Celebrating Food

DAAJ! share some simple tips on eating well for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. These ideas also can solve humanity's issues of food security, the environment, and how we re-establish our relationship with planet Earth.

This century, we have finally woken up to the destruction of our environment and the inequality in the circumstances of people around the world. Nowhere has this been highlighted more than in our relationship with food. While many people suffer from malnourishment, others suffer from chronic lifestyle diseases associated with overeating or eating unhealthy foods. Food security has become a major issue, and according to the FAO, we waste roughly 1.4 billion tons of food every year.

The approach of yogis to food is shared by wise sages across all cultures and all eras. Their approach is the same for all resources. They give special regard to eating wisely, treading lightly on the Earth, and taking minimum input and giving maximum output. Morality is seen as care and conservation in the use of resources, including food, water, money, land, sexual energy, forests, the ocean etc.

Food is a form of prana, a source of energy. The physical body is associated with the sheath known as the annamaya kosha, translated as "the food sheath," but the effect of food percolates through all three bodies of the human system, not just the physical body. And when food is charged by prayer, food becomes a potent source of goodness.

True happiness is a quality of the soul, emanating from the Center of our being, which radiates outward through the layers of our system,

purifying the physical levels of existence. The current flows out from the Center, and also back to the Center. So when food is received with the right understanding and eaten with the correct attitude, it can nourish and support us at all levels back to the Center.