Why Living Food?

Why. Easily one of my favourite words in the English language. The age old question, really. I know my mother heard this question from me enough that it became a form of mild torture for her. It can be sassy, imploring, philosophical, fiery, gentle. And it plays itself out every day of our lives. We make countless decision each day, about what to think, say, do, feel, and eat, but how often do we ask ourselves why these are our choices?

My purpose for all this pondering is to offer you some really good reasons to introduce more living foods into your diet, to add more life to your life, if you will. In other words, I want to answer the question, “Why living food?” Here are five good reasons:

1. We are alive. Not earth-shattering news, I realize. But given that we are alive, shouldn’t our food be, as well? Just as every mother knows, once the battery in the noisy toy her child got for Christmas is dead, it “mysteriously” no longer works. Before we analyze the proteins, carbs, fats, and nutrient breakdown in what we eat, we need to consider the life force it possesses. Plant a carrot top or raw sunflower seed, and it will grow. Once you’ve cooked or roasted it, the life force is gone, and it won’t. Not all raw foods are alive, though. Plant raw meat, and you’ll see for yourself.

2. Our bodies recognize it as food. Live plant-based food is our natural, ideal fuel. The more we remove it from its natural state by processing, cooking, extracting, and fragmenting it, the less our body knows what to do with it. The body tries to adapt, of course, in the name of survival, and it does a remarkable job, considering what we tend to feed it. But our immune system responds to cooked food the same way it does to any other foreign object or organism identified as an invader. Considering that many of us eat a predominantly cooked food diet, our body is fighting perceived invasion several times each day. At the same time, it is trying to salvage whatever nutritive benefit it can to fuel our essential needs. Imagine the effect this has on our vitality and longevity.

3. We deserve vibrant health. I’d love for you to read that again. We are not meant to be sick. Nor are our children or our parents. And our body knows how to achieve health if we give it the chance. Animals in the wild are strong and energetic until just before they’re ready to die. In fact, it’s hard to tell their age once they reach maturity. This is in large part because they don’t tax their bodies with cooked, dead food in an attempt to sustain life. The closer we eat to the diet for which we were designed (raw fruit, leafy greens, vegetables, seeds, and nuts), we offer our body more and better quality fuel with less energy needed to use it. Good deal all around. In our deep, wise place, we know how to be healthy, which also means we know how to prevent illness. Disease doesn’t jump out of the closet and grab us like a boogey man, so we don’t need to fear it. And proper diet, exercise, and spiritual connection will serve our world and us exceedingly well.

4. We crave simplicity. So much in our lives has become too hectic and complicated. We are busy all the time, trying to fulfill our primary and deeper needs. Nurture ourselves and our loved ones, make healthy choices, live authentically, contribute to the greater good, reduce our footprint on the earth, pay the bills, finish the #@$&%* laundry, save the whales and dolphins, and heaven forbid, have a laugh or two along the way… is that too much to ask? What if the way we eat could help us do all this? (Okay, we may never finish the laundry, but we could be more inspired to do it.) If we use our natural diet as a foundation and goal to walk gently towards, we can reclaim our power, walk lightly on the earth, respect its creatures, be a clear conduit for universal energy as we choose to experience it, and be so in love with life that laughter will find us. Instead of draining our energy store to digest, assimilate, and either eliminate or store toxins, we can use that surplus for whatever we want! Play with our kids, dance, work, love, be still, pursue our passions….

5. It tastes really, really good. Hmm, she’s a deep thinker, you say. But we have some faulty programming in our heads about healthy food, including that it’s a chore and doesn’t taste good. Consider for a moment, however, a fresh heirloom tomato that bursts in your mouth, the first scoop of a perfectly ripe melon tasted with your eyes closed, the luscious decadence of a mango, or the delicate, indescribable sweetness of a fresh fig? Pure divinity. You want fast food? Peel a banana, wrap it in a lettuce leaf, and voila…. lunch. (You could even sprinkle on some cayenne pepper, if you dare.) We may think we’ve been cooking for ages, but we haven’t, not even close. And now that we’re realizing the value and superior quality of organic and consciously produced natural foods, why not appreciate them for all they’re worth? Cooking drains the water, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and personality out of our beautiful food. I’m not suggesting you need to drop everything and become a raw foodist overnight (unless you want to, of course… it has been done), but everyone has the right to be well informed in order to make their own truly conscious choices.

It’s actually hard to put into words the transformative power of nourishing our life with life. The changes are both profound and all-encompassing, physical and so very nonphysical.

What I’m really talking about, though, is freedom. You may not associate food with freedom, but if we are misinformed about how to achieve real and lasting health, how free are we to choose it? If we keep our body sub-healthy, in pain, tired, or even sick, how free can we be explore and dance with life? If the channels of information and light within us are clogged with toxins from an unnatural diet, how free can our mind and nervous system be to process, discover, and express Truth? And though our spirit is inherently free, it is also inextricably connected to our body and mind while we are incarnated. Like weeds and dead branches that hinder a small boat floating down a river, a tainted mind and toxic body slow the flow of mana – pure, creative universal energy – within us.

We deserve better. We deserve to be empowered to claim our freedom and our life. But experience is the best teacher, and I invite you to play, learn, and taste the awakening for yourself. Are you ready?