How What We Eat Changes Us

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Food has become a matter of prestige. Great attention is paid to renowned chefs, nutritional advice, new restaurants and show cooking. It’s like we’ve been subjected to a mass insanity - an obsession with what we eat. But the question of what we need from food, other than satisfying hunger, is rarely raised. This question may even seem strange. But food is not only fuel, it can also satisfy psychological needs. We can say that food has psychotherapeutic potential.

Each type of food has more than just the nutritional value (what you see on the label). In addition to calories and nutrients, food carries what might be called psychological value. Any food could have its own personality, miraculously turned into a person. You could attribute gender, appearance, mood, and political views to her.

Take, for example, lemon: per 100 g, it contains 29 kcal, 2.8 g of fiber, 2.5 g of sugar, and so on. But, on the other hand, this fruit calmly but eloquently speaks of the south, sun, honesty and simplicity. It calls to action by focusing your attention. Lemon is strong and honest, kind and simple.

Food is a philosophy of life that is available during the usual meal. Instead of being limited to the physical absorption of food, you can intuitively comprehend the psychological aspects of food. Then food will not only be a means of replenishing physical energy, but can also contribute to the development of certain strengths of your character or compensate for some weaknesses.

We will tell you how food can help you on a psychological level.

1. Achieve balance

We are all in some way in an imbalance. Someone is too rational, the other is too emotional, someone has problems with the balance of masculine and feminine, and it is difficult for someone to determine when calm is appropriate and when excitement is appropriate. The food we love often compensates for this imbalance.

The reason for your food preferences may be that the product has qualities that you lack. Perhaps you love muesli because it is filled with a calmness that you admire so much but cannot nurture in yourself. And your loved one loves peaches because they lack romance in your relationship. Food that tastes good indicates what your soul is missing, not just your stomach. Products can help you become a more complete version of yourself.

2. Reconnect with important qualities of your personality

We are complex, multilevel creatures. And not every essential part of our personality lies on the surface at any moment. In the stormy stream of what is happening around it is so easy to lose touch with yourself.

The ability of certain foods to evoke memories makes them powerful channels for creating useful associations. Eating the right food can give you access to forgotten emotions. Perhaps someone is eating junk food from a street kiosk to keep in touch with themselves as an eight-year-old. Or maybe you need a special kind of ham to bring back the energy you had on a trip to Spain a few years ago.

Thanks to food, everyone can reconnect with important qualities of their own personality, which is so easy to lose in the rhythm of modern life.

3. Change your life

The products carry a philosophical approach to life (to be kinder, remember the good, learn courage, and so on).

When you are trying to change your life, and this should happen quite often, food can contribute to the act of inner transformation.

This does not mean just "dieting," as if the only thing to change in life is your weight. You can turn to food for help in living more consciously, having a deeper connection with those around you, or being more involved in your country. Your nutrition can support you on the path to who you want to become.

4. Compensate for Lack of Faith

One of the useful properties of religion is the presence of rituals: on certain dates, you must turn to important ideas and experiences. It is remarkable that many of these rituals are organized around a feast and the menu is often limited to certain foods, because they help to focus on the important points.

For example, Zen Buddhists remember the importance of friendship over a cup of tea, which they deliberately brew and drink very slowly. In ancient times, at Christmas, believers served a lamb - a noble but vulnerable creature. The Jews used unleavened matzo and bitter horseradish to remember the courage of those who decided to flee Egypt.

Religion teaches us to lead the right life through food. This is definitely a useful idea: food can inspire you to think and feel right.

You can find your own food associations: connect your own life priorities with a certain food that contains the necessary properties. And then eat that food regularly, creating a ritual.

5. Show the path to individuality

At the beginning of life, you are given food, deciding what is best for you. And often this choice is not entirely correct. For many years, what you eat is not what makes you happier, but what you are used to.

The process of individualization, as opposed to a passive existence, involves adjusting the environment in accordance with one's own inner world. The ability to cook plays an important role in this process, as it helps to bring what is happening in the body in line with what is happening in the soul.

You need to stop passively swallowing what the world presents, and learn to determine what your body really needs.

6. Communicate more effectively

Not everyone can handle words easily. Do you want to be clear about your point but get confused? Want to express gratitude to someone, but can't find the right words?

What is difficult to verbally express can be shown by eating at the table. Penne with fresh basil can replace an essay on love. Grilled mushrooms can speak volumes about your hospitality. Fried chicken will be an excellent symbol of harmony in the family. A mango sorbet with dark chocolate will reflect the most utopian views. Like music, food is extremely precise; it can express the most important things without words.

If you want food to benefit not only the body, but also the soul, try the recipes that are offered on the site.

For example, my day goes awry if I don't eat a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. At the same time, the bustle of working days quickly tires me - I usually have enough strength only for the first half of the day. For this case, the authors of the project offer tomato bruschetta. I really love bruschetta, but I rarely supplement my meal with bread. Perhaps next time I will not deny myself the pleasure of having lunch so that I can successfully cope with work in the afternoon.

Maybe you already have some food rituals that help in your daily life? Share in the comments.