Part 8 (2/2)

Cool energy (slightly yin), such as apples, barley, tofu, mushrooms, cuc.u.mbers, eggplant, oranges, mangos, spinach, strawberries, and tangerines.

Neutral energy (balanced), such as apricots, sesame seeds, soybeans, cabbage, carrots, celery, eggs, corn, apples, figs, honey, kidney beans, milk, olives, papaya, peanuts, pineapples, plums, potatoes, pumpkin, radishes, rice, sunflower seeds, and sweet potatoes.

Warm energy (slightly yang), such as asparagus and malt.

Hot energy (very yang), such as vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, cayenne, dates, garlic, ginger, green onion, nutmeg, raspberries, and black pepper.

Foods in the Chinese system are seen to have a directional influence on the flow of energy in the body. The foods with an upward movement are those that move energy from the lower parts of the body toward the chest and head. Their tastes may be neutral, pungent, sweet, and bitter. Some of these foods are apricots, sesame, soybeans, cabbage, carrots, celery, sunflower seeds, apples, figs, grapes, honey, kidney beans, milk, peanuts, rice, and sweet potatoes. By moving the direction of energetic flow upward, some of these foods are said to alleviate diarrhea and prolapsed organs.

Outward-moving foods move toward and affect the surface of the body. Their tastes may be pungent or sweet. Some of them are good for inducing perspiration and reducing fever. Examples of outward-moving foods are black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and red pepper.

Inward-moving foods tend to ease bowel movements and abdominal swelling. Examples of these foods are hops, lettuce, salt, kelp and other seaweed. These foods have cold, bitter, or salty tastes.

Downward-moving foods are said to relieve nausea, vomiting, hiccupping, and asthma. Their tastes may be sweet or sour. Examples of downward-moving foods are apples, bananas, barley, tofu, cuc.u.mbers, eggplant, lettuce, mango, persimmons, spinach, wheat, and watermelon.

Foods may also be cla.s.sified as to how they move nutrients. Honey is a ”delivery system” that enhances the movement of nutrients. Olive oil is considered an obstructive food because it slows down the movement of nutrients.

It is significant that both these ancient medical systems of India and China, which have been used for thousands of years with impressive results, equally go to great lengths to delineate the energetic properties of foods and how these energies influence the flow and balance of the body's energies. Based on this understanding, the Chinese as well as the Ayurvedic systems prescribed specific foods to rebalance the energy of a person. For example, if a person was suffering from a deep, inner cold, both systems would probably prescribe the heat-producing herbs cayenne, black pepper, and ginger. Though these two great healing systems might use different terms and concepts to describe the action of these foods, they would share a basic understanding of what tastes and qualities of foods are needed to remedy the situation.

The Secrets of the Rainbow of Foods.

THE NEXT STEP IN THIS CONNECTION back to Mother Nature and health is the understanding of vegetarian foods and their multiple colors as condensations of sunlight. The color of foods is a silent communication of Nature about the characteristics of Her gifts to us. This is discussed in great depth in Spiritual Nutrition and The Rainbow Diet.

Dr. Bircher-Benner and Rudolf Steiner, two great minds from the earlier part of the twentieth century, have said that raw foods contain the sunlight energies that are stored in their living tissues through the process of photosynthesis. I feel these sunlight energies are stored in photosynthesis-activated carbon-hydrogen bonds just waiting to be released into receptive, happy humans who appreciate the secret gifts of Mother Nature. Although it isn't completely understood how these energies are stored, particular energetic vibrations are indicated by their colors. This forms the basis of what I call the Rainbow Diet. The Rainbow Diet says that the outer covering of the plant is the key to understanding and recognizing the particular light and micronutrient energies stored in that vegetable, fruit, grain, or gra.s.s as it occurs in nature. It is a way to tune in to the color-coded secrets of nature.

