In the quest for optimal health, we often focus on food, supplements, movement, and rest—but there’s a vital, overlooked element running through every living cell: light.
Not just sunlight on your skin. Not just vitamin D.
We’re talking about biophotons, highly coherent light emissions that may be central to the communication, regulation, and vitality of your body. Modern science is only just beginning to understand them, but the implications are profound.
🔬 What Are Biophotons?
Biophotons are light particles emitted by living cells. First discovered by Russian scientist Alexander Gurwitsch in the 1920s, and later rigorously studied by Fritz-Albert Popp, these light emissions occur in the ultraviolet to visible spectrum and are not produced by heat (non-thermal).
The intensity is measured at about 10⁻¹⁹ to 10⁻¹⁶ watts per square centimetre, and their presence is constant—and meaningful.
“All living systems emit light… and the coherence of that light is a measure of the system’s order, its health, its vitality.”
— Fritz-Albert Popp, PhD
📡 The Role of Biophotons in the Body
Research suggests that biophotons may:
- Act as messenger particles in a quantum communication system between cells
- Be involved in regulation of DNA, metabolism, immune response, and cellular repair
- Provide a measure of the body’s health, as more coherent emissions are associated with greater order and vitality
Cells may use light rather than chemicals to pass information quickly and efficiently. DNA itself is believed to store and emit photons, acting as both a receiver and broadcaster of biological information.
🧬 Popp’s experiments found that:
- Healthy organisms emit more coherent (laser-like) light
- Cancer cells emit disordered, chaotic light
- Organic foods emit stronger biophoton signals than conventionally grown or processed foods
Biophotons in Food
Living plant tissues emit ultra-weak photons, and this emission can be measured in fruits, vegetables, leaves, seeds and other biological material. The intensity and pattern of these emissions can vary according to factors such as the plant species, freshness, growing conditions, storage, physical damage and oxidative activity within the tissues.
This is where the subject becomes particularly interesting from a Natural Body Intelligence perspective.
Fresh fruits and vegetables have spent their lives interacting directly with sunlight. Through photosynthesis, plants capture light energy and convert it into chemical energy, which is then stored within their tissues. Ultra-weak photon emissions from those living tissues are one measurable consequence of the biochemical activity taking place within them.
This does not mean that biophotons should be treated as another vitamin or nutrient with a daily recommended intake. Science has not established that eating foods with greater photon emission directly transfers a measurable quantity of beneficial “light energy” into human cells.
What we can say is that fresh plant foods are biologically active tissues and that ultra-weak photon emission is one way researchers can observe aspects of that activity.
From the Natural Hygiene perspective, this adds another fascinating dimension to the value of fresh, minimally processed food. Fruits and vegetables also provide water, carbohydrate, fibre, vitamins, minerals and thousands of naturally occurring plant compounds within a food structure produced by nature rather than a factory.
This wider emphasis on natural foods forms part of the principles of Natural Hygiene and the way Natural Body Intelligence looks at nourishment as part of the body’s overall environment.
Which Foods Are Rich in Biophotons?
The phrase “biophoton-rich foods” is often used in natural-health circles to describe fresh, living plant foods that show measurable ultra-weak photon emission.
There is not yet a scientifically established table ranking foods by their “biophoton content” in the way foods can be ranked for vitamin C, potassium or protein. Photon emission from biological tissue varies with freshness, plant type, growing conditions, storage, temperature, oxidation and even how the food has been handled.
For that reason, it is more useful to think in terms of broad categories rather than claiming that one particular fruit contains a precise amount of biophoton energy.
Fresh plant foods are the most relevant foods to explore, including:
- Fresh fruit, particularly fruit that has been recently harvested.
- Leafy green vegetables and other fresh vegetables.
- Fresh herbs and young plant shoots.
- Sprouted seeds and seedlings, which are undergoing rapid biological activity.
- Freshly harvested produce that has undergone minimal storage and processing.
