The right kind of stress can bring big benefits to both plants and people, says author, podcaster and wellness platform founder Jeff Krasno. Here’s how to harness the power of stressed plants for better health and longevity
To my utter surprise, in 2018 I was diagnosed with a chronic disease. Along with brain fog, chronic fatigue, insomnia and a jelly belly, I now had diabetes and a leaky gut. This diagnosis prompted a five-year inquiry not just into how to turn my health around but also into what’s wrong with our health in the modern world.
On this journey I’ve interviewed hundreds of the world’s most prolific doctors, neuroscientists, nutritionists, yogis, spiritualists, mystics and sages and read over 400 books and endless scientific papers, primary source data and clinical research. What I discovered is our culture of “chronic ease” is leading directly to the scourge of chronic dis-ease.
Over the past century, Western culture has evolved primarily for ease and convenience, resulting in an overabundance of highly processed calories, sedentariness, temperature neutrality, indoor living, near-total reliance on digital devices, increased social isolation and a perpetual drip of cortisol-dysregulating blue light from our omnipresent screens. These artifacts of modernity lead directly to obesity, depression, sleep disruption and the panoply of our current epidemics.
Humans evolved over millennia to thrive in conditions where stress and discomfort are normal. But our modern lifestyle hijacks our biology and renders our hard-wrought adaptive mechanisms maladaptive.
On a biological level, we’re simply not engineered for lives of uber-convenience, and now we’re paying the price. But there’s a way to counteract this chronic ease.
Acute, short-term “good stress” in the human body confers a health benefit and activates pathways that promote longevity and resilience. This phenomenon is called hormesis. By harnessing hormesis, we can bring our bodies, which have been ravaged by our reliance on modern conveniences, back into balance.
To this end, I developed Good Stress, a curated program of deliberate short-term acute stress protocols that realign us with our biology. These protocols include intermittent fasting, resistance training, heat and cold therapy, meditation and breathwork, cultivation of social connections, and rewilding—immersing yourself in nature, going barefoot and squatting instead of sitting.
You can think of them as the protocols of inconvenience to meet a world obsessed with convenience.
These protocols have yielded uncommonly good results for me. I was able to reverse my diabetes and insulin resistance while also losing 60 pounds. I’ve largely curbed my insomnia, which has been my Achilles’ heel for much of my adult life.
My chronological age is 53, but according to numerous tests, my bio-age—which measures the health of my cells—is 45. My energy levels and stamina are stellar, and my biomarkers all fall within the optimal ranges.
You may be thinking you’re already awash in stress and wondering why you’d choose more. But there’s a gargantuan difference between modern chronic stress and good “eustress.”
As Paracelsus, the Swiss physician, quipped, “the dose makes the poison.” The right level of stress, or eustress, elicits hormesis, a positive psychological or physiological response to adversity.
And some of my Good Stress protocols are surprisingly simple. Here’s one that’s easy to incorporate into your daily life so you can start enjoying the benefits of good stress today.
In response to short-term stress, humans have evolved adaptive mechanisms that result in greater resilience. Hormesis is the biological phenomenon in which a beneficial effect—such as improved health, stress tolerance, growth or longevity—results from exposure to low doses of an agent that’s otherwise toxic or lethal when given at higher doses.
It turns out that plants also have a hormetic response to stress. In response to hostile growing conditions—such as frigid temperatures, scorching sun, blistering wind and drought, or pests—plants grown in an organic environment generate protective compounds known as xenohormetins. These phytochemicals, also referred to as polyphenols, help to keep the plant alive.
The protective qualities of xenohormetins are then transferred to humans when we consume them. These compounds have been associated with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anticancer effects.
By contrast, conventional agriculture with its chemical fertilizers, heavy irrigation, pesticides, and herbicides produces brittle and nutrient-deficient plants. Industrial agriculture is to plants what McDonald’s is to people.
Yes, it’s convenient for a plant to grow in the absence of weeds and pests, with abundant water and neatly organized rank on rank. But a dearth of struggle will turn a russet potato into a . . . couch potato.
