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SPIRITUALITY IN ACTION


2. What is Sentient Food?

1. Effects of Food

2. Stay Bright

3. Recipes

4. Positive Books

5. Finding Good Teachers

 

Vegetarian food is good for your body.
Sentient food is good for your body
and mind.

Food not only has an effect on your body, it has an effect on your mind, too. Fruit makes you feel light and helps concentration. Meat makes you more irritable and coffee causes restlessness. If you want to have a sharp and peaceful mind, sentient food is the best food there is.

Sentient food:

  • Grains (rice, bulgur, wheat, oats, bread, pastry, porridge, muesli, corn flakes, macaroni etc.)
  • Most vegetables and beans
  • Fruits
  • Nuts
  • Milk, Yogurt, Cheese
  • Soy beans, soya flakes, soya milk, Tofu, Tempeh etc.
  • Honey, sugar (unrefined)
  • Moderate amounts of most herbs and spices


The opposite of sentient food* is food that has a unpleasant effect on the body and/or makes the mind dull, restless or irritable:

  • Meat and poultry, fish and shellfish
  • Eggs
  • Onions and garlic (except sometimes as a medicine)
  • Mushrooms and other fungi
  • Alcohol, drugs and other intoxicants

But...
"What's wrong with eggs?!"
"I thought onions were healthy!"
"Mushrooms are full of protein...!"
Mushrooms grow in dark places on dead and rotting matter. The result is that they have a dulling effect on your mind. You can use many other kinds of food to get protein (see the article about vegetarianism) and mushrooms don't have so much protein anyway.

Good food gets digested in only 24 hours. Food that stays longer in the body than 24 hours, tends to spoil and produce poisonous gases that harm the body. Meat and eggs cause constipation -that means the food stays in your body for a long time. There are doctors who say that 80% of our diseases are caused by constipation.

Meat, onions and garlic make the body very acidic. This makes your muscles and joints stiff, and in the longer run it can cause arthritis and rheumatism. An acidic body also gets sick more easily.

"Alkaline" food is the opposite of acidity-forming food. Eating more alkaline food is an excellent way of cleansing the body and curing it from boils, acne, flue and many other diseases. Nearly all fruits and vegetables are alkaline and very good for your health.

You don't need to eat only fruits and vegetables, of course. For a healthy body and sharp mind you can add any other sentient food. Do you find it hard to give up meat, onions and garlic? Find replacements for them in your local Asian shop. There are many. Try for instance the spice
hing . You can also have a look at the article on vegetarian food for tasty ideas, or read the books mentioned below.




Recommended books for those who want to know more about (sentient) vegetarian food:

Food for thought
Avadhutika Anandamitra Acaraya
Ananda Marga Publications, Manila, Philippines. 3rd edition 1991

A very legible book about reasons to be vegetarian.
A great source of information if you want to know in which food you can find the protein, vitamins, iron etc. that you need.

Cooking for Consciousness
Joy McLure and Layne Kendall
Nucleus Publications, USA. 2nd edition 1993

Many clear recipes from hors d'oevre to dessert and a wealth of information about grains, vegetables, fruits and how to have a smoothly running kitchen.
Many of the recipes are easy and require little time, but you can also find more sophisticated dishes for special occasions.

Copyright 1998-2000 by Joost Boekhoven