Is enjoying food important?

[Flolfolil]

...

Edited April 15, 2015 by Flolfolil

[Taomeow]

There's a Chinese story.

 

An empress, returning home to the capital from a trip, was caught in inclement weather and something or other happened that got her and her attendants stranded, don't remember what it was -- a flood, perhaps, or a heavy snowfall. A farmer's house was the only place they chanced upon in the middle of it. Cold and tired, the empress decided to spend the night there.

 

The farmer, kowtowing, apologized for his poverty and the whole setting not worthy of the high guests, but the empress protested with a smile, "Oh, this is the most cozy little house, the fire of your stove is so warm and cheerful, and what your wife is cooking smells good -- do give us something to eat. I'm curious to try peasant food."

 

The farmer and his wife served the empress a bowl of soup. She tried it and opened her eyes wide in sheer amazement.

"This is the best soup I've ever had in my life."

 

She ordered her attendants to get the exact recipe. Savoring every spoonful and then the seconds, the empress, now warm and relaxed and satisfied, went to sleep.

 

The next day the sun was shining brightly, and she continued on her journey. Arriving at last, she was served a lavish banquet dinner at the palace, but after sampling everything, she announced, "I want that peasant soup." The soup was promptly prepared. She tried it. "No, it's not right. Something is missing." The imperial cooks tried again and again and the empress was not satisfied with the results.

 

"The farmer must have kept an ingredient secret. Go get him and find out what he's hiding."

 

The farmer was brought to the palace.

"My cooks tried to make that soup of yours, but you must have left out some information about the recipe. A secret ingredient perhaps? A family secret, closely guarded? Well, you have to reveal it now if you want to keep your head."

 

The farmer, terrified out of his mind, muttered, "Yes, your majesty, there is one ingredients that your cooks left out. But they don't have it. It's you and only you who can add it to the soup..."

 

"What is it?"

 

"Your majesty... Hunger."

[Basher]

Wasn't it the Tibetan Buddhists in the Monastaries (before the Chinese Invasion) that used to eat Tsampa, morning, noon & night.

Apparently, the Lama's used to say that food was just fuel for the body and should be bland, in order not to excite the senses.

 

Of course, if an animal accidentally fell over a cliff it would have been a shame to waste the chance of a little Meat.

(LOL)

 

Not sure I'd go that far....

[hydrogen]

It's less about the pleasures and more about what is substantial or has substance. For me it's when i am connected to spirit. When i am in true alignment with my purpose and carrying out what the universe destined for me to do.

 

dude you really don't see that all this spiritual fulfillment is still just your brain giving you pleasure? everything comes down to pleasure.

 

Exactly. Everything is empty anyway. We assign meanings to some stuff that we make up.

 

There is no inherent difference between body/mind/spirit, we just organize the stuff that way for stability and convenience.

 

Enjoy food and sex is no different than enjoy "what the universe destined for me to do", whatever it is.

[Jetsun]

I once heard said that the only reliable way to see if someone is if someone has spiritual advancement is to see how much gratitude they have when eating their food. I don't know if it's true but I thought it was an interesting thing to contemplate.

[Taomeow]

All ideas about the enjoyment of natural things being somehow wrong originate with the overlords brainwashing the slaves. Who wants slaves with needs?.. Who cares what they enjoy?.. They should be told what to enjoy and what to feel guilty about enjoying. Who needs slaves with free will? With discerning senses? With experience of what it's really like to be human?..

 

By the way, food that is not enjoyed is not doing one much good. Scientific fact. Certain neurochemicals that are released when food is enjoyed are crucial to proper digestion. (We have more receptors for neuroendocrine hormones in the gut than in the brain.) If the food is eaten but not enjoyed, the body "reads" this as an assault to endure and mitigate, and releases internal painkillers, endogenous opiates and even LSD-like substances to blunt the pain of food punishment. This means that people who eat without enjoying their food effectively turn into junkies for internal drugs. These internal drugs are as addictive as street drugs, mutagenic, teratogenic, carcinogenic, and damaging to the DNA. Keep this in mind before going after that bland boring plate of what you think you "should" eat because it's "good for you."

 

All grains, incidentally, are perceived by the body in this manner -- the ancient metabolic message of grain-eating is read as "starvation, must try to get nourishment from whatever is available, since real food is not there." Hence their addictiveness. You get addicted to your internal feel-good drugs triggered by your chronic grains consumption. This is the wrong kind of enjoyment of food. Real enjoyment is simple -- you have, as my paleo guru puts it, two modes vis a vis food -- "hungry" and "not hungry." If you eat for any other reason, you are feeding an addiction. If you feel worse off after the meal instead of better, e.g. get sluggish, sleepy, wired up, bloated, heavy, or if you feel good for an hour after eating and then are hungry again, or if you never have an appetite and eat just because you have to, etc., chances are your food is a Trojan horse you let in.

[hydrogen]

All grains, incidentally, are perceived by the body in this manner.