This is why eating stressed plants is a key part of my Good Stress program.
Dr Jeffrey Bland, who brought the field of functional medicine to the fore in 1991, claims to have found the world’s most stressed plant. It’s called Himalayan tartary buckwheat (HTB). It evolved unsurprisingly in the Himalayas, a notoriously inhospitable place for plants.
For millennia, this gluten-free food crop, which has no relation to wheat, has weathered harsh climes, high altitudes and poor-quality soil. Yet HTB has become more robust—physically and genetically—as a direct result of these suboptimal conditions.
When we eat HTB, we unlock a treasure trove of unique nutrients, including antioxidant polyphenols like quercetin, rutin and luteolin that contribute to an effective immune response. HTB also contains 2-HOBA, a rare plant nutrient that has been found to protect the human body’s proteins from harmful biological aging processes.
Examples of other xenohormetins include resveratrol from red wine, curcumin from turmeric and sulforaphane from cruciferous vegetables.
Resveratrol developed naturally in grape skins to fight fungus. Many winemakers deliberately stress their grapes, often growing them in arid conditions. They do this not for phytochemical purposes but for taste.
When humans ingest it, resveratrol activates SIRT1, one of the proteins in the sirtuin family. Sirtuins influence a wide range of cellular processes like aging, transcription, apoptosis, inflammation, stress resistance, energy efficiency during low-calorie situations and mitochondrial biogenesis.
Curiously, the most stressed grape is the pinot noir varietal. By extension, you’ll find the greatest concentration of resveratrol in a glass of pinot. But don’t pop the cork just yet. You’d need to drink 1,000 bottles of wine a day to get the recommended dosage of resveratrol. This is not recommended. You could try a resveratrol supplement instead.
Sirtuins are unique because they require a coenzyme called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) to function. NAD levels decline as we age, and this decline is thought to be one of the contributing factors to aging and age-associated diseases. This is why it’s increasingly popular to supplement with NAD or its precursor nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN).
Much of the research on sirtuins has been done by Australian biologist Dr David Sinclair. Sinclair is a professor in the department of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging. He’s best known for his research on aging and longevity, particularly in relation to activating the sirtuin pathway in yeast.
Whether resveratrol has the same impact on human longevity as it does on yeast remains a very open question.
Another overly anxious plant is green tea. Japanese matcha is a type of powdered green tea grown in a traditional way. Growing the plants in the shade stresses them, causing them to make biologically active compounds including theanine, caffeine, chlorophyll and various types of catechins, including epigallocatechin gallate (ECGC), that boost the activity of defense enzymes such as SIRT1.
Sipping matcha helps burn fat, protects the kidneys, improves memory, decreases inflammation and is anti-carcinogenic.
Stressed plants abound in the blue zones. The blue zones, originally identified by author Dan Buettner, are the five places in the world with the greatest prevalence of centenarians:
These longevity hubs all share certain characteristics, including limited technology, healthy diets, active outdoor cultures, community, hilliness and—yes—stressed plants. Not only do the denizens of the blue zones eat a plethora of nutrient-dense plants, but the animals they eat graze on these plants as well.
You may notice two of the world’s blue zones are islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The famed Mediterranean diet has been associated with longevity.
Extra-virgin olive oil is a staple of the regimen. A bioactive compound in olive oil, oleocanthal, has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and may inhibit cancer-promoting genes. The oil has also been shown to activate a cellular pathway known as AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase).
Aging is highly associated with an imbalance between AMPK and mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin), the pathway for cellular growth. This disequilibrium is driven by the overactivation of mTOR and by a decline in responsiveness to the activation of the energy-sensing protein AMPK, the body’s cleanup and repair pathway.
The term superfood isn’t always helpful as it can lead people to overconsume one specific food at the expense of eating the rainbow. I attempt to eat 30 different types of vegetables per week. Still, there’s a good case to be made for olive oil as a member of the food pantheon.
If you really want to inconvenience yourself into better health, then allow me to unveil the world’s most nutrient-dense food: sprouts. I was introduced to the wondrous world of sprouting by the self-appointed “sprout king,” Doug Evans.
