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Time to Think with Dr. Bacon: The Confusion About Food
I recently read from an ancient Vedic
scripture, ‘ food that is dedicated to the Lord and to guests tends to
immortality; otherwise the food is useless. So too food that is cooked for one’s own sake is said to be one’s
death.’ (Select Works of Sri
Shankaracharya)
Ayurvedic Medicine is devoted to the knowledge
of maintaining balance and health in life so one can devote oneself to self-realization. From this perspective food is taken to
sustain life and to be celebrated. Eating is regarded as a holy experience. A prayer is done to acknowledge that which is responsible for the life
giving qualities in the food, which is also expressed in you and your guests. It is also implied that there is always a
guest. This is generally done silently
and personally.
In our culture there is so much energy around
food- and food is not necessarily the problem. The mental conditioning is the problem. Food fundamentally is neutral, neither bad nor good. We in this culture analyze food to
death. We have developed this complex
controversial body of knowledge of all these carbohydrates, proteins, fats,
enzymes, and catalysts through scientific investigation on the microscopic
level. While science has certainly
discovered many of its attributes and characteristics nature never needs our
approval or understanding to express itself.
Nature doesn't require us to know if there
are too many carbohydrates in the apple. Nature asks that we remain balanced enough to know when and if an apple
is right for us to eat. In balance our
health and therefore our intuition is so in tune that we immediately feel what
will bring us a healthy life expression or not. We can actually train ourselves to clearly "feel" comfort or discomfort in any circumstance, in
this case with food. There becomes
knowingness as to what is right and what is not. The comfort or discomfort is
related to how we “digest” the experience.
Digestion is all about tastes and not so much
at all about the carb’s, proteins, enzymes and such. When we begin to
understand food in this sense we see it’s all about balance. It is especially about balancing the
qualities that are expressed in different foods to see that these balance the
qualities in our individual constitutions.
There are very detailed explanations of the
mechanisms of digestion explained in the Ayurvedic texts, that are simply
enlightening. These references speak
about digestion in a very different way. We all know that when we see something
the visual experience needs to be digested. This happens with all five senses. The experience needs to be digested. The process of metabolizing that which is
nourishing and eliminating that which is not, is explained as digestion.
So, food is not the problem. Our awareness of
eating and digesting is. Here are a few tips to help you: Remember the appetite
gauge or Eating Awareness Technique (EAT’s).
1. Think of your appetite like a gas gauge. Eat
at around 1/4 tank and stop at 3/4 of a tank.
2. Drink ginger tea between meals. Ideally each meal should contain all six
tastes; sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent. Food during the winter months should be cooked
and should be more watery and unctuous (oily) and a bit sweeter.
3. First look at the food, then smell the food,
and then taste a little bit and pause and feel the sensation in your solar
plexus. Feel the "rightness" of the food.
Ask us for an Ayurvedic constructional
questionnaire and you can get an idea what constructional type you are and we
can provide some dietary guidelines as to what to eat and what to avoid.
One thing that should be seriously considered
after the holidays is a cleanse. What a
great way to start the New Year off. Do
a cleanse and get on a routine that is specific to your personal mind-body
type.
We hope that the New Year is filled with
blessings and that you have a healthy year.
Doctor Bacon
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