Human health and plant biology might seem like two separate worlds.
However, according to one Canadian entomologist, many of today’s chronic health problems stem from ignoring the basic biological rules plants have followed for billions of years.
“The body knows what to do, just like plants know what to do,” Mike Dolinski, director of science and innovation with Taurus Ag, said at the recent Convergence agricultural conference in Regina.
We are dependent upon plants
“Our life depends on plants. We either eat plants or eat animals that eat plants.… The difference between you and these plants is you have a brain.”
This message is especially important for the farming community at a time when an estimated 44 per cent of Canadian adults suffer from at least one chronic disease and when the majority of Canadian farmers are in age groups most at risk.
The modern epidemic of chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer and neurodegenerative disorders,– is closely tied to how humans fuel their bodies, said Dolinski.
And although he cautioned that he’s not a doctor, he has spent decades studying insects, crops and plant systems and worked as an entomologist with Alberta Agriculture for more than three decades.
Food is medicine
“The food you eat is your medicine, the most important decision you make every day,” he said.
And one central aspect of this is the one powerful structure found in nearly every living organism: the mitochondria, he said.
“Disease all comes down to mitochondrial health.”
Mitochondria, often described as the cell’s power plant, convert food into energy that keeps cells functioning, in both plants and people.
When they work properly, cells have the energy they need to repair themselves and regulate inflammation. When they don’t, the body becomes more vulnerable to chronic disease, Dolinski said.
And one major threat to mitochondrial health is oxidative stress, which is damage caused when unstable oxygen molecules overwhelm the body’s natural defences.
The evolution of plants
Plants face similar threats every day, from heat and drought to pests and disease, but over billions of years, they’ve developed sophisticated systems to manage that stress, producing antioxidants that neutralize damage before it spreads.
Humans rely on many of the same antioxidant compounds, but unlike plants, we can’t make enough of them ourselves. Instead, we have to consume them, primarily through whole, plant-based food.
“Your medicine is unprocessed food, the food that doesn’t have a label,” Dolinski said, adding that highly processed food and excess sugar can overwhelm the body’s ability to manage oxidative stress.
He also pointed to insulin resistance, often driven by diets high in refined carbohydrates, as a key driver of metabolic disease.
Practices such as intermittent fasting (which Dolinski said he does regularly), regular exercise and better sleep give mitochondria time to recover and improve the body’s ability to use energy efficiently.
The importance of mitochondria
“If the mitochondria are not functioning properly, nothing works — in the plant and in you and in every other animal and bug and earthworm.”
The same micronutrients plants need to protect their cells — including zinc, manganese, copper and sulfur — are also essential for human health, Dolinski said.
And as nutrients leave farms through harvested grain and livestock, long-term soil depletion could have implications not just for crop yields, but for food nutrition as well.
Overall, Dolinski said there’s much value in remembering that human biology is rooted in the same natural systems that sustain agriculture and that this knowledge offers sound guidelines for living and eating in ways that support mitochondria and minimize chronic oxidative stress.
This includes primarily eating real, plant-centred, unprocessed food, managing insulin and visceral fat, and prioritizing sleep and exercise and minimizing stress.
At age 78, he says he himself follows much of this advice.
“I don’t plan on dying from any of those diseases. I plan on dying because I just wore out.”