We Are What We Eat

It’s a story that has always fascinated me. A story in the Upanishad’s (ancient spiritual texts) which talks about a young boy asking his Guru (Spiritual Master) ‘What is brahaman?’ to which the Guru responds saying, ‘Anna Brahama’. Undoubting, the little boy goes and meditates upon this answer given by the Guru. The story goes on to say that, 4 more such one line answers later, the boy finally achieves enlightenment. The spirituality of the whole story besides, just that food can be equated with God or Godliness was something that amazed me. So, I decided to explore and experiment.

Being the foodie that I am, I loved this experiment. I ate different kinds of food on different days and saw what it did to my mind and body. Ate spicy stuff and saw my mood swing, ate stale food and saw my mind plummet, ate raw vegetables and saw energy spurts. After a couple of months of experimenting, I started observing others and seeing what food did to them. The results were startlingly similar to what I had experienced when performing the experiment on myself. Those who were classified as highly aggressive at the workplace were mostly those who ate really spicy and/or non-vegetarian food. Those who were kind of laid back were those who often ate oily and fatty foods and those who were normally not tired even at the end of work day were those who ate light and ate at regular intervals. Of course, these were generic observations, not to add that those who worked out every day, no matter what they ate, weren’t highly affected by their food habits.

That’s when I decided to start reading about food and its effects on the human mind. I found numerous researches conducted on this topic and the findings amazed me. Of course, some of the findings did have their share of public dislike, but the findings are true all the same. Did you know that food has life force energy? Of course you would know that- given that food is a source of energy itself. So every plant, vegetable or animal has life force in them. How energetic you feel depends on how much life force (prana) is in the food when you eat it.

Dieticians say that food that’s farther away from its source, as in foods that are heavily processed and high in sugars actually deplete the body of nutrients and of course, are very low on Prana or life force energy. Not only do foods that are marinated have no prana, but they also actually manage to drain you of energy. Did you know that it takes almost 72 hours for the human digestive system to break down non-vegetarian food? The human intestinal track is several times the length of our body thus making it simpler for plant foods that decay slowly to take their time to pass through the body. Also that stomach acid in humans is 20 times weaker to carnivores, thus making it tougher to digest meat.

When they say, eat a rainbow, the actually mean it! Researchers say that Prana is greatest in food that is naturally brightly coloured, nutrient-dense, and derived from plants and animals that were healthy, and that were recently alive.  The best foods are raw or lightly cooked garden vegetables. So, there’s surely more to food than just vegetarian and non-vegetarian.

I think, one line that sums it up best is- We are what we eat. So, think twice before relishing a sinfully delicious meal… you’ll never know what exactly you’ll think of doing after downing that spread. And of course, the next time you cook, it’s worth stirring in a few ounces of love and garnishing that dish with enthusiasm and hope- it will do good in a world that’s fast loosing hope and joy…