Eat to Live or Live to Eat

Written by Dr Harish Chandra

Saturday, 07 October 2006 00:58

We know that we must eat food to survive. After some hours, we always begin to feel the pain of hunger. That is a strong reminder that we must give some food to the body system. If we do not give it food then the pain of hunger becomes unbearable. It is said that a hungry man can even commit a crime and so goes a saying in Sanskrit:bubhuksitah kim na karoti papam This is why the governments show greatest concern that every citizen is well employed. Let us discuss this issue from an individual’s point of view. While food consumption is an essential feature for our survival, we know that the present humanity can be divided between two major groups. First, there are poor people who are underfed. Even if they manage to fill up their bellies, their diet is not balanced and wholesome. On the other hand, there are people who overeat. There is a very small microscopic minority of human population that eats well. On the similar lines, the human population can be divided into another set of two major groups. First group consists of people constantly suffering from constipation. Then there is the second group of people that is prone to loose motions. There is a small minority of people who have their digestive system working in correct order.

This illustrates that the people have very skewed ideas about the food they eat. What we should eat? – is a large topic nowadays because we lead life much in an unnatural manner in the modern times. Things have come to such a pathetic state that we do not even seem to know what our natural food is. We will discuss this aspect of food at a later occasion.

At this point, let us discuss a more basic issue: Should we eat to live, or eat to live? This question arises because the taste associated with the food is highly subjective. Somebody relishes a particular dish but another person doesn’t find it tasty at all. Even though we know the non-universal nature of taste yet we go after taste to a great extent. The result is that our food becomes unnatural. We cook it so much that it may lose all its healthy ingredients. We add spices to such an extent that its nutritional value may disappear. In the limiting case, we may even go after the foods that we call “junk foods.”

In the childhood, we all enjoyed the mother’s milk and had no complain about it. Then we switched to the cow’s milk. There was a kind of universality – milk without sugar. But as we grew up, we developed different tastes. But, the worse is that we enjoy certain tastes to the extent that we overeat. We even eat when there is no appetite. We eat at wrong times; sometimes, as late as when we are about to go to bed, and sometimes, as early as soon after we rise in morning. We eat more times in a day without restricting ourselves to breakfast, lunch and dinner. If we find an occasion, we take a bite as and when it becomes accessible. There are other umpteen ways that we eat wrongly. This has a major unhealthy effect on our health.

But the worst thing remains unnoticed by most of us. If taste becomes our prime concern then we slowly drift to become a different kind of personality rather unknowingly. We become a materialistic person with concern for sensual pleasures alone. We begin to show less concern for other pleasures of life – the pleasures associated with our emotional, intellectual and spiritual faculties. We become insensitive to others’ sensitivities – an essential trait for a good human being. Thus, our life remains no more a balanced life. A life out of balance can easily meet its catastrophe on even minor pretexts.

Thus, food is a clear indicator about anybody’s personality. Keep the following in mind if you do not want to become a shallow personality. To be a person of depth, one must eat in a healthy and sober manner:

Be disciplined. Don’t eat more than three times a day unless there are overriding circumstances, and that should be rare.
The breakfast should be eaten after the bowels’ motion. It’s commonsense to fill up only after it has been emptied.
The evening meal should be eaten at least two-and-a-half hours before going to bed. A glass of warm milk 30 minutes before going to bed is a good habit. It helps digest food and improves the quality of sleep.
Eat slowly and it must be chewed to its very last stages.
Eat smaller quantities. See that you don’t open your mouth wide while eating.
Eat less. When you rise from the dining table, you should have some appetite. Eat two-third of what you think you need to eat.
Eat a balanced diet. Food should consist of food grain, vegetables, milk products, fruits, legumes/dals, etc. in sufficient measures, besides fresh salad and green salad.
Try to enjoy every dish. Don’t eat a particular dish beyond proportion even if that happens to be your favorite.
It’s a good idea to pay full attention to eating. Try not to watch TV, read newspapers or any such things, or to engage in any other activity while eating. One should be in a positive state of mind while eating. Enjoy eating whole-heartedly.

Eating correctly as above will train you in a very important way for life, namely, to restraint your senses. A proper training related to food habits will make you conquer many other things in life.

Then you would be proudly saying: I eat to live and not that I live to eat.

Food is the means and not the end by itself for human beings.

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