Each of the seven primary colors of food a.s.sociated with the seven primary colors of the rainbow relates to a specific subtle energy center in the body and its a.s.sociated glands, organs, and nervous system plexuses. For example, the green-colored vegetables are high in magnesium and calcium, which is beneficial for heart function. The heart center is also a.s.sociated with the green color. The basic survival center in the body is a.s.sociated with red. Red fruits and vegetables, such as red peppers and rose hips, are very high in vitamin C. The adrenals, which are one of our primary survival glands-often nicknamed the ”flight or fright gland”-have the highest concentration of vitamin C. The vitamin C in the red fruits and vegetables also is important for the function and strength of connective and muscle tissue, another part of our survival system. As we become more sensitive to the colors of fruits and vegetables, we are drawn to the color we need to a.s.similate to balance, build, heal, and cleanse our system on any particular day.

The general principle of the Rainbow Diet in practice is to eat a full spectrum of colored foods throughout the day to cover the full spectrum of our physical and subtle biological systems. Generally the red, orange, and yellow colors are taken at breakfast. This includes a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains. At lunch the green color predominates, but yellows (which includes grains, nuts, and seeds) and blues are also included. Green salads, grains, nuts, seeds, and blue-green sea vegetables are the mainstay. The evening meal is the top end of the rainbow with blue, indigo, and purple or gold. This is easier in the summer when the blue and purple fruits are in season. The gold includes grains, as well as golden fruits like papayas and mangos. Reddish-purple beets and red and purple sea vegetables are also included. These foods are emphasized but you don't need to limit yourself to those foods for dinner. They make separate meals, such as a fruit meal or a vegetable meal.

The gradual incorporation of a rainbow awareness is a way to organize and be sensitive to our patterns of taking in food during the day. By bringing in this full spectrum of light to our systems, we are energized by the full spectrum of light from the sun. As we become more sensitive to these subtle clues of Mother Nature as to what is in the different foods, we find that we are spontaneously drawn to the different colors of the foods depending on our particular needs. Yes, Mother Nature feeds us with her benevolent light energy as well as her physical nutrients.

Preview of Chapter 7.

THIS CHAPTER INTRODUCES YOU to the powerful effects our food choices can have not only on the body, but on the emotional moods, mind, and spirit. The effect of diet on spiritual receptivity, strength of moral character, clarity of mind, and the enhancement of the spiritualizing energies in the body is something well known in the Judaic-Christian tradition as well as other traditions around the world. Food choices may have either a dulling or enhancing effect on our ability to receive G.o.d's grace. Are you ready to consider how what you are eating may be affecting your mind and spiritual sensitivity?

I. Historical observations II. Creating three states of mind and lifestyle from diet A. Sattvic B. Rajasic C. Tamasic III. Fast foods and effect on American culture IV. Chinese approach to food and mind-body A. Yin B. Yang C. How to balance for a spiritual life V. Enhancing spiritual energy and sensitivity with diet VI. Hypoglycemia and the mind.

VII. Effects of overeating or excess acid.

VIII. Timing of eating and the mind.

Food Effects on Body, Mind, and Spirit.

”Let Food Be Thy Medicine”

HIPPOCRATES TAUGHT THIS MESSAGE IN 431 B.C., yet in the late twentieth century its meaning is just beginning to influence modern public and medical opinion in the West. Food can be looked upon as possessing several levels of energy. Particular energies exist within each food that affect our physical functioning, the nature of our thoughts, and even the expansion of our consciousness. The color of the outer coating of a food, the five (Chinese) or six tastes (Ayurvedic), their aromas (which I haven't yet worked out), and the six qualities comprise several systems with which one can tune into these more specific food energies. Foods can also be cla.s.sified by their shapes, yin or yang energy (Chinese), and the three gunas (mental state characteristics in Ayurveda).

