Simple, right? Well, maybe not so simple if you are trying to lose weight, maintain your weight, cut out carbs, ditch the fats, or restrict your diet in ways that are unhealthy. If this is the case, then for you food may feel a little bit like the enemy.
So much has been written about how to lose weight, how to eat healthfully, what foods to choose and what foods to avoid. The bestseller list is regularly populated with books on diets and innovative new ways to eat. However, the truth about eating is pretty simple: How you approach food and eating is a mirror to how you approach life.
In the clinic, I see busy professional women who only have time for a quick bite on the run, often from the nearest fast food place and eaten in the car or standing up. I see people who are depressed and unhappy eating out of control as a way to fill the void in their lives. I also see joyless clients who restrict their diets to within an inch of their lives-no carbs, no fats, no sugar, no this, no that.
Food is medicine that you get to eat three times a day. It also feeds your soul. In Chinese medicine, your heart is the home to your Shen, which is your mind, memory, consciousness, and spirit. While these activities are attributed to your brain in Western medicine, we intuitively know that your heart is also an organ of feeling and spirituality. In fact much of our language about the heart refers to it as an organ of feeling. Terms such as someone "tugging on your heartstrings," "knowing things in your heart", or having a "broken heart" are speaking to an emotional and spiritual organ.
So what about eating to feed your heart and soul?
- As the home to your soul, your Chinese heart is all about connection-to the divine (however you perceive it), to yourself, and to loved ones. Sitting down and sharing a meal with people that you love is heart-nourishing.
- Preparing a meal with love honors your heart. It's not about the ingredients, but the preparation. However, choosing tasty recipes and fresh ingredients are also part of the process.
- Eat out hunger, celebration, love, or sharing, not boredom, restriction, or stress.
- Be thankful for the food you're eating and the company you're sharing it with. Remember food is nourishing and life-sustaining-not your enemy.
- While ingredients are secondary to feeding your heart, there are foods that are not life-sustaining. These are "dead" foods that have been overly processed and contain chemicals that you body doesn't recognize as nutrients. Avoid them like the plague.
- In Chinese medicine, the color red is associated with your heart. Red wine and cooked tomatoes have been shown to benefit the physical heart. Also good are berries, red peppers, and apples.
- Celebrating the seasons through food is also heart nourishing. The freshest foods of summer eaten outdoors or a sitting down to a hearty winter stew by a crackling fire are ways of connecting with food, loved ones, and creation.
- Finally, the emotion related to your Chinese heart is joy. If you eat with joy, you will live your life with joy.
Lynn Jaffee is a licensed acupuncturist practicing in St. Louis Park, MN. She is also the author of the book, Simple Steps: The Chinese Way to Better Health. For more information and articles, check out her clinic site at http://acupunctureinthepark.com/ or her blog, Acupuncture Health Insights at http://acupuncturetwincities.com/.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lynn_Jaffee
1 comments:
I liked Chines view about food. Food is not just food, food is treated as medicine. That means the food that you eat treats your diseases. If we all consider the food as medicine, our health will surely be better.
Very useful information, thanks.
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