Does food respond to our emotions ?<\/p>\n
Science will one day tell us why \u2018mothers cooking\u2019 is better for you. Till then we all just believe it anyway. Not only because of it\u2019s nutritional quality measurable in vitamins, minerals and enzymes, but because it is cooked with the most vital ingredient of all.<\/p>\n
Love. As an undefined energy. That extra but most important ingredient that I call \u2018life force\u2019 and in Yoga they call \u2018Prana\u2019.<\/p>\n
Our bodies react to the \u2018life force\u2019 that can be created or destroyed, increased or diminished in food depending on how it is grown, prepared,cooked and served. And the final arbiter is us, as we add or diminish \u2018life force\u2019 to our food by the attitude with which we consume it. Like the very idea of Prasadum. Food offered in love and humility and accepted in love and humility. Does a prayer then, actually change the essential nature of the food we eat, and how it is assimilated in our body ?<\/p>\n
I wish there were diet books on how our changing life styles and loss of humility generally are leading to attitudes of food consumption that are proving to be cruel to our bodies. There has been so much written about the benefits of the \u2018Mediterranean Diet\u2019 with analysis of the benefit of Olive Oil etc, but no one seems to point to the family system and attitudes to eating and cooking that could be positively effecting the health of people that still follow traditional relationship between family and food in those parts of the world.<\/p>\n
I am often aghast at the amount of manufactured food we waste. And I use the word \u2018manufacture\u2019 deliberately because I notice a much higher degree of propensity to waste in packaged foods.<\/p>\n
Ask a Modern urban child how they emotionally connect to their food and you will find a very probable first connection to something out of a packet, and then to he fridge (if they are lucky), or the farthest back in the chain would be the supermarket\/grocery shop. Very few have had an emotional connection to the process of growing something from the soil, or really connect to soil as anything but mud dust or dirt over which concrete roads or apartments need to be built. Nor is there any sense of nurture associated with the growing of crops or plants. People who live off the land or forests develop harmonious relationships that lead to respect and commitment to environment and nature. Bread grown off wheat ground and baked at home not only tastes different, but is more respected, not wasted. Vegetables bought at the local \u2018farmer\u2019s market\u2019 and washed and cut at home tend not to be wasted. How often have I been to homes where people speak with pride of the fact that the food being served is organic, or bought personally at the local farmers market. Its creates an attitude of respect and reverence to the food as it is served. While urban dustbins are full of half eaten Pizza\u2019s and other packaged foods bought at supermarkets.<\/p>\n
So while in a world headed to massive food shortages there is a great argument towards large scale corporate farming, packaging and distribution systems over long distances of \u2018manufactured\u2019 foods, and while there is a completely different argument at moments of famine or serious shortages caused by large scale movements of displaced people, I wonder if these systems are long term solutions at all. Whether the further we distance ourselves from the source, the less we respect and therefore continue to waste and destroy our environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Does food respond to our emotions ? Science will one day tell us why \u2018mothers cooking\u2019 is better for you. Till then we all just believe it anyway. Not only because of it\u2019s nutritional quality measurable in vitamins, minerals and enzymes, but because it is cooked with the most vital ingredient of all. Love. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n