Food for Thought About Food

Dealing with food has been a challenge for me this life.

While I was in college, I finally was free to make my own choices and escape the often times heavy cuisine of meat and potatoes of my parental home. Inspired by one of my raw-vegan friends I decided to become a vegetarian. I lived on trail-mix, fruits, veggies, wholegrain pasta, brown rice, granola, tofu and cottage cheese I was a very happy camper. A couple of years passed pretty uneventfully, health wise until I found myself developing a bad case of Acne, the likes of I hadn’t had since I was thirteen. I caught more and more colds and experienced constant bloating and indigestion. Despite excessive workouts, I couldn’t develop good muscle tone. I added tons of supplements to my diet without avail. I stayed on the same diet for another few years until finally my system totally caved in. Every time I ate something the nausea went through the roof. My skin was a mess and the overall fatigue made a regular trip to the supermarket almost impossible. Numerous doctor visits and $8000 worth of blood tests later, I still didn’t have a conclusive answer. Finally I ended up at a chiropractor, who also works with nutrition and kinesiology. The result: I had a bad case of Candida, was severely protein deficient, was highly allergic to dairy, soy, nuts, sugar (including fruit) and all grains. The only things my system would tolerate would be lean meat and green veggies and supportive supplements. I chose to comply. My energy returned, my skin cleared up, my immune system strengthened and I felt better then I had in years. Some of my food allergies have lifted, but I still can’t have grains. Meditating on why Vegetarianism wasn’t for me this lifetime, I was shown that I had built a strong belief as to what kind of diet was appropriate for a spiritual life, I was reminded that Divine Spirit is connected to anybody anywhere regardless of form. Ooops! Caught again in spiritual assumptions and arrogance.

Side Note: I once met a Native American Chief once, who replied to an audience member's criticism of how his tribe could face themselves as they still ate meat by saying: “Just because you don’t hear the carrot scream, doesn’t mean it doesn’t.”