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Foodism and Spiritualism
I'm glad you guys are having this foodie chat! ; ) One of my favorite subjects, too. I'd say for sure there is a direct connection between diet and spirituality. I wrote the
Find Balance post many years ago because I was shocked at how peoples' eating and lifestyle habits was affecting them mentally, and therefore spiritually. As I describe in the post, people would be experiencing things they would
try to attribute to spiritual issues, but I would empathically feel really
bad health just reeking energetically from them (yes, I and other mods can sometimes feel your spiritual state and
other things about your lives when you all post here unfortunately --a curse really, TMI, lol) so I knew they weren't well. It was intriguing they made no connection between their dietary habits and their health.
I'd ask them what they ate in a typical day and long story short they were simultaneously starving and poisoning themselves. What little food they were eating was toxic junk that just sat in their colons (akin to poison administered in a minutely sloowww drip, year after year). So, I wrote that long, winding post hoping it might save a life or two. That was six years ago and not much changes...I'm often still advising the same thing:
http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum ... ml#p253291 I don't know if people are taught in school that what affects you physically, affects you mentally (and therefore spiritually) and they're just not paying attention, or what...haha, I know I didn't pay attention to nutrition teachings in school. I had to learn the hard way when I got out on my own, that's why I'm so gung-ho about it now. Sometimes pain is the best teacher, lol.
Beans, Beans the Magical Fruit...
Now beans are a tour de force, superfood as far as nutrition and physical/spiritual grounding goes, that get side-lined, if not ignored. In my opinion they are the ultimate spiritual food. Allow me to sing their praises...
Beans will never bore you (tired of the beans you're eating? switch cuisines/switch recipes, like go from a Mexican menu this week, to a Middle Eastern one next week, then do Italian the next after that...all cuisines feature beans!). They are common to every cuisine, so there is no limit to the gajillion ways they could be prepared.
They are rich in protein and could serve as a meat substitute. They are full of fiber so not only will your body feel full and satisfied which adds to peace of mind, but your colon will get a good, regular cleansing which will remove toxins that naturally embed themselves in the folds of your intestines (old, undigested food,
the bugs that feed on it, etc.). Beans help clear this detritus, which naturally increases peacefulness in body and mind.
Beans seem to be a "cleaner" food than meat. I immediately noticed a difference in how I felt because I wasn't ingesting hormones and the gods know whatever else the meat industry injects into those poor cows and chickens. Unless you raise and eat your own livestock, you really don't know what's been done to those animals before they get to your dinner table. I have really felt the difference since cutting back on meat eating beans more frequently.
They are way cheaper than meats as you will see a substantial difference on your grocery bill if you substitute bean dishes a few nights a week for a few meat dishes you eat now. Unlike meat, beans don't require refrigeration, so they are easier to store. You can stockpile them in jars, bags, etc. The bean jars actually look kind of pretty. I recycle those huge, glass pickle jars, wash 'em out, and fill 'em up with beans!
An example...
The Meditteranean area brings us hummus, a delicious dish made fro m the humble garbanzo bean. Dip veggies in it, slap it in some pita or sliced bread for a sandwich, or just dip your fingers in a bowl of it and lick it like a barbarian...doesn't matter as long as you enjoy this versatile food. Note: I am not to be left alone in a location with a bowl of hummus anywhere on the premises, as I will not be responsible for my actions.
Photo source: http://smarterfitter.com/hummus-with-zaatar/
(make your own:
hummus recipes)
And there many other examples, from every culture, of tasty, versatile dishes that could be made from some sort of bean. If you don't like beans, make yourself like them (I did; I didn't like beans at all growing up). If you do like beans, make more of them!
That's my two cents.
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Luckily I'm a vegetarian and I have a gluten intolerance so my options are pretty limited.
