Is Your Food Intelligent? (Find out why to eat fresh to stay healthy)
Date Posted:19 August 2011
Going out for a meal can be difficult if your goal is to have a wholesome and tasty meal. Many cafes and restaurants have the food prepared well in advance of it ready to eat. It's likely to sit behind glass for sometimes days before arriving on your plate. Another scenario is going to your local organic cafe filled with happy thoughts of the healthy meal you're about to consume, only to hear the "PING" of your food being nuked in the microwave. A
yurvedic texts are clear: Food contains intelligence. What does that mean? This can be loosely equated with its nutritional value, although includes the quality of the produce, the freshness and "life" of the food. Food can lose this quality of intelligence the longer it sits around in freezer or fridge. the "Best Before" date is a rough estimate of when the food will go off, however the time leading to this date equates with a reduction of nutritional value. Once cooked this process happens even more quickly.
Despite the long held belief that pizza reaches it's prime when reheated the next day, it is not the best outcome for your body. When we consume fresh fruit and vegetables we are metabolising the "life" or intelligence of that food. Plant-life create natural chemicals to protect themselves against toxins and outside elements harmful to healthy growth. By imbibing that food we are also metabolising that protecting intelligence inherent in the structure of the plant, supporting healthy functioning of our own physiology.
Food freshness:
Intelligence of the food is directly related to the foods freshness - the fresher the better. This is not advocacy for a raw food only diet - cooking food is the start of our digestive process. It is natural part of the breakdown of most veggies as our digestive system is not strong enough to acquire all the nutritional goodness from many raw vege. Eaten raw some of these foods would simply pass through our system and only partially release it's potential goodness. To take advantage of the maximum nutritional value most vegetables are best cooked and eaten soon after. Interesting to note that Ayurveda considers many fruits and some vege as cooked by the sun if allowed to sun-ripen (fruits & vege are often picked early & need additional sun-time to achieve this quality).
Fast paced but lacking intelligence?
For some, fresh, intelligent food is a rarity - microwave cooking, pre-prepared and "old" foods such as leftovers are the norm. It may be more convenient but is it missing the key quality of intelligence?
There are wide variations in nutritional values depending on the quality/origin of the food. An orange of organic grown status has 30% more Vit. C than the average orange on the supermarket shelf. Organic (fresh) spinach contains 1500mg of iron whilst non-organic variations can contain as little as 19mg. Food "nuked" in the microwave has been shown to be lower in beneficial qualities such as iron but contain higher levels of cholesterol.
The saying "You are what you eat" could possibly shed some light on the prevalence of immune system disorders and cancers that exist today. Throwing in another common phrase most of us grew up with - "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" we start to feel that our historical knowledge tells us to eat fresh food - and Ayurvedic texts most certainly agree. Why not find the location often your local farmers market and enjoy some vibrant, fresh and intelligent foods?
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