Healthy Eating: A different approach

Value:  You are what you eat. This is absolutely true without any argument. Also, I would like to given another dimension to the method of eating. You are HOW you eat. This is also equally significant. The way how you eat the food and how one values the food are also critical in developing healthy lifestyle.

Our attention to what goes inside our mouth is highly critical. Many times, our attention is somewhere else and not on the food that goes in. Since, eating is a habitual process; we eat without having our consciousness on the food. At the dining table, we have all sets of distractions such as reading newspaper, watching TV & chatting with friends, attending calls etc. With all these distractions, our awareness of food goes in the background.

It is not only that we don’t feel, taste & enjoy the food but diminish the value that we give to the food with the distractions. In general, if we don’t value a system/process then the value from the very system/process will not come to us. This is a universal law & it also applies to the value that assign to the food that you eat.

If you devalue the food then the energy that you get from the food gets devalued.

Body: Body is subjected to change. We can build a healthy body with proper nourishment. For this, let us understand the basic principle of the body that is in making. Body is a form of earth element. We accumulate the body from the earth elements in the form of food. Depending on this accumulation, we can easily weigh few kilos more or few kilos. Ultimately, this body in making goes back to its origin, i.e. earth after death. So, remember that the food that we eat comes from the earth element and that we call it as body.

Natural food: We process the food in many different ways before we consume. We get higher nourishment of the food when the food is more natural. If we add chemicals, preservatives then we make the food devoid of its natural elements. So, keep the processing to the minimum & give due respect to the nature.

As a thumb rule, the amount of heat that we use for cooking converts the food into another form that is distant away from its original content. We do this processing for enhancing taste & easy digestion. Instead, I suggest you to increase your digestive power to consume the type of food that is more close to the earth element. In other words, heighten your digestive power in proportion to the amount of heat energy that you spent in the cooking. This can be achieved by enhancing the fire element inside you which in yogic term is called as Agni.

With increase in your Agni power, you will get the ability to digest even stronger food and hence, get the ability to consume raw food. For example, Agni Sara Kriya is one such technique that improves the digestive juice that optimises the digestive system.

Summary: How you eat is more important than what you eat. The food that we eat comes from the earth element & we accumulate that in the form as the body. Respect the nature by striking a healthy balanced eating habit.

“Heighten your digestive fire in exact proportion to that of the fire used for the cooking.  "

Diet – Stay one step closer to the Sun

In the first blog, we have covered diet in a bigger picture, on how too much information on diet adds confusion, the merits of consuming native food, attitude and perception on food. This is the second of the series of blogs on diet. In my twenty five years of experience in corporate world, I spent most of the time in Lab researching & designing products. After I moved to health industry, I have continued doing Lab work but this time my body & mind have become the subjects for my research. This has given me a lot of ideas and insight in understanding the human psychology, physiology & human engineering in general. In the last six years, I have realized many fine details of the human system and life in a broader spectrum. This blog explains yet another such  realization and a very significant aspect of diet, the kind of food that we consume.

We live in the solar system and solar energy is the primary source of energy for all the life forms on Earth. We are not only a part of the solar system but in fact, we are just the representation of the sun. When the mirror is broken, one can see the complete reflection of the sun in each and every broken piece of the mirror. Also, this is similar to the sun’s reflection in the dew drops on the leaves. In each and every dew drop, one can witness the reflection of the sun. In the same way, each and every one of us inhibits the characteristics of sun and reflects the sun just as the broken pieces of the mirror or the dew drops. In fact our true purpose of life is to realize this inherent power, characteristics of the sun within us. This signifies the practice of Sun Salutation.

In fact, each and every living being on this planet is just another form of the sun. Solar energy is one source of energy but it takes many different forms. The light energy from the sun is converted into chemical energy, it generates fuel required for the plants and release of oxygen from the plants to the atmosphere by a process called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis maintains atmospheric oxygen level and supplies the energy necessary for all life on Earth.

So, in a way, one can say that the light from the sun takes the form of plants. The chicken and other animals feed on plants. So, the plants take the form of the animals. We human beings feed on livestock, plants and hence animals take the form of human being. So, in this food chain, there is just one single source of solar energy which takes many different forms as plants, animals & human being.

The grains, plants, leaves, peas, stems, chicken, lamb & other form of meats are all available naturally. All these natural foods are just true representation of sun. We get true representation of the sun and we are in tune and in fine sync with the solar energy provided we consume the natural food which has that kind of true representation.

But, in today’s scenario, where there is an abundance of food, vast majority of the food available in the stores are processed. In fact, 75% of the products that are available in the stores are all processed. Processed food is not the true representation if it loses its energy i.e the life (prana) within it. Say for example, processed peas. If we put this pea in the garden and if it sprouts then there is a life in it. Even though, the peas are processed but they are still the true representation of sun because of prana. If the process is extended to a level where the peas lose the life, say for example frozen peas then the identity of true representation is lost in this food. As a next step to this process, to add flavor or to get clear colour to the food, some of the processed foods are refined. This is another dimension to the food that makes it unhealthy. Examples are refined oil, white sugar, Maida, etc

More is the process involved in food making, more is its distance from its natural energy. Obviously, we can’t take all the food in its natural form. We need to process and cook certain foods like meat so that they become viable for the human digestive system. It is alright to have processed food as long as it has life in it.

