I highly recommend David's book to anyone trying to change their relationship with food. It could even change your life. Here is my new program, the standards are still there, but the verbiage is more positive.
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Food corruptions and awareness
·
Observe Inside Forces
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Observe Outside Forces
·
Dare to change
·
Loving Food and Life
·
Optimal Diet Lifestyle
·
Vitality a Choice
·
Educating Family
Segments from NOURISHING
WISDOM by Marc David
We are more than just a
body, a tongue, and an assortment of nutritional requirements. We are a soul
clothed in the elements of the earth, journeying in a realm where matter and
spirit unite in human form. The body serves as a sacred vessel fashioned
through millions of years of evolution to carry the spark of life, “the name of
God,” as it were. Without that, we are nothing more than a lifeless collection
of elements.
Eating is life. Each time
we eat, the soul continues its earthly journey. With every morsel of food
swallowed a voice within says, “I choose life. I choose to eat, for I yearn for
something more.”
We are of a spiritual
source. From it we emerge at birth, and to it we return at death. And whenever
the spiritual source seems a faint memory, we yearn for its presence. Some call
this yearning “religion” or “faith,” others call it “the quest for happiness”
or “inner peace.” It is here in the spiritual realm that our journey into the
mind of the eater begins. For beneath our nutritional theories, eating habits,
and food obsessions, beneath our insecurities and embarrassment about the body,
beneath any doubt as to the basic goodness of existence, there dwells within us
a condition of wholeness born from the spiritual source. This is not a state of
pristine perfection and eternal comfort where all problems disappear and we
wallow in meditative mush. It is a condition of timeless identification with
the Divine, where life and death, pleasure and pain, success and failure,
happiness and discontent, are met with equal acceptance. It is a state of
equanimity where we feel fully human, completely alive, and in love with life
no matter what happens.
With this perspective,
nutrition can now be seen in a new light. Placed within a spiritual context,
the ultimate goal of any dietary philosophy is to take us fully into the body,
and beyond the body. That is, by taking us fully into the body our dietary
system must enable us to experience the maximum physical benefits of food-good
health, the delight of eating, and the fulfillment of nutrient needs. By taking
us fully beyond the body, our dietary philosophy must serve to remind us that
we are feeding more than just a body. Nutrition not only keeps the body healthy
and attractive, it maintains it as a vehicle in the service of the Divine. By
nourishing the body with joy and reverence, we nourish the spark of life within
the body. And when the body yields to disease and decay (which no amount of
vegetables or vitamins can prevent), we are left with the knowledge that good
nutrition is important but can take us only so far. The deeper nourishment that
sustains heart and soul is what ultimately matters most.
Of course, it is
important to explore the best foods for one’s body and the nutritional
philosophies that seem most suited for one’s way of thinking. But without a
spiritual foundation, nutritional knowledge can go only so far. Science can
tell us what to eat, but it cannot pronounce upon the meaning of eating. We
need something more to help us understand the richness, drama, emotions,
sensuousness, and psychological significance of eating.
For some people health
considerations alter diet for life. Special diets are crucial during chronic
illnesses such as heart disease, liver disease, diabetes, and ulcers. Each of
these medical conditions has a corresponding therapeutic diet with specific
food guidelines to support or perhaps even heal the body.
Can you see how the five
key factors—life-style, environment, season, age, and health—interact to create
a ceaselessly changing diet? Do you still think it’s possible for a single,
perfect diet to exist?
You can find nutritional
information almost anywhere. Nutritional wisdom, though, is rare. There is no
single perfect diet but many. Different dietary systems are effective for
different people under different circumstances.
Even someone who follows
no formal nutritional system is nevertheless operating upon a larger belief
system on which the “nondiet” is based. For example, many people who want no
rules or restrictions with diet and believe “anything goes” with eating often
operate the belief that no relationship exists between cause and effect.
Somehow, whatever they do in life or whatever they eat will not have future
consequences, or so they hope. Because they secretly fear responsibility, they
act as if responsibility were unnecessary.
Whenever you read diet
books or listen to nutritional advice, remember you are probably receiving
information from those who are reading their own bodies and translating it onto
yours, presenting their philosophy of life through beliefs about diet, and
proving their biases through scientific conclusions that can be interpreted in
other ways. Of course, we expect to find useful information when consulting
expert sources, but the reality is that most authorities see only a small part
of the nutritional spectrum, and no matter how much information we gather, we
must inevitable make our own nutritional choices. Ultimately, the most
reasonable view is this: Diet will vary from person to person, from one week to
the next, and no matter what happens, nothing will stay the same for long.
When we say to someone,
“Don’t eat that food, it is bad for you,” what they often hear is “You are a
bad person for eating that food.” To have someone judge our choice of food or
simply believe they are judging us is experienced as an affront to our fundamental
right to existence. Tolerance and respect for the food preferences of others is
a crucial ingredient of eating. Consuming “bad” food has never turned anyone
into a bad person nor has eating “good” food made anyone a saint.
Of all the ingredients in
a meal, the “subtle” ingredients are the least observable but often the most
easily felt. Have you noticed how food that is “offered” by someone tastes
different from food you prepare for yourself. For me, even a cucumber tastes
different if someone else cuts, peels, and serves it with love. Just as food
absorbs the flavor of spices, it absorbs the attitudes of those who cook and
serve it.
©2015 The Institute for the Psychology of Eating Marc David Nourishing Wisdom psychologyofeating.com
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