From the Natural Body Intelligence perspective, the attraction of these foods extends far beyond photon emission. Fresh fruits and vegetables provide water, fibre, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins and a wide range of naturally occurring plant compounds while remaining close to their original biological form.
This is one reason NBI places such emphasis on the benefits of raw foods rather than viewing nutrition purely as a collection of isolated nutrients.
Freshness may also matter. A fruit picked from a tree and eaten shortly afterwards is biologically different from one harvested weeks earlier, transported long distances, stored under controlled conditions and eventually eaten after prolonged storage.
That does not mean older produce suddenly becomes worthless. It simply illustrates that food is dynamic biological material rather than an inert package of calories.
The broader Natural Body Intelligence approach is therefore not to chase the food supposedly containing the “most biophotons”, but to favour a varied diet built around fresh, whole, minimally processed plant foods wherever practical.
This principle also connects with the Law of Vital Economy — the Natural Hygiene idea that the conditions we create can influence how much demand we place upon the body’s available resources.
Does Cooking Reduce Biophotons?
It is often claimed that cooking “destroys biophotons”, but that statement is too simple.
Ultra-weak photon emission comes from biochemical reactions occurring within biological tissues. Heating food changes those tissues substantially. Enzymes are altered, cell membranes break down, oxidation patterns change and the food is no longer functioning as living plant tissue in the same way it was before heating.
Because of this, the pattern and intensity of ultra-weak photon emission can change after cooking, storage, cutting, bruising and other forms of processing.
That does not, however, mean that science has established a simple rule that raw food contains a fixed amount of beneficial light which is then completely destroyed by heat.
From a Natural Body Intelligence perspective, there are broader reasons for favouring a high proportion of fresh, uncooked plant foods. Raw fruits and vegetables naturally contain water, fibre and many heat-sensitive plant compounds within their original food structure, and they generally require little industrial processing before being eaten.
At the same time, cooking is not automatically synonymous with unhealthy food. Different foods respond differently to heating, and in some cases cooking can make particular nutrients more available.
The more useful principle is therefore not:
“Cooked food contains no life or value.”
It is:
“The further food moves from its fresh, whole biological state, the more its original structure and chemistry are changed.”
This is part of the wider NBI distinction between fresh whole foods and heavily processed foods, explored further in The Best Benefits of Raw Foods and Inferior Foods: What They Do to the Body and Why It Matters.
For someone interested specifically in biophotons, freshness, storage and processing are therefore just as important to consider as whether a food is technically raw or cooked.
How Can You Increase Biophotons Naturally?
People searching for ways to increase biophotons naturally are usually asking how they can increase their exposure to fresh, biologically active foods and support the body’s own cellular processes.
It is important to clarify that biophotons are not a nutrient that can simply be “topped up” in the way we might increase vitamin C or iron. Human cells themselves produce ultra-weak photon emissions as a consequence of normal biochemical reactions, particularly reactions involving oxidation and cellular metabolism.
We therefore cannot currently say that eating a particular food directly raises a person’s internal “biophoton level”.
What we can do is create conditions that support normal cellular function while choosing foods that remain close to their fresh biological state.
From a Natural Body Intelligence perspective, practical ways of doing this include choosing freshly harvested fruits and vegetables where possible, eating a varied range of whole plant foods, reducing reliance on heavily processed products, spending regular time outdoors in natural daylight, allowing adequate rest and sleep, remaining physically active and reducing unnecessary physiological burden.
Freshness is particularly interesting. Produce continues to undergo biological and chemical changes after harvesting, so a freshly picked piece of fruit is not identical to one that has spent weeks in transport and storage.
That does not mean everybody needs to grow their own food. Rather, it reinforces a broader principle: choose fresh, whole and minimally processed foods whenever reasonably possible.
NBI explores this principle throughout our material on Natural Hygiene and the body’s systems, because nourishment is only one part of the environment in which the body’s cells operate.
Sleep, movement, sunlight, rest, emotional stress, environmental exposures and the demands placed upon digestion all form part of the bigger picture.
