Vegetarian in Boston

Somehow, at a not-that-distant point in time, we Westerners may have gotten this food and eating thing all wrong.

But first, I would like you to consider your answer to this question: What is food to you, besides staying alive? Is it fullness of being, connecting to the earth through seasons, an adventure hour with spices, sharing with all the senses, “temptation”, or even a complicated burden where ideas of virtuous or perfect eating (according to some diet, at least) fight with what is right for the earth, and right for you?

Commercial food is complicated fuel

Most of us tend to love food, or we say we do. We love the colors, the variety, even grocery shopping and farmers markets, or we think we should.

Most likely, we may also dislike food, or certain branches of the food culture, and find our relationship with it complicated to some degree: How making it binds us to the stove or makes us perform complicated computations about macros and micronutrients, or dislike how expensive and complex the contemporary logistics while foraging for it might be.

Among the Boston suburb mansions and inside these mostly expensive stores around me, produce is lush and ready-to-eat goods are abundant. It’s hard to think in terms of lack or stimulation when all products, and even vegetables, possess so many whimsical iterations. Food evolves in an overabundant, semi-futile purpose-washed culture where mayo brands have mission statements and yogurts have several sort of toppings and garnishes, and sprinkles that might themselves have sprinkles too.

Living in an overabundant food culture sometimes makes me think nourishing our bodies and minds has become secondary. We may find our connection to the earth through local produce, and ourselves connection to ourselves through plant-based food, lost. It makes it look signaling one’s belonging to a social subgroup eating cute things replaces old-fashioned goals. I’m not sure we always know what we are fueling these days.

This need-creating innovation style with a fueling funny senses of purpose appears to be in overdrive. Branding has become belonging. When one comes from, or has lived in, developing countries, where having what you want even in an approximative sense isn’t necessarily possible, sparkly ready-to-eat goods can come across as playing with food.

Comestible plants help us adapt to local landscapes

My conception of food has been a lot simpler on my travels across continents. Food is from the Earth, it helps us adapt to the local landscape. It’s radically local varieties are made to defeat endemic illnesses and give the kind of strength and energy the mountains or the seas require from us.

Aromatic plants we eat and use as spices are a great proof of this. The phenol-rich Indian spices, most of them producing essential oils (think clove, bay leaf, cinnamon bark…) help preserve strength in demanding climates and combat traditionally present gastrointestinal woes. Countries producing coconuts (not an aromatic plant, but an interesting one) also require their electrolytes.

Plant-based whole foods are a result of communication and affinities with other plants, and they can help us adapt, too. Plants such as citronella and basil) enjoy growing together with other plants while also creating solutions to local problems. Basil defends tomatoes from insects, and interestingly, they are also eaten together. Citronella defends other plants and defends us humans from them too. To me, this is mind-blowing – life is so well made that its secret seems well kept, yet holds magical wisdom.

Eating and living in harmony with all beings bring love into everything we do

All beings live best in harmony. The generous interrelations between plants and trees across species and among them, regardless of filiation (saplings have siblings) prove this every day.

All this inspires me to think that global harmony is our goal in eating as well. Dr. Will Tuttle’s great book The World Peace Diet – Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony talks about this best.

And harmony is what we most of us want to fuel our bodies and our purpose with too – the same the generous love and wisdom the Earth has for every being and which makes edible plants push through the soil and trees bear fruit. And harmony can only be achieved by eating and living without cruelty with each other and all beings.

Eating, cooking, and offering food with nurture, mindfulness, and love, with ingredients as whole, wholesome and local when possible gives eating a different purpose. This clarity encourages us to fuel ourselves with kindness and offer the same to our friends as family. It also undercuts all logic striving for bodily “perfection” and needs for imaginary added value.

Aren’t love and goodness the substance with which we ultimately wish to sustain ourselves and others? The thought that no being suffered for our food, or its goodness for the planet? By shifting our perspective, we might shift our sense of purpose as well.

Everything is energy. Plants, grains, and fruit, especially organically grown, offer a vibrant, healthy and colorful kind that give us the Earth’s powerful, living energy and foster oneness with all beings. I strongly believe eating in peace and understanding also bring love into what we do.

When we eat, live, and breathe in fellowship and share our food with all living beings (cows, bunnies, birds are friends too) all love grows, and we don’t feel all that separate anymore. Here’s to a greater, truer sense of belonging here, as inhabitants of the Earth.