 

Are you sure about this? When I chew on grain product, a fresh loaf of bread for example, I taste sweetness. The scientific explaination is the enzyme help broke down the starch. Are you saying I have an addiction?

[RiverSnake]

Enjoying life is important. Food is part of life. Everything in moderation.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

[Harmonious Emptiness]

It really depends what you're after, imo. If you want to stop all desires for pleasure and are committed to this goal, then sure, food will be another pleasure to stop. But there's that saying "penny wise and pound foolish." If we're not really committing to ceasing all pleasure and living the life of a monk, then why deprive ourselves of enjoying what we do?

 

Also, food is one of the great microcosms of Dao. Balance, harmony, energy, elements, nourishment, connectedness, wisdom, art.. these all take place in our relationship with food, making food a great venue to practice. (for the second post today) I think the wisdom of DDJ28 applies here: "know the abundant, conserve the moderate." So it's not every day that we should necessarily go all out on rich flavours and feasts, but it's good to know them from time to time as well.

[Taomeow]

Are you sure about this? When I chew on grain product, a fresh loaf of bread for example, I taste sweetness. The scientific explaination is the enzyme help broke down the starch. Are you saying I have an addiction?

 

Some better science has been posted in the Bigu and taoist low carb thread -- post # 13.

 

Enzymes break down everything -- starches, proteins and fats. This explains nothing really.

 

Whether you have an addiction to wheat or not, I don't know -- when I used to eat it, I did. Most people do. It is addictive by design, due to the mechanism I described. It is damaging to the intestinal lining, the cartilage of the joints, the immune system and the brain, not because of the starches (sugar is sugar, wheat has plenty, it merely does what all sugars do), but because of gluten. This is a protein in wheat and grains related to wheat, and this is what causes damage to your intestinal lining, cartilage of the joints, immune system, the brain and more. This is what the body releases internal feel-good drugs in response to.

 

Now then, normal natural wheat used to contain 2-4% protein, but it was selectively bred for higher content "to improve nutritional value" and currently we're dealing with species that have 20-24% protein. Gluten is of the same root as "glue" -- it attaches to things (the term is agglutination, gluing and clumping together). Its structure closely mimics that of some very ancient viruses, strangely enough, which is why the immune system reacts to its presence by attacking whatever tissues it attaches to and goes for to destroy them. (Gluten has a particular affinity to the joints cartilage, among other things, which is why most arthritis out there, as well as most other "autoimmune disorders" are the direct reaction to gluten consumption. Human remains showing signs of arthritis first appear in Egypt at the same time they started agricultural practices. There's no human bones showing the affliction in non-agricultural burials. The bogus explanation we've all been fed is that "they didn't live long enough to develop arthritis." Duh. They just didn't live unhealthy enough to have damaged their bones to the extent that aging becomes a structural feature of the skeleton. They died with young bones inside them at any age. The stretches to explain away things that don't sit well with our accepted model have been staggering throughout our history of medicine. E.g., in the 18th and 19th centuries, anatomy books medical students studied asserted that mercury is the natural constituent of the human bones, because no autopsy ever showed bones that didn't have it. That was because mercury concoctions were prescribed by doctors as routinely and liberally as today people might take an aspirin. Calomel, a mercury-containing syrup, was given to all children for all colds and coughs, e.g.., beginning in infancy and spanning a lifetime. Our "life sciences" are funny this way...)

 

What about grains that don't contain gluten -- e.g. rice? They have their own problems, of which the first one is that gluten-containing grains consumption often results in cross-sensitivities, i.e. anything that has structurally similar components will be reacted to by our immune system that has been jerked into action day in and day out and loses the ability to make finer distinctions. Corn, which is technically not gluten-containing, typically causes exactly the same reactions in people with explicit gluten intolerance as wheat. Dairy, ditto! We're dealing with the devil here, really... the great deceiver.

[Tom Lin]

Refined starches (rice,corn,potato,wheat) do a number on your pancreas. It spikes your blood sugar levels, giving you a high amount of energy right away. But it also drops just as quick and thats when fatigue sets in. At the same time this is debilitating the pancreas natural function to produce insulin. Too much insulin results in low blood sugar levels and not enough causes high blood sugar levels (diabetes). Consuming the processed carbohydrates regularly slowly debilitates the pancreas and therefore the liver. These are both important for your digestive enzymes to be released to help digest food. If you have an unhealthy pancreas then your bodies going to have a more difficult time digesting food.

 

Also, when people eat a meal (with refined starches), they get tons of energy at first but then that drops. They need more sugar to help re-balance that sugar drop...and where would they usually turn too? MORE CARBS. so its a devious cycle that is rampant in the standard american diet today.

[SEEKER OF TRUTH]

I rarely crave anything, other than maybe chocolate, every now and then. Food is really only sustenance to me and I rarely care what it is as long as it's somewhat healthy. I guess it comes down to whether you live to eat or eat to live. The former may be indication of some other problems in your life.

[Taomeow]

I guess it comes down to whether you live to eat or eat to live. The former may be indication of some other problems in your life.

 

Or of their absence.