Rather than asking, “How many biophotons can I consume?”, a more useful question may therefore be:
“What conditions best support the normal functioning of living cells?”
That question sits at the heart of the Natural Body Intelligence approach.
The Role of Biophotons in the Body
Photon emissions have been detected from many types of living cells and tissues, including human tissue. They appear to arise largely from chemical reactions associated with cellular metabolism and oxidative processes.
Researchers have been interested in whether these emissions might tell us something about what is happening inside living cells. Studies have explored possible relationships between photon emission and oxidative stress, metabolism, cell growth, communication between biological systems and changes occurring within damaged or diseased tissue.
There are also hypotheses that ultra-weak light may play some role in biological signalling. This remains an active area of research rather than an established mechanism of human cellular communication.
DNA, proteins, cell membranes, mitochondria and many other structures continually interact through highly organised biochemical and electrical processes. Whether ultra-weak photon emission is simply a consequence of these processes or also contributes to their regulation remains an intriguing scientific question.
From a Natural Body Intelligence perspective, the subject is fascinating because it provides another reminder that the body is not simply a collection of isolated organs. It is an extraordinarily coordinated living system in which trillions of cells are continually responding to one another and to their environment.
You can explore that wider coordination through our guide to the body’s systems.
Research into biophotons therefore does not prove that the body possesses a separate “light communication system”, but it does reveal that living tissues produce measurable ultra-weak light as part of their biological activity — and there is still much to learn about what those emissions may tell us.
Fresh Whole Foods and Heavily Processed Foods
The Natural Body Intelligence approach places particular emphasis on fresh, whole plant foods and minimising foods that have been extensively refined, preserved or industrially processed.
From a biophoton perspective, however, we need to be careful about claims that particular foods contain “no light”. Ultra-weak photon emission is associated with biochemical and oxidative reactions in biological material, and it cannot simply be divided into “living foods that contain light” and “dead foods that contain none”.
The more useful distinction is what happens to food as it moves further away from its original biological state.
Fresh fruits and vegetables remain complex plant tissues containing water, fibre, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and thousands of naturally occurring plant compounds. Storage, heating, refining and industrial processing can alter that structure and chemistry to varying degrees.
Highly processed foods may also contain large amounts of refined sugar, refined fats, salt, additives and ingredients that would rarely occur together in that concentration in whole foods. This can make them very different nutritionally from the plants from which some of their ingredients originated.
Natural Body Intelligence therefore favours food that remains recognisable and close to its natural form — particularly fresh fruits, vegetables and other minimally processed plant foods.
You can explore this distinction further in Inferior Foods: What They Do to the Body and Why It Matters and our guide to the digestive system.
This does not require us to claim that one type of food literally “switches off” the body’s light. The stronger argument is much simpler: the form, freshness and degree of processing of our food changes what we are asking the body to handle.
That principle stands whether or not future research establishes a direct nutritional role for biophoton emission.
🥩 The Impact of Meat
While living foods emit measurable biophotons and contribute to cellular vitality, meat and processed foods do the opposite—they disrupt the body’s light field, congest the system, and contribute to premature degeneration.
Meat is almost entirely devoid of biophotons. Once an animal dies, the electromagnetic light it once held is gone. By the time it’s been slaughtered, stored, and cooked, it has become a dead substance that places enormous burden on the digestive and eliminative systems. It contributes to putrefaction in the gut, produces acidic waste, and slows down the flow of energy through the body’s natural channels.
If the body is a photonic engine, as Fritz-Albert Popp said, then living on dead food is like fuelling a fire with ash. To heal and thrive, we must return to nature’s design: fresh, raw, light-infused food grown in sunlight, and water flowing from the earth.
🌿 Food, Light & Vitality
The connection between food, sunlight and life is real, but it is important to describe it accurately.
Plants capture energy from sunlight through photosynthesis and use that energy to build carbohydrates and other organic compounds. When we eat plant foods, we are ultimately drawing upon energy that entered the biological food chain through sunlight.
