Inner Truth: Enlightened Eating

Eat your food prayerfully, as it is not just something to fill your stomach. It is something divine to enrich your life and nourish your being.

This is the advice we, in India, have always been receiving from our elderly people when we take our daily meals. The Upanishads and other spiritual texts written by the ancient sages declared Annam Brahma -- the food is god. They tell us: have your meals with the same feeling or the state of mind, as when you enter a temple. Do not eat food when you are quarrelsome, angry or feeling low. Such feelings make the food not only tasteless but poisonous also. You will be eating more than normal and still feel empty within. You are likely to start eating the wrong food and become overweight.

Now, the Western scientists, for the first time have done a research on this subject. In the study, men and women with a history of depression whose arguments with spouses were especially heated showed several potential metabolic problems after eating a high-fat meal. "These findings not only identify how chronic stressors can lead to obesity, but also point to how important it is to treat mood disorders. Interventions for mental health clearly could benefit physical health as well," said Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, director of the Institute for Behavioural Medicine Research at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study.

Having food with gratitude to existence, and meditative frame of mind nourishes not only physically but spiritually also. It is pure bliss. So eat like a Buddha and be a Buddha

The author travels around the world to facilitate Osho meditation retreats