You Are What You Eat

Zen, Nutrition, and Hatha Yoga; As we follow the Noble Eightfold Path, we find that all other aspects of our lives are encompassed within it. Nutrition and exercise are very important to smooth success on the Zen path. Students of the dharma must look closely at every aspect of their lives, and incorporate them into their practice. When we look closely, we find that "we are what we eat", and accordingly as we eat more nutritiously and in the spirit of Zen, we find that our minds clear up, making meditation easier. Also important for the clarity of mind necessary for meditation is to sit in Lotus posture. The more we meditate and accommodate ourselves to this posture, we will find that our bodies may become stiff and neglected and cry out for some good stretching. If we pay no heed to what our bodies tell us regarding food or exercise, we shall suffer the consequences. Nutrition and Yoga are part of Right Action. Zen guides us through the stresses of our daily lives leading us to enlightenment, freedom from suffering. While Zen requires us to always look deeply at every aspect of our lives, meditation, yoga, and nutrition form a framework for focused deep looking.
The previous paragraph is a passage from a web site about Zen.  I have read a lot of material on Tao nutrition. After reading about Tao of nutrition there is no wonder why the United States is now re-addressing the nutritional pyramid.  One of the key components to this theory is that if it is not naturally in nature, it is not good for you.  Pasteurized milk is not natural, refined table salt with iodine, white sugar, hydrogenated oils, and margarine all man made substances and all indigestible by the body.  Salt is good for you if it is sea salt, because sea salt has magnesium which is needed to regulate the blood pressure and the amount of salt in the blood. White sugar is not digested so it circulates in your system until finally the body cannot handle the over load and diabetes onsets.  Hydrogenated oils cannot be digested so they instead contribute to stress on the liver and increase cholesterol.  By the way it is the liver that contributes to high cholesterol but it is stress that induces the liver to produce high levels of bad cholesterol. Butter is actually better than margarine, because it is made from a natural substance for which the body can digest. Raw milk is actually better for you than pasteurized since pasteurization is not the natural state of milk. Organic! Organic! Organic! The processes of man deplete the vitamins and nutrients in food. That is why so many people are switching and promoting organic foods. Especially Chefs and culinary cuisine professionals, it is their job to know what is good for you and taste good too. A combination of organic foods, vitamins, Chinese herbs or medicinal herbs, exercise, meditation and lots of breathing will assure us that we will not have to use drugs to regulate our bodies. If you are on pills to regulate your heart or blood or sugar you have already basically died. Your body no longer is able to survive on its own. Your system has shut down, a system that was made to adjust and to heal itself no longer can.  Why? Because it doesn’t have anymore raw materials to heal it self and you have depleted what you were born with of raw materials starving your body from clean and nutritious foods. If the body cannot get food from the outside it feeds from with in.
And what about the way we mix our foods? The way we eat? Meats and protein should not be eaten with starches and sugars. The body cannot digest both at the same time, instead the mixture of what you have eaten. Sits in the stomach and the small intestine and ferments to a toxic substance.  This toxic substance goings into the pathways of your body including your skin. In the Orient, if you are sick the first thing that is done is that you are given a Colonic before even seeing the doctor. That usually will heal the problem. You are what you eat because it all ends up in your colon. So you are what is in your colon. Vegetables should be eaten with meat and fruits should be eaten lone on an empty stomach. They serve as a cleansing agent. And taking regular doses of Psyllium Husks will help maintain a soft but regular movement of the system. And while we are on the subject, your stools should not be too watery and not too formed or you are constipated. Stools should be loosely formed with plenty of water substance in your stools or you are considered constipated even if you have several movements. The system is set up to cleanse the body. You cannot cleanse a system without water. There are books by Daniel P Reid on the Tao of Nutrition that are excellent reference sources on nutrition and living a long and healthy life. Eat a lot of organic raw foods and vegetables. Each of the highlighted items in this piece has links for more information. Namaste!