Live superfoods have been called the "future of nutrition" by those on the cutting edge of health and longevity research.

Live superfoods have the potential to naturally provide the missing elements in conventional diets in greater abundance then any other types of foods or whole food supplements. The individual nutritional needs of humans are increasing dramatically due to the wide variety of stressors that have appeared in modern lifestyles. Every longevity society used certain live superfoods to help them get optimal nutrition without having to overeat. Just a few of the many examples are Okinawans using seaweeds, Ikarians using olives and edible wild foods, people in the region of the Caucasus mountains using bee pollen, royal jelly and propolis, Loma Lindans using nuts and seeds and in the Nicoya Penninsula, Costa Rica they are consuming various local tropical super-fruits.

Traditional farming practices have been abandoned in mainstream agriculture in recent decades. This has led to massively de-mineralized soils, hybridization, genetic modification and the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides due to the agricultural industry trying to make short cuts to bigger and more profitable yields. This completely unsustainable approach to farming has contributed to wide spread vitamin and mineral deficiencies in combination with a heavy toxic burden on the worlds population. Introducing live superfoods into your diet for longevity is a safe and effective way of dealing with these unfortunate circumstances our global community is currently choosing to experience.

The easiest way of detoxing your body is to provide it with the nutrients it requires so that it can detox, cleanse and then rebuild itself all on its own. With live superfoods there's no need to go on long and painful fasts for weeks at a time, or to consume disgusting concoctions that make you want to vomit. These centenarian foods are tasty and easy to eat! Also, these live superfoods are some of the most researched foods out of the wide body of herbal, drug and food research that is going on right now. You can find many of these phenomenal foods by clicking on the banner down the right hand side of the page. →

What makes up the criteria for the label "live superfoods"?

Some of these centenarian foods were traditionally categorized as herbs, but today they should really be called live superfoods. The main difference between whole food supplements and herbs in comparison to live superfoods is that you would take the first two in addition to your regular diet. On the other hand, live superfoods should be a part of your actual diet, meaning you can eat as much of them as you want and you don't need to worry about dosage.

While herbs and whole foods supplements are a fantastic and necessary component to your diet for longevity, it is possible to take too much of them which could be harmful (although generally tonic herbs by the Chinese definition can be taken in any quantity). You should also be able to eat live superfoods in their completely raw and whole form without processing them. Herbs generally need to be made into a tea, extract or tincture to be consumed, although of course there are exceptions. Whole food supplements are concentrated nutrients from foods in pill form and you take these when something is missing in your diet. Basically you can eat super foods just like regular food, whether on there own or in combination with each other. However, herbs and whole food supplements do play an important role in the optimal diet for longevity.

The main qualities of all live superfoods (however, not a hard and fast rule) is that they are: vegetarian complete protein sources, high in antioxidants, very high in minerals, amazing in taste, high in vitamins, unique compounds and properties such as polysaccharides and phytonutrients as well as living and uncooked so that the enzymes and above mentioned properties are unaltered. Some, or all of these qualities will be present in all live superfoods. Your regular foods such as baked beans on toast just simply don't have these qualities present in them!

This list of superfoods are some of the most nutrient dense, medicinal foods available anywhere.

If a particular one of these live superfoods can't be obtained in your area, you can easily find and order it online. I personally like to get mine in bulk so as to avoid excessive shipping and handling charges on many small orders in the long run. Also, searching out suppliers in your own country will save you money on customs fees. Here are a few of my favorites on this list of superfoods below:

~Schizandra berries
~Raw cacao (chocolate)
~Acai berries
~Goji berries
~Camu camu berries
~Maca
~Chia seeds
~Blue green algae (E3live)
~ Chlorella
~Spirulina
~Red Jujube Dates
~Bee pollen, royal jelly and flower pollen
~Pine Tree Pollen
~Tocotrienols
~Edible seaweeds (dulse, nori, kelp etc)
~Edible aloe vera plants
~Organic ginseng roots
~Incan golden berries
~Turkish white mulberries (and other varieties)
~Hemp hearts (shelled hemp seeds)
~Sprouts of all kinds
~Mesquite powder
~Raw Colostrum
~Marine phytoplankton
~Organic kalamata olives (and other varieties)
~Noni berry (juice or the fruit)
~Fermented foods
~Edible wild foods

It is quite realistic for you to make live superfoods the predominant part of your diet for longevity.

From the above list of superfoods, you have a wide and varied range of exciting things to eat. This aspect of a raw living food diet might be a bit different from your normal cultural practices, but if you're looking for a more than normal length of life, live superfoods should definitely make up a part of your current health strategy. Those who try this don't turn back!

