The Art of Eating Right
T
he effect of food on the body is comprehensive. Be it physical health or mental well-being, both are intrinsically linked with food and keeps taking up and down swings depending on changes in it. It is a matter of everyday experience. Bad and irregular dietary habits make the body sick and the mind restless. If we were to enumerate the illeffects of rich, pungent, spicy, and fried food, we would have to list practically all the diseases, because all of them have a direct or indirect connection with food. The fashionable fast foods, packed food, or junk food of today also fall in the same category. This new style of eating, widely prevalent these days, has given many a body-blow to the quality of human life. Food is a basic necessity of life. Everybody knows this, but very few know the art of eating right, that is, have an idea of what to eat, when to eat, and how to eat. Let’s first take the “what to eat?” aspect. The only proper and right answer to this question is that we should eat only what provides nourishment to the
body. It is important to remember that we eat to live and do not live to eat. So, if the right kind of food is to be selected out of a long list of eatables, we will have to give preference to only those items that have nutritional value and are beneficial for health. Such articles can very easily be identified. Everybody is aware, for example, of the importance of fresh fruits, vegetables, pulses, cereals, etc. Many cooking ingredients like pungent spices, appetizers, pickles, etc. lack any nutritive value and are manifestly harmful to health, and so are the processes of frying, stewing, etc. These render even healthy food useless and unhealthy. Materials inimical to health are found not only in the kitchen but also outside; e. g. liquor and intoxicants of various kinds, betel, tobacco, zarda, gutka, and so many other such things have acquired the status of food supplements and are used routinely. The situation has become so alarming that even the food habits of the elites make one wonder why these educated and well-informed persons have lost their sense of wise discrimination. There are some exceptions, of course, in this class, but their number is negligible. “When to eat”? Again, the answer is only one, viz. twice a day at the most, and that too, when the appetite has built up sufficiently. Eating randomly, or taking frequent snacks and breakfast, in addition to regular meals, is going to do no good. Dietary habits, these days, have so much deteriorated that biologists and psychologists have made this matter a subject of their research. They classify hunger in different types, for
Science and mindfulness complement each other in helping people to eat well and maintain their health and well-being. - Thich Nhat Hanh JULY-AUG. 2020 Akhand Jyoti 15
