Better health may have less to do with finding the next breakthrough and more to do with getting back to what your body has needed all along.

There is no shortage of advice about how to become healthier. New diets, supplements, wearable devices and longevity strategies appear constantly, each offering another way to optimize the human body. Yet for Dr. Asa Frey and Dra. Joanna Frey, the fundamentals of health are far less complicated and far more enduring.

Together, they founded Back to the Garden, a residential lifestyle center located on a six-acre tropical farm in Puerto Rico. Their work combines medically supervised water fasting with long-term lifestyle change for people living with chronic disease. At the center of their approach are seven pillars they believe reflect the basic biological needs of the human body: presence, minimally processed plant foods, movement, contact with nature, sun exposure, healthy sleep and healthy relationships.

On NHA Today, Dr. Stephan Esser sat down with Dr. Asa and Dra. Joanna to discuss these seven pillars, the role of medically supervised water fasting and why lasting improvements in health often require looking beyond the latest diet or health trend.

Why Principles Matter More Than Trends

Health trends have a remarkably short shelf life. As Dra. Joanna points out during the conversation, there is always another diet, supplement or biohack around the corner. The problem with continually chasing something new is that it can distract us from the conditions our bodies have always required to function well.

The seven pillars at Back to the Garden grew out of principles associated with natural hygiene, adapted to the realities of modern life. Rather than focusing exclusively on food or exercise, the Freys look at the broader environment in which health exists. Nutrition matters, but so do sleep, relationships, time outdoors, movement and our ability to become aware of the behaviors shaping our lives.

For Dra. Joanna, that last piece is particularly important. She considers presence the foundation of the other six pillars because awareness gives us an opportunity to recognize our habits rather than simply repeat them. Someone may understand exactly what foods to eat or know that exercise is beneficial, but information alone does not necessarily translate into lasting behavior.

This is one reason Dr. Esser notes that another healthy recipe isn’t always the answer. When someone continually returns to the same patterns, adding more information may do very little to change the underlying behavior. The Freys have found that teaching patients to become more aware of those patterns can make it easier to incorporate the other principles of health into everyday life.

Bringing Presence Into Everyday Life

Presence can sound abstract until it becomes part of an ordinary routine. For Dra. Joanna, one of those routines is a morning tea ceremony. She uses the process of preparing and drinking tea as a form of meditation, followed by stretching. She also emphasizes having morning and evening routines that allow her to return to that sense of awareness when work and stress begin pulling her attention elsewhere.

Dr. Asa uses a practice they teach patients called “spaces.” Instead of carrying the momentum of one activity directly into the next, he intentionally creates a brief pause between them. When he arrives at work, for example, he may sit in his car for a minute before entering the office. Rather than immediately thinking about the next patient or task, he takes a moment to breathe and allow the mental momentum of planning and worrying to settle.

These pauses don’t require restructuring an entire day. Taken together, they may only amount to several minutes, but they create repeated opportunities to notice stress before it continues building unchecked. In this way, presence becomes less about escaping everyday responsibilities and more about changing how we move through them.

Creating an Environment That Supports Health

The philosophy behind Back to the Garden is reflected in the physical environment of the center itself. Located on a tropical farm, the property was designed so that patients naturally interact with several of the seven pillars during their stay. They can walk outdoors, spend time beneath trees, listen to birds, get sunlight or stretch in an open-air gazebo.

For Dr. Asa, getting outside is one of his own health non-negotiables. Modern life makes it remarkably easy to move from a house to a car to an office and spend most of the day separated from the natural environment. His advice is straightforward: make a point of going outside.

Dra. Joanna carries the same philosophy into her daily routine. In addition to her morning tea ceremony and stretching, she prioritizes eating plants, spending time outdoors and going to bed early enough to get seven to eight hours of sleep. When she travels, she tries to maintain those same pillars rather than treating healthy habits as something that only works when life is perfectly controlled.

That consistency is central to their approach. The seven pillars aren’t meant to be a temporary program someone follows until a health goal is reached. They are intended to provide a structure for everyday living.