For thousands of years different cultures have been aware that the types of food we eat have subtle effects on the mind. Herodotus, the Greek historian, reported that grain-eating vegetarian cultures surpa.s.sed meat-eating cultures in art, science, and spiritual development. It was his view that meat-eating nations tended to be more warlike and more focused on expression of anger and sensual pa.s.sions. It is said that the ancient Egyptian priesthood ate specific foods to increase their spiritual sensitivity and awareness. In India today, the Brahmin priests still prepare their own food and eat separately from people of other social cla.s.ses. They also keep themselves on a vegetarian diet that is aimed at enhancing the subtle spiritual qualities of the mind. The implication of this practice is that the dietary patterns of a social group affect the spiritual consciousness of that group. The logical extension of this is that the type of diet a whole nation follows may affect the mental state of that nation. Rudolf Steiner, the founder of biogenic gardening, the Waldorf School, and Anthroposophical medicine, felt that the spiritual progress of humanity as a whole would be enhanced by a progressive increase in a vegetarian eating pattern. Conversely, he felt that overemphasis on a flesh-eating diet would exert a negative influence regarding an interest in spiritual life.

Ayurvedic physicians and yogis have been aware for thousands of years that a dietary pattern specifically affects the state of a person's mind. They divided the types of foods and the states of mind into three categories (gunas): sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic. A sattvic state of mind is clear, peaceful, harmonious, and interested in spiritual life. Sattvic foods help to create this state. This is typified by the mental states of monks and nuns of many religious traditions. A rajasic state of mind is active, restless, worldly, and aggressive. Rajasic food creates this mental state. It is the diet for warriors and the stereotypical corporate executive. A tamasic mental state is lethargic, impulsive, cruel, violent, and morally and physically degenerate. It is the state of the stereotypical drug addict or criminal. Tamasic foods help to create this state of mind.

Consciously or unconsciously, people tend to choose the diet that reinforces and reflects their own mental and spiritual state of awareness. Spiritual aspirants have a tendency to gravitate to sattvic-centered diets. A sattvic diet is made of pure foods that keep the body-mind complex clear, balanced, harmonious, peaceful, and strong. Sattvic foods are easy to digest and result in a minimal acc.u.mulation of toxins in the system. In the Ayurvedic system of medicine these sattvic foods include all fruits, vegetables, edible greens, gra.s.ses, beans, raw milk, honey, and small quant.i.ties of rice or bread preparations. It is basically a vegetarian diet. From the Western Essene tradition and the spiritual nutrition perspective, a sattvic diet would be essentially a vegetarian diet with approximately 80% raw and 20% cooked foods. It is a diet with an abundance of different sprouts of legumes, grains, seeds, baby greens, and gra.s.ses; fresh fruits and vegetables; soaked nuts and seeds; grains, legumes, and honey.

Rajasic foods are more stimulating to the nervous system. They include coffee, green or black teas, tobacco, fresh meats, and large amounts of stimulating spices, such as garlic and peppers. These foods are sought as stimulants by people who consciously or unconsciously use them to help carry out worldly activities. The unbalanced stimulating effects on activity level may propel the eater of primarily rajasic foods into a state of agitation, restlessness, and eventual burnout as these foods push the mind and body beyond their natural limits. Coffee addiction and hypoglycemia are typical imbalances that may result from a rajasic diet. Rajasic foods include flesh foods and spicy cooked foods with rich oily sauces. It is a diet that includes b.u.t.ter, cheese, eggs, sugar, and oily, fried foods. The taste-stimulating effects of these foods tend to distract one from inner, somatic messages and propel one outward into stimulating physical, emotional, and mental activities, but often in an unbalanced way.

Tamasic foods are stale, decayed, decomposed, spoiled, overcooked, leftover, heavily processed, and fast foods. They basically include what one might call synthetic foods. These foods are chemically treated with preservatives, pesticides, fungicides, artificial and processed sweeteners, artificial colors, sulfites, and nitrites, etc. Alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs of today's addicted society fall into the category of tamasic foods. Cocaine and amphetamines are initially rajasic in their stimulating effect, but the end result of long-term use is often an exhausted tamasic mental and physical state. The addicted mindset that accompanies cocaine or amphetamine abuse, even during the stimulation phase, falls more into the degenerate tamasic category. Any flesh foods that have not been freshly killed are tamasic foods because within a short time they begin putrefying. This includes almost all meats found in the supermarket. These foods have almost no positive energetic life force left in them. These foods do, however, supply us with the toxic chemical breakdown products that adversely affect the functioning of our mind and irritate our nervous system. These foods accelerate premature aging and chronic degenerative disease. They tend to bring out the worst psychological characteristics because of the irritable, negative, lethargic state they create in us. The tamasic state that I am referring to can be described as that ”raunchy, yuck” state that some people experience when they overeat, particularly of tamasic foods. While in this unbalanced energy condition it is difficult to meditate or be in harmony with one's self or the environment.

