One of my favorite books is âThe Tao of Physicsâ by Fritjof Capra.
About halfway into this book, you can find the following quote:
“Before you study Zen, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers; while you are studying Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers; but once you have had enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and rivers again rivers.”
It was unbelievably eye opening the first time I read it because it perfectly parallels my experience with nutrition.
With a couple small changes I could sum up my entire journey in health and nutrition with one (rather long) sentence.
“Before you study Nutrition, food is food and drink is drink; while you are studying nutrition, food is no longer food and drink is no longer drink; but once you have had enlightenment, food is once again food and drink is again drink.”
Back when I was a child, food was food and drink was drink.
Then as I started studying nutrition for a living, food and drink became these complex chemical compositions that had these wondrous effects in the human body.
Food and Drink were now macronutrients and micronutrients and dipeptides, polyphenols and volatile fatty acids, carbs, fats, essential fats, and on and on…
The more I learned the less the words ‘food and drink’ meant to me, to the point where they were virtually meaningless. There was no such thing as food or drink. It was only protein, fat and carbs and nutrients.
Then, after years of studying nutrition and learning I realized that most of that learned was more health and fitness mind-clutter than anything else, and it had completely destroyed my relationship with food.
So now, food is food once again and drink is drink.
It does not have magical properties.
Intuitively, we all have a basic idea of what foods we should be eating, and like everything else in life, too little and too much are both not ideal, but that’s about it.
If you want a stress free life then learn to enjoy food again.
It can be this easy if you let it.
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