Our search for a way of eating did not begin with the question: “what is the best diet?” That question felt too broad and too abstract to us. We asked ourselves something simpler: “what do people who grow old in good health eat?” And above all: do we keep seeing the same patterns across different studies?
We started with the Blue Zones, regions where a relatively high proportion of people live to an exceptionally old age. What stands out is that food is never considered in isolation. Physical activity, social connections, rest and a simple way of life are all part of the same whole. Health therefore seems to be more the result of a pattern of living than of any one particular food.
From there, we came across Loma Linda in California, where research has been carried out for many years among Seventh-day Adventists. Within this community, different eating patterns can be found, ranging from non-vegetarian to vegan. The analyses from the Adventist Health Study interested us because they once again pointed towards a predominantly plant-based diet, with little highly processed food. We then looked at the traditional Mediterranean diet, and more specifically at the Cretan dietary pattern. Plenty of vegetables and fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, olive oil as an important source of fat, and some fish and eggs. No miracle diet and no complicated rules. Rather, a simple pattern that had already been part of everyday life for generations.
The broader field of nutrition science and dietary guidelines also mainly confirmed, for us, the big picture: plenty of plant-based foods, enough fibre, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, unsaturated fats, and little highly processed food and free sugars. That gave us enough direction, but not yet a practical system. Because a dietary pattern can look excellent on paper and still become unworkable once you have to organise it every day.
At a certain point, we therefore wanted to stop reading and start designing. We wanted something nutritious, simple to maintain, connected to the seasons, and something we could produce ourselves to a significant extent. Not a diet with forbidden foods and complicated calculations, but a simple guideline that would help us repeatedly make roughly the same kind of good choices. That is how our food model came about.
Science gives us the direction. Everyday life determines the route.