Why eat good food?

This post is about what eating good healthy food can do to improve your quality of life. I was reading a great book the other day; "How to Simplify your Life" by Tiki Kustenmacher. It's full of easy-to-implement practical suggestions for a healthy and hassle-free everyday life. When I looked at the chapter on the body, I found some interesting tips on eating to improve your body-mind wellbeing...but why are you writing about this in a blog about food and spirituality? you might ask. Well, yes- I'm cooking to try to serve God (Sri Radha- Krishna) but of course we have to not only eat to survive but to keep healthy to be able to do this properly. Moreover, if we are not our bodies but souls inhabiting bodies and we are trying to practice devotion to God (bhakti yoga) then surely we should view these bodies as God's property which we are using to try to serve Him. Out of respect for that which is not our own, then, we are duty bound to treat our bodies well and maintain them in good working order as best we can.

Our well-thumbed copy!

Justification over then: I'll get on with the information! There was meat, alcohol and seafood on the original list, but I've omitted these for obvious reasons.

• Improve concentration: avocado, asparagus, carrot, grapefruit

• Enhance memory: milk, nuts, rice

• Improve your mood; orange juice, paprika, soya beans, bananas

• Reduce stress: cottage cheese, almonds, brewer's yeast

• Enhance wellbeing: beans, peas, tofu

• Aid sleep: bread, noodles

• Enhance social skills: wheatgerm

• Strengthen immune system: garlic*

• Increase vitality: peas, beans, lentils 

* Not offerable to Krishna as it is in the Mode of Passion (see previous posts for more info).

I'm sure there are many other foods to add to this list; I can already think of blueberries and elderberries for your immune system, honey to reduce stress and seeds to help memory and learning.
Thinking about what I happen to have eaten today, this means that I must have improved my concentration by eating avocado and grapefruit, enhanced my memory and reduced stress with the ground almonds in my home-made sweet, improved my mood mid-morning with a banana and increased my vitality and wellbeing after work with a bean pate. I wonder how my day would have turned out if I'd eaten cake and crisps instead?