I was thrilled to pieces when I read this new study which claims that humans (well, all mammals) can generate energy from the sun after having ingested chlorophyll. This means that we humans, not just plants, can indeed photosynthesize! Take that back to your middle school science teacher.
So how can you take advantage of this? And what are the advantages?
Chlorophyll is the green pigment found in the chloroplasts of algae and plants which allows them to absorb energy from sunlight. The aforementioned study concluded that when animals, humans included, consume chlorophyll they can derive energy directly from sunlight.
It has been understood that food provides fuel for our cells. I teach in my free online program Fruit Til Five™ that whole, raw fruit is the easiest food for the body to convert to cellular fuel. To function, all cells need glycogen and converting fruit fructose and glucose to glycogen is a relatively simple and efficient biochemical process.
However, thanks to this new study, we’re now learning that by eating non-sweet (no natural fructose or glucose) green plant foods such as vegetables, herbs, and non-sweet fruits that we can manufacture energy as long as we’re in the sun. It’s not clear to me at this point if we need to eat these green foods while in the sun or how long after eating these green foods we need to get into the sun in order to produce energy.
So sweet fruit or vegetables-with-sunlight both produce fuel for cells. This is exciting!!! Of course, at this point, I’m also not sure how the two compare. Cell fuel from sweet fruit feels nearly immediate and supplies fuel for a good several hours. Vegetables-with-sunlight may take longer to convert to fuel and may not last as long…or it may! I’m willing to experiment and discover!
One of my favorite year-round ways to ingest chlorophyll first thing in the morning is a nice, big 4-cup mug of hot green matcha tea. Here was my banana-mango ice cream & matcha breakfast this morning. I’m thinking I need to set up a breakfast table outside on my patio, positioned perfectly to sit in the morning sun.
Matcha tea is dried green tea leaves that have been pulverized into a powder. The matcha powder is whisked into hot water to suspend the powder particles. When drinking matcha, you ingest the whole tea leaf giving you 100-times the beneficial properties than drinking bagged green tea. Matcha is rich in chlorophyll.
During the day I eat sweet fruit for fuel. It’s interesting that there are few sweet fruits that are also green. I can only think of kiwi, green Granny Smith apples, green grapes, green pears, honeydew melon, and limes. Most of the green plant foods I know are vegetables, herbs and non-sweet fruit.
For dinner I usually have a big dish of green plant food such as a salad, roasted Brussels sprouts, steamed broccoli, or my Hip Pea Power Bowl. A diet high in clean plant foods makes the human body & skin more receptive to safe sun-bathing.
There’s still more to learn about the details of eating chlorophyll and generating energy directly from the sun, however there is so much to gain nutritionally from chlorophyll that I believe it’s time we all amp up eating & drinking our greens…whether we’re in the sun or not.
Additional Resources:
• The Sunlight Diet™
• Fruit Til Five™: The Healers Diet Jumpstart Week
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Very interesting research!
I was just speaking about this earlier today and mentioned after eating raw foods, mostly fruits for years, I felt like I always had a natural tan (even in the winter).. and often wondered if (or rather suspected that) my body got sunlight directly from the fruit, that it was stored inside inside the fruit.. and I took in the sunshine internally by eating it.
Thanks for a very interestng article!
Robin recently posted..Eggplant Green Curry Recipe with Quinoa
Thank you for adding this point Robin! Many people living on high raw fruit diet do comment on the natural tan.
I know this is an old post, but I think the reason there’s less sweet green fruit is because chlorophyll is typically stored in the stems and leaves of the plant. Botanically speaking, vegetables are the stems and leaves, and fruits come from the flowers and ovaries of the plant. So, chlorophyll typically isn’t in the fruit.
I think you’re spot on! Thanks for adding this Addie!
Heating anything past 118 degrees destroys enzymes. WHOLE FOOD PLANT BASED LIFE STYLE is the answer.
Lightly cooked or raw plants are a great choice!
We don’t usable enzymes from our food. Enzymes are proteins and they are broken down into amino acids, just like any other protein (Beit muscle, sinew, or DNA for that matter).
Do the enzymes in food contribute to the breakdown of that food?
I’m surprised that we don’t have green skin. Chlorophyll is the miracle of nature.
It’d be a great look!
Enjoyed reading your information!