3.
You Are How You Eat
Eating With Awareness And Gratitude
You are what you eat. That is only half the truth. According to the nutritional scientist, Deborah Kesten, what you eat is
as important as how you eat. And eating with that awareness may enhance your health and certainly enhance your whole quality of life. She is the author of “The Healing Secrets of Food.”
According to her, it’s important to appreciate the food we have got and eat it with gratitude. One’s demeanor can greatly alter how the body processes food. For example, in the 1960s, cardiologist Meyer Friedman fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol, butter-laden “killer meal” to two groups of men: loud, aggressive Type A personalities and a mellower Type B group.
The doctor found the Type B group metabolized the fatty meal more effectively than the “hard-driving, competitive and impatient” Type A group. This experiment urged the people to slow down and appreciate food, considering it a blessing of life. Such a mindset is conducive to better digestion and assimilation.
According to the Ksema-kutuhala, a Vedic cookbook from the 2nd century A.D., a pleasant atmosphere and a good mood are as important to proper digestion as the quality of the food.
Look upon your food as God’s mercy. Food has to be cooked, served and eaten in a spirit of joyful reverence.
In many experiments, it was observed that food smelled and tasted better to the test subjects when they were in a proper mindset. It is not enough, however, to be relaxed, mellow and spiritual and then gulp down mounds of greasy pizza and sugary snacks and gallons of soda.
Different kinds of cancer are increasing; high blood pressure, diabetes and congestive heart failure are on the rise. For this, the blame goes not only to ‘what’ we are eating, but also on ‘how’ we are eating.
as important as how you eat. And eating with that awareness may enhance your health and certainly enhance your whole quality of life. She is the author of “The Healing Secrets of Food.”
According to her, it’s important to appreciate the food we have got and eat it with gratitude. One’s demeanor can greatly alter how the body processes food. For example, in the 1960s, cardiologist Meyer Friedman fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol, butter-laden “killer meal” to two groups of men: loud, aggressive Type A personalities and a mellower Type B group.
The doctor found the Type B group metabolized the fatty meal more effectively than the “hard-driving, competitive and impatient” Type A group. This experiment urged the people to slow down and appreciate food, considering it a blessing of life. Such a mindset is conducive to better digestion and assimilation.
According to the Ksema-kutuhala, a Vedic cookbook from the 2nd century A.D., a pleasant atmosphere and a good mood are as important to proper digestion as the quality of the food.
Look upon your food as God’s mercy. Food has to be cooked, served and eaten in a spirit of joyful reverence.
In many experiments, it was observed that food smelled and tasted better to the test subjects when they were in a proper mindset. It is not enough, however, to be relaxed, mellow and spiritual and then gulp down mounds of greasy pizza and sugary snacks and gallons of soda.
Different kinds of cancer are increasing; high blood pressure, diabetes and congestive heart failure are on the rise. For this, the blame goes not only to ‘what’ we are eating, but also on ‘how’ we are eating.
After the ceremony, we went back to someone’s home for a celebration. There the boy gave a bar mitzvah speech like I’d never heard before. He said: “I want to thank the One and the Only, All in One and One in All.” This thirteen-year-old boy really impressed me with his lofty, mystical articulations. He and his fellow ashram dwellers were very spiritual people. After the speech, everyone was invited to have some food-all strictly vegetarian. Everyone was barefoot, having left their shoes at the door. The meal was a buffet, so after the guests got their food, they sat down cross-legged on the floor and ate. |