As Doug explains, “The process of sprouting, especially broccoli sprouts, embodies the hormetic effect, where a little stress at the cellular level triggers powerful health benefits, including boosting our body’s defenses and activating sulforaphane production.”
You can sprout seeds of myriad species, including alfalfa, clover, fenugreek, turnip greens, wheatgrass, wild rice, green peas, radish, adzuki beans, lentils, chickpeas, mung beans and red cabbage.
The equipment requirements for sprouting are negligible: a wide-mouthed quart-sized mason jar, some cheesecloth and a rubber band. Sure, you can purchase kits that incorporate metal holsters to secure the mason jars at a 45-degree angle to facilitate proper drainage, but it’s hardly necessary.
You can stack your sprouting jars on a dish-drying rack, among other improvisations. Two tablespoons of these miniscule broccoli seeds will yield a pound of sprouts in four to six days.
You soak the seeds for six to eight hours, put the jars in a cool and shady spot, and then simply rinse and drain them twice per day. It’s immensely gratifying to watch the seeds push forth their tiny white stems and green dollhouse-sized leaves.
This process of germination is pre-photosynthetic. The seedling is leveraging warehoused energy, a small parcel of food stored in the endosperm of the seed. These stockpiled nutrients—starch, fats and proteins—can lie dormant within the seed for thousands of years. But given the right conditions—moisture, air, and a moderate temperature—the embryo will be activated to grow, cracking through the dampened seed coat.
Sprouts, specifically broccoli sprouts, are considered the most nutrient-dense food in the world. The concentration of phytochemicals in broccoli sprouts is 40 times that of broccoli florets.2 They are also low calorie, organic and fiber-rich. What’s more, they may be Earth’s most anti-carcinogenic food due to the compound sulforaphane.
Acute stress can be either thrilling (like riding a roller coaster) or distressing (like narrowly avoiding a car accident). It’s the body’s immediate involuntary response to a perceived threat, challenge, or scare—the classic fight-or-flight response.
This type of stress is typically resolved quickly and doesn’t have time to do the extensive damage associated with long-term stress. In many cases, acute stress is actually beneficial.
Chronic stress, on the other hand, is a state of ongoing physiological arousal. This condition occurs when the body experiences stressors with such consistency or intensity that the autonomic nervous system doesn’t have a chance to activate the relaxation response. You never return to homeostasis.
Chronic “distress” can be due to ongoing pressures, such as work deadlines, sustained heavy workloads, family tumult or poverty, but it can also be attributable to traumatic experiences. Chronic stress can lead to serious health problems, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia.
Good stress, or eustress, is a form of deliberate acute stress. This is the type of stress I set out to explore to address my litany of infirmities. I adopted dual roles as an amateur biologist and the willing, if sometimes reticent, subject of my experimentation. I tampered and tinkered with many protocols until I saw results.
In my search to become healthy, I began to examine my behaviors through the lens of these questions: How did I evolve? And how do I align my life with evolution’s wisdom? Across four years, I harvested the adversity practices that led me back to well-being and codified them as Good Stress.
In interview after interview with everyone from sleep experts to neuroscientists, from immunologists to psychotherapists, I kept hearing the same prescriptions to address a wide range of disorders. Meditation, breathwork, yoga, movement, time in nature, deliberate cold and heat immersion, and fasting were among the most common recommended therapies.
The reason these ancient modalities function so well today is because they calibrate our style of life with the adaptive mechanisms that have been a product of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. In short, doing hard things makes doing other hard things easier. Through adversity, you build resilience—in both body and mind.
In response to harsh environmental circumstances such as wind, cold, scorching sun and compromised soil, plants generate protective mechanisms to ensure survival. These xenohormetic plants develop certain antioxidant compounds that we call polyphenols, which shield them from threat. Their protective attributes are then transferred to humans when we eat them.