Refined food is nothing but processed food which is extended to a degree where it adds certain aesthetic to the food while it kills the energy level in the food. Avoid such refined food and in case of processed food, keep the number of processes involved minimum so that the food stays closer to its original self without losing its authenticity.

Certainly, I am not here to advocate you to take leaves and vegetables like animals all day. But, try to consume food which is in its original and natural form at least one meal in a day. By doing so, we stay closer to the sun and are in alignment with the nature.

So when you take a meal next time, before putting the food into your mouth, please see where that food falls in the chain. Remember when the food is closer to the sun, more natural our body becomes. More the food is refined, more unnatural the body becomes. Unnatural body is the breeding place for many different diseases.

So, go one step closer to the sun and become natural. Practice today and climb the health ladder.

Liberate from the concept of ‘Diet Control’

The moment one hears the term ‘Diet’, the next thing which comes to his mind is ‘control’. Diet is always associated with control. DIET CONTROL! Do we really need to control our diet to keep us healthy and manage our weight? Ideally speaking, food is a source of energy for our body and we are here to enjoy all the types of foods that provide nourishment to our body. I have found a method which works optimally where we not only enjoy eating the food that we would like to eat but also to get a well balanced body composure and healthy life. We can easily liberate ourselves from this concept of ‘diet control’ if we set right some basics regarding diet. Do you want to know how to do this?? Then it is important to see a bigger picture for better understanding.

Information adding confusion:

One can get easily a clear answer if he probes logically into the history of human evolution. The concept of diet that exists now was unknown about fifty years ago. Science on diet evolved in the last 50 years and so did the evolution of multiple health issues. Today, we live in a state where there is too much information that leads to too much confusion. More the amount of information, the more the confusion is. Adding to this confusion is all the types of math of calories with diet. Some of us are so addictive in doing this math of counting the amount of calories to be consumed per day and eventually have become good in arithmetic. But, the question is whether the math which we have been doing on day today basis provides the desired results?

People were healthier 50 years back. Today’s scenario is quite different. Earlier people were dying mainly due to the lack of food but today it is exactly reverse. People die because of excessive food. How bad is it to hear this news? Beggars begging for food was a common sight decades before. But, what happened to all the beggars who were there decades before?

Stay in local domain:

Food has undergone a major change in the recent decades due to the influence of other cultures & technological advancement. Most of the foods that are available in the stores and restaurants like Pasta, pizza and lasagne were unknown few decades ago. There are wide varieties of food like Mexican, Italian and Mediterranean foods. Food has evolved pretty fast but the body is still the same. Body evolved over generations based on the external ambience. So, body is the same and there is no significant difference in body evolution. Now, we have changed the ambience by changing the supply of new varieties of food. The body is not used to this kind of food. So, now there is a mismatch! So, this drastic change in the food habit especially in case of children has a significant impact on the health of the children. So, bottom-line is to stay in the local domain to which your DNA is programmed for. In simple words, eat foods that your parents and grandparents prefer to eat. This answers the question of why our grandpa does not like Pizza?

Attitude towards food:

In a way in today’s scenario, food is cheaper and easily accessible. In prevailing situation, the money that is required to have all meals for a day is not that difficult to earn. Earlier, one really had to work hard to get food and extra effort was required to stock the food for the future. There was a value and respect for food earlier. But, now due to the easy availability, the value/respect which we gave to food has diminished.  

Nature law is always simple. More the respect you give, more is the respect given to you. If you give due respect to the food which you consume then same amount of respect is given to you in return and you are benefited by the food.

Don’t go by the face value of the food. Take for example the rice in your storeroom. It can be considered just a commodity available at ‘throw away’ cost or it can be considered as a source of accumulated energies from many different people from farmers, production unit, distributors to the vendors before it reaches our store room. The value is great when we consider the commodity based on the amount of energy it carries with it before it reaches our hand. This change in attitude towards food has significant impact on our own consciousness on food and becomes the starting point to build a conscious eating habit.

Perception of food:

Do we need to give importance to the quantity of food or quality of food or both? One can split food into subcategories like protein, carbohydrates, fat etc and do the math on the amount of calories during every meal.  Another approach is to perceive the energy in the food. The PRANA in the food. If we take the food items in our storeroom like coriander seed or onion etc they have ‘LIFE’ in it. They germinate into plants if we put those seeds in the soil. In other words, these foods have regenerative energy and when consumed give regenerative energy to the body. Say for example, on the other hand if we consider hotdog then this is a degenerative food and when consumed gives a degenerative energy to the body. So, I suggest considering the quality of food (the Life in the food) rather than the quantity of food to get the right source of nutrients and energy for the body.

I will cover some more points like Food and Body, Food Preparation, Food & energy, Taste Consciousness etc in my next blog.