Biodiversity of food and emotions, this is the secret to nourishing well-being

Epigenetics promotes psychophysical well-being through a biodiversity of healthy foods and positive feelings.Expert advice during the first Food Forward meeting.

• Nourishing well-being was the focus of the first Food Forward event, a series of meetings on food and lifestyle macrotrends examined with a critical spirit.
• The immunologist Attilio Speciani and the natural biologist Daniel Lumera explained how, to feel good, it is necessary nourish yourself with healthy foods and positive emotions.
• From epigenetics to the biology of kindness, here's how you can intervene on your psychophysical state.

Nowadays the well being is increasingly considered in meaning psychophysical, that is, it concerns the organism but also the psyche.For this reason, to feel good we need to nourish ourselves with food right foods, but also with right emotions.The topic was the focus of the meeting “Nourishing well-being”, the first of three events of the project Food Forward, organized by LifeGate and Eataly in the renovated space of the Eataly Smeraldo store in Milan.

The experts animated the discussion, led by LifeGate journalist Emanuela Taverna Attilio Speciani, surgeon, specialist in allergology and clinical immunology, e Daniel Lumera, natural biologist, writer, teacher and reference in the field of well-being and quality of life sciences, as well as the practice of meditation and its applications in the field of health.

The concept behind epigenetics:“Your genes are not your destiny”

Speciani explained the concept behind theepigenetics, or that “genes do not determine one's destiny”.“Genetic predisposition can be modified because through our lifestyles we can educate the functioning of genes.For example, if a person exercises, the gene that ensures that the energy taken in through food goes into the muscles is activated;if a person is sedentary, that same gene is activated, sending energy into the fatty tissue, into the arteries."Therefore our lifestyles are decisive and, in addition to physical activity, nutrition plays a fundamental role.

Nourish well-being with nutrition 

“More than making a list of healthy foods – he continued – I like to see the facts, those based on scientific data, which say how small choices can lead to big changes.For example, a study has shown that eating a portion of carrots once a week reduces the risk of getting cancer by 5 percent and that if you eat carrots at least 5 days a week, this risk is lowered by 30 percent.According to another study, for every 28 grams of whole grains consumed in a day instead of refined ones, the risk of mortality from all causes is reduced by 5 percent."

For Speciani, the only foods that can be identified as "bad" are those ultra processed and whose consumption several studies associate risk of developing cancer.“It is best to avoid industrial products with more than three unknown ingredients and instead increase the consumption of vegetables in which we are deficient:a “raw, alive and colourful” piece of vegetable consumed before eating changes the way in which our body manages the meal”.Better be on your guard then come on low-fat products:“For example, if I remove the fat from the yogurt, I reduce the calories, but I get a product with a lot of sugars which creates a glycemic spike with the result of making me gain weight.This doesn't happen with full-fat plain yogurt."

THE'balance between fibre, proteins, carbohydrates and fats, together with variety of foods – as opposed to a repetition of the same foods which can lead to intolerances to gluten, lactose, yeasts -, are the main indications for a correct nutritional lifestyle.“Food is the energy of the sun that enters plants and animals and becomes our energy,” said Speciani.“We must rediscover the intense relationship with food, with our energy”.

Nourishing well-being with emotions

An energy that does not only come from food, but also from other "foods", i.e emotions, i thoughts, the relations:“Resentment, anxiety, fear have a negative impact on health;on the contrary, gratitude, empathy and joy fuel us positively", explained Lumera.“Our mind is toxic, it works by lack, we complain about what we don't have, instead of being grateful for the simple fact of walking, having food, hot water, picking up the phone and being able to say “Hi mom”.This is because we live in a hyper-performing context, a junk life, an ultra-processed life regulated by competition, homologation and the reward system".

But epigenetics puts our destiny back into our hands, including the emotional one.So that's it gratitude becomes a super food for our well-being, as well as the meditation and the breathing:“A meditative mind turns off the genes responsible for aging, silence is like fasting, while with the right breathing, fueled by feelings such as joy, we reduce the anxiety that instead prevents us from breathing”.And there wonder is a natural medicine:“The wonder, defined by science as “perceived vastness” and which according to a study 46 percent of Italians are no longer able to experience, is the feeling of not knowing, it is the humility of having a brain like that of children to where there is always a mystery, a discovery."Even optimism "is not a predestined value, but must be cultivated".Lumera also faced the taboo of death:“The confrontation with death teaches us to live with intensity and insinuates in us an urgency to love”.

The biology of kindness

As with food, to feel better we must feed ourselves with one biodiversity of emotions and understand theinterconnection profound among all life forms.“Against violence justified as a means of evolution, I propose a biology of kindness.Talking about kindness is an essential provocation for me today.Kindness has an impact on a genetic level:just think about how just seeing a kind person stimulates serotonin and oxytocin in us which give a feeling of well-being and that those who cultivate kindness have a reduced risk of mortality".

The event concluded with a moment of meditation led by Daniel Lumera for the public.

The next Food Forward events

• Tuesday 12 November, 6.00 pm – “Changing with the climate:the new food map” with Luca Mercalli, climatologist and scientific communicator, president of the Italian Meteorological Society and founder of the meteorology magazine "Nimbus" and with Sara Roversi, entrepreneur and founder of the Future Food Institute. Moderate Thomas Perrone, managing director of LifeGate.
• Tuesday 3 December, 6.00 pm – “The true Mediterranean diet” with Martina Donegani, nutritional biologist and science communicator and Federico Quaranta, author and radio-television host, expert in food and wine, territory and agriculture.Moderate Carlotta Garancini, LifeGate journalist.