Of course when exploring new healthy eating habits, it is always advisable to make gradual changes. David Wolfe, a leading authority on eating a raw food diet and super foods, has some great advice for everyone interested in incorporating new foods into their lifestyle. He says that you should "just start adding things in". It is best to avoid trying to stop eating something because it is labeled as bad (unless it's life threatening of course!). If you just start adding things in here and there and trying new stuff out, you'll eventually just drop the old foods that weren't conducive to optimizing your human longevity potential. You just simply won't have the time or need to eat them anymore! This is much easier than trying to force yourself to not eat a certain food, especially if it's something we are faced with every day in our society from other people.

By eating live superfoods your body will begin to feel better then it has ever felt before and will thus lead you to no longer even crave those harmful non-foods. Like I have mentioned in other articles, making slow shifts in your diet for longevity will result in less chances of cravings, uninvited healing crises and a willingness to continue with and keep to the changes you have made. It would be ridiculous to ever attempt to use every single one of these live superfoods on this list every day. So varying your diet from day to day, or week to week will allow you to experience the full spectrum of these exciting centenarian foods as well as provide you with a plethora of various nutrients.

Just a few of the many positive benefits that can occur from consuming live superfoods are:

~Increased energy and stamina (Both athletic and in everyday work)

~Increased sex drive (Due to the aphrodisiac properties of many live superfoods)

~A dramatic antiaging effect on your appearance (with consistent use)

~Elimination of minor health complications (Such as constipation, rashes, poor complexion etc)

~Elimination of major health concerns (Which should ideally be directed by a knowledgeable health practitioner)

~Increased mental performance and memory improvement

~Emotional and spiritual upliftment and healing

~A major increase in longevity potential

~Eating can become fun and not feel like a chore

~Following a calorie restriction diet with very high nutrition is made easy

Oddly enough there are some critics of the live superfoods lifestyle.

The common argument they seem to use (which is about all they use without much else to back up their biased beliefs) is that humans can get everything they need from fruits, veggies and other conventional foods. They say that you don't need to take some long list of superfoods, anti-aging herbs and whole food supplements if you want to increase human longevity. Even among the raw living food diet community there is a division between what is known as a "natural hygiene" type of diet (who say you only need to eat fruits and veggies) and a "Hippocrates Health Institute type of diet" (which happens to emphasize supplementation with live superfoods and herbs etc).

One of the first things I'd like to point out to people who recommend the harmful practice of eating a natural hygiene type of diet, is that there is not a single culture on Earth that has survived in the long term with the use of this type of diet, let alone any longevity society. Humans are complex biochemical organisms with a wide range of nutritional requirements due to the increased stresses of modern lifestyles. Live superfoods offer a major support for increasing human longevity potential.

Those who stick to a basic diet without supplementation, such as the natural hygiene diet (N.H.D.), do develop deficiencies and their health suffers as a result. Dr. Brian Clement who is the director of the Hippocrates Health Institute, has on many occasions expressed his concern over people advocating these diets. Through spectra blood cell analysis, he says that people following diets high in sugars (such as fruit sugars on the N.H.D.) show numerous health problems such as a speeding up of the aging process, blood sugar disorders, neurological disorders (from lack of supplementation of a soil based B-12 as well as deficiencies of essential fatty acids) and much more.

It's quite simple, all you have to do is look at the people who have been eating a certain way for a long period of time and you can see the effects of their lifestyle and diet. People following a N.H.D. or even a Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) look terrible, have their hair go gray quicker and are often balding by mid-life. When you look at people like Dr. Brian Clement, Dr. Gabriel Cousens or Peter Ragnar for example, you see epitomes of superior health, vitality and youthful vigor. They all look many years younger then their true age and they all happen to use varying amounts of live superfoods in their diets.

The last point I'd like to mention is that the scientific studies and longevity research on these centenarian foods has been done. Live superfoods do have a higher density of nutrients then regular foods like potatoes and lettuce. I'm not saying those foods are bad (well maybe potatoes are due to their high glycemic index!) but rather that the list of superfoods I mentioned above, along with many that have not been mentioned, are without argument, superior in quality. Just the fact that there are entire books written about just one superfood (or even entire industries based around certain super foods such as ginseng) should indicate the potential of these amazing gifts from nature. You simply don't see entire books written about foods like cabbage or one variety of apples!

Sources:

~"Superfoods" by David Wolfe (North Atlantic Books, 2009)

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