In a.s.sessing the American fast-food diet, which is eaten by hundreds of millions in this country, it becomes obvious that this is a strong tamasic diet that also has stimulating rajasic overtones. This type of diet, along with its accompanying drug use, contributes to the fact that Americans rank 21st in life expectancy and number one in murders among the industrialized nations. According to federal statistics, the US has more than 20,000 murders per year, which is more deaths per year in peacetime than averaged in Vietnam during the war. Our society has become very violent.

The link between a tamasic-type diet and social violence has been supported by consistent research findings on teenage offenders. When teenagers' diets were changed from their typical high white sugar, fast food, tamasic-type diet, a marked decrease in the teens' acting-out, violent behavior occurred. For example, Mrs. Barbara Reed, a probation officer in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, found that when she switched offenders from what was essentially a tamasic diet of fast foods, et cetera, to a diet higher in fruits and vegetables, every one of the 252 teenagers in her case load stayed out of court as long as they maintained themselves on the healthy diet. A two-year, scientifically precise study with 267 subjects by Steven Schoenthaler, Ph.D., published in the Journal of Biosocial Research, showed that while the average American eats approximately 125 pounds of white sugar per year, juvenile delinquents in custody averaged about 300 pounds per year. When this sugar intake was significantly reduced, junk food was reduced, and fruits and vegetables were increased, there was a 48% decrease in antisocial behavior of all types, including violent crimes, crimes against property, and runaways. This was true for all ages and races. This amazing result was achieved simply by changing the diet with no cost to the taxpayer.

A tamasic diet of fast and junk convenience foods can cause vitamin deficiencies, which can disrupt the proper working of the brain, not to mention create a disharmonious lifestyle. Our bodies may s.h.i.+ft into an unbalanced state, in large part due to vitamin deficiencies, especially of vitamins B1, B3, B6 and B12. A deficiency of these vitamins has been shown to create a number of mental and nervous system imbalances.

Allergies are often a key symptom suggesting a general breakdown of the body's functioning. As a physician, I find that as a person gets healthier in general, their allergies often disappear. Today there is a tendency for people living a high-stress life to compensate for imbalances by megadoses of B vitamins. Used in this way, vitamins become like accepted drug stimulants, helping us cover up the essential rajasic disharmony that is creating the imbalance. These stimulants aid us in the destructive process of self-exploitation. Some people lead lifestyles and eat diets that increase exposure to toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Toxins and heavy metals have been a.s.sociated with hyperactivity, mental r.e.t.a.r.dation, and other forms of nervous system degeneration. Eating organic foods can significantly improve this situation.

Chinese System of Yin/Yang Foods.

THE INTERRELATING AND COMPLEMENTARY PRINCIPLES of yin and yang are key concepts in traditional Chinese philosophy that are used to describe the dynamic nature of the universe. The principles of yin and yang, though polar opposites, do not exist without each other. According to traditional Chinese thought, everything, even the personality, can be viewed from the perspective of yin and yang elements.

Yang attributes are contractive, hot, fiery, dense, heavy, flat, and low to the ground. A yang personality is powerful, strong-willed, extroverted, grounded, outgoing, focused, concrete, active, and p.r.o.ne to getting angry easily. An unbalanced yang personality can be overly aggressive, tense, coa.r.s.e, and irritable and angry. Excessive intake of yang foods can intensify and amplify these yang mental characteristics. For example, although in ancient India they did not call it yin or yang, they fed their warriors flesh foods as a way to increase their warlike characteristics.

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