The Yoga of Eating - Transcending Diets and Dogma to Nourish the Natural Self

If sugar is a counterfeit for spiritual sweetness, then artificial sweeteners such as saccharin and aspartame are a counterfeit of a counterfeit. They represent a lie to the body, and reinforce an experience of the world in which appearance is bereft of substance.

Unfortunately, because our society so demeans cooking, it is hard to approach it without some resentment, without some feeling that your time could be better spent, that you are above this. To make a yoga out of cooking, first realize that this mundane activity is very spiritual, not something to get out of the way, but to approach with sincerity a

Sometimes when you listen closely to your body, the message you hear is a call not for food, but for fasting. You may observe this in animals, which abstain from food when sick, and in young children, who sometimes go days eating hardly anything at all (much to the consternation of their parents!).

Sugar offers a hollow sweetness that one can easily detect through careful, attentive eating. If you slowly chew and taste an oversweetened food, you'll probably find it phony and dishonest. Indeed, refined sugar cheats the body, promising a bonanza of nutrition that is not there.

Sugar is a shoddy counterfeit for the real sweetness of life. Often as children we were given "treats" as rewards, for being in some way "good." The word "dessert," in fact, means something that you deserve. When people try to limit sugar intake through willpower alone, they usually meet with some initial success. Feel

Flavors and odors are themselves a kind of food, just as important as protein and vitamins. When you eat inattentively, you miss out on these subtle nutrients. When you become aesthetically malnourished in this way, your body, craving more flavors, drives you to eat more and more food, and foods with stronger and stronger flavors. To put it in simp