements day after day as they form, they are intimately connected to the holy forces of nature.

They don’t just contain the building-block nutrients that we need to function. They contain intelligence from the Earthly Mother and the heavens that we desperately need about how to adapt.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to stop eating everything else. No matter what type of diet works for you, adding more of the Holy Four to your daily rotation can change your life.

What makes the Holy Four so valuable isn’t just what’s in them; it’s also what’s on them. A special probiotic film covers the leaves and skins of fruits and vegetables. I call these probiotics elevated biotics, or elevated microorganisms because they cover the above-ground surfaces of raw, unwashed (or lightly rinsed) plant foods.

Unlike factory-produced probiotics and soil-borne organisms, elevated biotics are able to survive your digestive process and make it to your ileum, the final section of your small intestinal tract that creates the vitamin B₁₂  critical to your body’s functioning. Be selective about what produce you eat without washing; the best sources are your own organic garden, sprouts on your countertop, or a local organic farmer you trust.

If you have a wax-covered, conventionally grown apple from the grocery store, you definitely want to scrub it before eating. It’s not a good source of elevated biotics anyway because the wax and pesticides used in the growing process have already interfered with the natural film of beneficial microorganisms.

If on the other hand, you have a piece of chemical-free, contaminant-free produce you’d like to eat but it has visible dirt on it, a light rinse with plain water is usually fine—the elevated biotic film should stay intact (after all, the microorganisms survive rainfall). Use your instincts about what is safe to eat unwashed.

Historically, it was the norm to eat fruits, vegetables, and herbs fresh-picked from the field, garden, or wild, so people were getting higher levels of elevated biotics. It’s part of why brain issues, digestive disturbances, autoimmune disease, and so many other chronic illnesses were much less common in previous eras.

Even though earlier generations had less access to fresh food in the winter months than we do now, the steady supply of elevated biotics in their diets from spring through fall carried them through when these vital microorganisms were scarce.

Today, packaged foods and the fast pace of life have distracted us from getting elevated-biotic-rich foods. Almost anyone reading this is likely to be deficient in B₁₂  —even if your B₁₂ levels are normal or high on your blood tests.

Normal to high readings of B₁₂ does not mean that the B₁₂ is actually making a difference in someone’s health, because the vitamin may not be in its most usable, bioactive form, and therefore the organs may not be absorbing it.

It’s the way of the world right now. One reason to address that B₁₂ deficiency (by getting more elevated biotics) is that B₁₂ keeps homocysteine levels down, which translates to less inflammation in the body. Plus, the B₁₂ specifically produced by elevated biotics is vital to brain health, because it fortifies our neurotransmitters, boosting mental function and keeping depression at bay.

Without B₁₂, we die. It’s that critical. It’s like B₁₂ is a dam that holds back a massive reservoir of polluted water (the Unforgiving Four – radiation, toxic heavy metals, the viral explosion, and DDT) that would flood the town (your body) and threaten life.

When you have plenty of B₁₂ in your diet, it makes that dam strong, so that the Unforgiving Four we can’t help but encounter can’t do us harm. Instead, they’re held at bay, so that on the other side of B₁₂‘s dam, critical processes can be accomplished, including the building of your immune system, the maintenance of your organs, and the recovery of your mental and emotional state from traumas big and small.

Which means that the elevated biotics responsible for producing B₁₂ in our bodies make all the difference in adapting to our modern times. In so many ways, these friendly microorganisms lift us up and fill us with life. They’re a major part of why the Holy Four are, in fact, holy.

B₁₂ SHOTS

Many people are curious about whether or not they should get vitamin B₁₂ shots. The truth is that B₁₂  shots do not usually have the right variety of B₁₂  for them to be beneficial. Plus, B₁₂   has to be taken orally to be effective. When we take oral B₁₂, it gets absorbed into the digestive system, where it’s “tagged” and made active and bioavailable, so that when it enters the bloodstream, it’s in a form that our nerves and organs accept. When the vitamin is injected, it bypasses this process, so the shots aren’t as effective as oral B₁₂ supplementation. The best kind to look for is a high-quality adenosylcobalamin-methylcobalamin blend. And of course, as I just mentioned, eating foods with elevated biotics on them helps your body create its own B₁₂.

My book, Life-Changing Foods, is full of suggestions for delicious ways to add B₁₂ rich foods to your repertoire.

Recipe: Parsley Tabbouleh

This salad is the perfect addition to a big meal eaten around the table with family and friends. It pairs perfectly with hummus and a platter of roasted cauliflower. Traditionally, tabbouleh is eaten inside tender lettuce leaves. Serve it in a huge bowl and use your hands to scoop it up with lettuce cups. Enjoy the tradition of gathering together around this beautiful meal.
 

¼ cup almonds

4 cups parsley, tightly packed

¹⁄8 cup mint, loosely packed

2 cups quartered tomatoes

2 cups quartered cucumber

½ cup chopped red onion

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon olive oil

½ lemon, juiced

Pulse ¼ cup almonds in a food processor until roughly chopped. Set aside.

Place 4 cups parsley in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Set aside.

Place the remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse until chopped and well combined. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add in the parsley and almonds and mix together. Serve and enjoy!

For more tips how to increase B₁₂ levels naturally see my book, Life-Changing Foods, order now and get 4 FREE gifts.