Where Medically Supervised Water Fasting Fits

Back to the Garden also specializes in medically supervised water fasting, with the length of a patient’s stay determined by factors such as health history, goals and individual circumstances. Dr. Asa estimates that many patients stay around 10 to 14 days, although some visits are shorter and others can extend to 30 or 40 days.

Throughout the conversation, however, the Freys make an important distinction between fasting and the lifestyle that surrounds it. They do not view a fast as a way to erase years of habits without addressing what happens when a patient returns home.

Dr. Asa shares the story of a patient who originally came to Back to the Garden with systemic lupus. After her first stay, she experienced substantial improvements in the symptoms she had been dealing with. Years later, after gradually returning to old habits and experiencing health problems again, she came back to the center. Her experience illustrated an important part of the Freys’ philosophy: a therapeutic intervention may help create change, but maintaining that change requires attention to the conditions and behaviors that shape health over the long term.

For this reason, the Freys also offer a three-month virtual program rather than relying on isolated consultations. During the first six weeks, they work consistently with patients, reviewing information about their diet and other health measures and identifying areas that can be improved. Changes are introduced in phases so patients have an opportunity to build a stronger foundation rather than attempting to change everything at once.

For patients who later come to Puerto Rico for fasting, this preparation can also make the experience less unfamiliar. Dra. Joanna describes a noticeable difference in patients who arrive having already worked on presence and the other pillars. Rather than viewing the fast only as something they need to endure, they are better prepared for the rest and stillness that are part of the experience.

Thinking of Health as a Practice

One idea that stands out to Dr. Esser during the conversation is the Freys’ use of the word “practice.” We commonly use that word for meditation, but less often for nutrition, movement or other health behaviors. Thinking about health this way changes the expectation that someone should immediately master a new way of living.

A practice develops over time. Someone learning to eat differently may continue discovering which meals work best for their life. A person becoming more active may gradually develop strength, flexibility and consistency. Sleep routines may need to be protected and adjusted as circumstances change. Even presence itself becomes something that can deepen through repetition.

This perspective also leaves room for people to return to healthy principles when they drift away from them. The goal isn’t to reach a point where life never interferes with healthy habits. It is to build enough awareness and understanding that those principles remain something to return to.

Healthy Change Starts With the Example We Set

The conversation also turns to how these ideas translate into family life. Dr. Asa and Dra. Joanna are raising their children with many of the same principles they teach at Back to the Garden, including plant-based eating, time outdoors and limits around activities they don’t believe support their family’s health.

When parents ask how to convince a child or spouse to make healthier choices, however, both Freys emphasize beginning with your own behavior. Trying to change someone else while practicing different habits yourself creates an obvious disconnect, particularly for children.

A parent who consistently eats nourishing foods, exercises, stretches, gets outside and prioritizes sleep gives a child an example they can observe over many years. Even when other family members don’t make the same choices, those behaviors become part of the child’s understanding of what taking care of one’s health can look like.

It is a useful reminder that lifestyle change rarely exists in isolation. Our habits influence our families and communities, just as the habits and environments around us influence our own choices.

Getting Back to What the Body Needs

The modern health world offers an extraordinary number of ways to measure, track and optimize the human body. Some may be useful, but the Freys argue that they should not distract us from the fundamentals.

A minimally processed plant-based diet, regular movement, time in nature, appropriate sun exposure, restorative sleep, healthy relationships and the ability to become more present in our own lives are not new discoveries. They are basic conditions that have supported human health across generations.

The challenge is not necessarily finding another piece of information. For many of us, it is creating a life in which the principles we already understand become part of how we actually live.

That may be far less exciting than the newest biohack. It may also be much more important.

Learn More

Back to the Garden:
https://www.backtothegardenpr.com/en

Back to the Garden en Español:
https://www.backtothegardenpr.com/

Get the Back to the Garden App:
https://www.backtothegardenpr.com/en/btgapp

Follow Dr. Esser on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/esserhealth/

Watch NHA Today on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@nationalhealthassociation

Learn more about the National Health Association:
https://www.healthscience.org/