Here’s my list of some well-known xenohormetins, their benefits, and their “stressed” hosts:
Resveratrol
Source: Grapes (especially the skins), red wine, peanuts and berries
Benefits: Anti-aging effects, cardiovascular health and neuroprotective properties
Sulforaphane
Source: Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbages and broccoli sprouts Benefits: Antioxidant and detoxification properties, potential anticancer effects
Curcumin
Source: Turmeric root
Benefits: Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and potential neuroprotective effects
Quercetin
Source: Onions, apples, grapes, berries, tea and Himalayan tartary buckwheat
Benefits: Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and potential cardiovascular benefits
Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)
Source: Green tea
Benefits: Antioxidant properties, weight management and cardiovascular health
Piceatannol
Source: Grapes, berries and passion fruit
Benefits: Similar to resveratrol, with potential anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities
Salidroside
Source: Rhodiola rosea (an herb)
Benefits: Stress resistance, anti-fatigue and potential neuroprotective properties
Oleuropein
Source: Olive leaves and olives
Benefits: Cardiovascular benefits, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties
Fisetin
Source: Strawberries, apples and persimmons
Benefits: Antioxidant, neuroprotective and potential anti-aging effects
Kaempferol
Source: Tea, broccoli, kale and beans
Benefits: Antioxidant and potential anticancer properties
Luteolin
Source: Peppers, carrots, celery, olive oil and Himalayan tartary buckwheat
Benefits: Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective effects
Here’s an outline of a typical “stressful” day in my life. This schedule demonstrates how various Good Stress protocols can stack across a day.
I don’t always perfectly adhere to this schedule. Life happens. Maybe you’re traveling. Maybe you’re a shift worker. Maybe your regular work schedule doesn’t remotely allow for this layout. Maybe it changes a bit depending on the time of year. Maybe you go through a life change that derails you for an extended period.
That’s fine. The protocols are waiting for you to return. There’s no need to be neurotic about it. In fact, orthorexia—an obsession with being healthy—is its own type of pathology. Consider this a general game plan with flexible margins.
6:00 a.m. Wake up. Drink room-temperature water (add lemon if you like).
6:30 a.m. Get outside for 20 minutes or use a therapeutic lamp to get blue light. Combine with meditation or breathwork.
7:00 a.m. Have a coffee or tea without milk or sugar.
7:30 a.m. Get hot in a sauna or under a sauna blanket for 20 minutes.
8:00 a.m. Get cold in a plunge or shower for three minutes.
8:30 a.m. Go to work (if you work).
11:00 a.m. “Break” fast with fiber, healthy fat and protein.
11:30 a.m. Take a short walk—barefoot if you can.
12:00 p.m. Take five minutes to call someone you love.
2:00 p.m. Take a break and get outside without your phone. Slow down and notice things.
5:00 p.m. Move your body—preferably in nature. Mix aerobic exercise, resistance training and flexibility work.
6:00 p.m. Make dinner with plenty of protein and vegetables, and eat it with someone if you can.
7:00 p.m. Take your last bite of food and take a short walk or do 20 push-ups.
7:15 p.m. Kick back. Read or watch a movie with your blue-light blockers while on the floor stretching and squatting.
9:00 p.m. Shut off all electronics. Make your bedroom cool and dark. Use only amber light. Read a book. Count your blessings. Journal your gratitude.
9:30 p.m. Engage in some simple parasympathetic breathwork.
10:00 p.m. Nighty-night.
It’s not all that stressful. It’s good stressful. We so often associate health with downward spirals. After four weeks of Good Stress, you’ll begin experiencing an upward spiral. The momentum builds atop itself.
There may be no greater experience in life than witnessing your own transformation. It’s completely within your grasp through doing hard things.
Adapted from Good Stress: The Health Benefits of Doing Hard Things by Jeff Krasno (Hay House, 2025)
US readers can get Himalayan tartary buckwheat (HTB) from Jeffrey Bland’s company Big Bold Health (bigboldhealth.com), which sells 100 percent organic HTB flour as well as HTB sprout powder, an HTB superfood powder blend and an HTB nutritional supplement.
However, shipping to the UK is not currently available. Big Bold Health’s HTB flour does seem to be available on Ebay from private sellers, though.
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