That does not mean we literally absorb visible light from fruit and use it as a direct cellular fuel. The energy available to the human body comes primarily from the chemical energy stored within food.
Biophoton research adds another fascinating layer to this picture. Fresh biological tissues produce measurable ultra-weak photon emissions as part of their normal biochemical activity, and researchers continue to investigate what these emissions may reveal about cellular metabolism and oxidative processes.
From a Natural Body Intelligence perspective, this reinforces a broader principle: food is more than a collection of isolated nutrients.
A piece of fresh fruit contains water, carbohydrate, fibre, vitamins, minerals, naturally occurring plant compounds and a physical structure produced by a living plant. Its biological characteristics are very different from those of a heavily refined product assembled from separated ingredients.
This is why NBI places such emphasis on food in its whole and natural form.
But food is only one part of vitality.
Rest, sleep, movement, sunlight, fresh air, emotional wellbeing, environmental exposure and the demands we continually place upon the body all influence the conditions in which our cells function.
This wider view is explored throughout Natural Body Intelligence and in our guide to the body’s systems.
Biophotons therefore provide an intriguing window into living biology, but they should not distract us from the much larger principle: health is shaped by the total environment in which the body is asked to function.
Fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, especially those grown organically and ripened by the sun, contain measurable biophoton emissions. When we eat these foods, we are not just consuming vitamins and minerals—we are absorbing living light.
Cooking and processing destroy these photons, which aligns with the Natural Hygiene principle that living foods support life, and dead foods support degeneration.
A quote worth remembering:
“Our bodies are not just chemical factories—they are photonic engines.”
This perspective makes sense of why people often feel lighter, more energised, and mentally clearer on a diet high in raw, sun-fed foods.
Explore Natural Body Intelligence Further
Biophotons are only one small part of the much bigger picture of how living systems function.
Natural Body Intelligence looks at health through the combined influence of food, rest, movement, sunlight, sleep, environment, emotional wellbeing and the body’s own regulatory processes.
If you want to explore these ideas in more depth, you can continue through our Natural Hygiene guide, explore the body’s systems, or read more of our health articles.
If you are interested in learning how to apply these principles professionally, you can also explore our Health Practitioner Training, which teaches the Natural Body Intelligence approach alongside practical coaching, client support and mind-body principles.
And for those who want to apply the principles gradually within their own life, the 12 Month Body Reset provides a slower, structured approach to making sustainable changes over time.
🔗 Scientific Research on Biophotons
Here are key papers and sources for further exploration:
- Popp, F.A. (1979).
Biophoton emission: New evidence for coherence and DNA as the source.
Read summary here - Fels, D. (2009).
Cell communication through light.
PubMed – NCBI - Bischof, M. (2005).
Biophotons – The Light in Our Cells.
Science & Nonduality Article - Salari et al. (2015).
Biophoton emission: insights from theoretical and experimental studies.
Springer Link - Van Wijk, R. & Van Wijk, E. (2005).
Biophotons and the human body.
Indian Journal of Experimental Biology
🌞 Other Ways to Support Your Biophoton Field
Besides raw food, other ways to enhance your internal light include:
- Sunlight exposure: Especially at sunrise and sunset to entrain circadian rhythms
- Avoiding EMF pollution: Man-made frequencies can interfere with cellular coherence
- Grounding: Connecting to Earth’s electromagnetic field may stabilise energy systems
- Fasting and cleansing: Helps clear out metabolic waste that disrupts light flow
- Emotional healing: Stress, trauma, and fear can cloud the system’s inner order
🧠 Final Thought: The Body is Light
Mainstream science is beginning to catch up to what ancient traditions have long said:
We are beings of light.
Not metaphorically—but literally.
Supporting the body’s light is not a fringe idea; it is a return to biological truth. The more light we allow in—through food, thought, environment, and consciousness—the more vital, intelligent, and self-healing our bodies become.