Fresh Thoughts on Food

When you’re running a machine, you have to give it the right kind of fuel. Your body is a complex machine that runs on vital energy. That energy is found not only from the building blocks that nutritionists advise up such as proteins and carbohydrates, but from the living vital energy known as prana in Ayurveda (or chi in Traditional Chinese Medicine).

To possess this energy, you need to take energy into your body. Prana comes from eating fresh vegetables, fruits and grains, and from the air your breathe.

Dead Food Makes You Dull

Ayurveda classifies meat, processed foods, and old stale foods, as “dead” both literally and energetically because they possess no vital energy that the body can benefit from.

Regarding the conventional building blocks, meat is not the only source of protein, chickpeas, lentils, brown rice, peanuts and muesli are just a few examples from a broad range of fresh and healthy alternative sources of protein. A balanced grain, fruit and vegetable diet contains enough protein from high energy sources.

Canned and junk foods may seem like a quick food fix, but with a bit of planning and imagination they can be easily replaced by foods that are equally fast, but fresh and high in prana too. One of nature’s most convenient and nutritious foods to go is the banana - it even comes in its own unique packaging! Nuts (raw and unsalted are best) and raisins also make quick and easy snacks.

Eat Fresh to Feel Fresh

Ayurveda teaches that what we eat today becomes our fuel for tomorrow. If you wake up feeling sluggish in the mornings and would rather have more spring in your step, you might think about upgrading your fuel to something clean, green and high in vital energy.

Photo by kcjc009