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QaR
June 2008 
What are your rituals or beliefs around food?
Posted on Jun 22nd, 2008
by 
Quill
Quill
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for June 22, 2008:
Food is the most intimate thing in the world, and our relationship with our food should reflect this. It touches us, affecting every one of our senses, gets inside of us, passes through the most private parts of our bodies, and literally becomes part of us in the process. The essentiality of food is one of the few things every single human being, every single creature, every living thing in existence shares in common.
Awareness of this is the basis for all my food-related beliefs and rituals. I don't practice anything formalized, or keep a particular diet. I take great pleasure in being as intimate with my food as possible; ideally I grow what I can when possible, or pick it fresh. I hand select what comes from the store, and even take time to get to know what's on the shelf before I buy something that's prepackaged and mass produced. Preparation and cooking are a ritual unto themselves. And even if I've decided to eat something pre-made I take the time to add ingredients, condiments and such to fit my personal taste.
I revel in food, be it the second course of a fully organic elaborate meal, or a Twinkie fresh from the wrapper. I call it aesthetic foodism - the need for what nourishes me to also please as many of the senses as possible. If it doesn't look and smell, as well as taste good or feel good in my mouth and belly, I probably find myself without an appetite for it.
I'm not a vegetarian or anything special, but I don't often eat meat because it's hard to make it appealing to me. (Meat really doesn't smell good.) Likewise overprocessed foods smell of the chemicals inside them and the machines they've been run through, instead of smelling like food and tasting like something with life in it.
I eat when I'm hungry, and when I'm full I stop. My appetite tends to be fickle, so when I finally feel hunger and have the chance to enjoy food, I indulge, but stop short of gluttony because food stops being pleasurable when I'm stuffed sick.
That's about the extent of my ritualization of food. It's easy enough to practice every time I put something in my mouth, and private enough that no one is bothered, or even aware of it.
:D
Awareness of this is the basis for all my food-related beliefs and rituals. I don't practice anything formalized, or keep a particular diet. I take great pleasure in being as intimate with my food as possible; ideally I grow what I can when possible, or pick it fresh. I hand select what comes from the store, and even take time to get to know what's on the shelf before I buy something that's prepackaged and mass produced. Preparation and cooking are a ritual unto themselves. And even if I've decided to eat something pre-made I take the time to add ingredients, condiments and such to fit my personal taste.
I revel in food, be it the second course of a fully organic elaborate meal, or a Twinkie fresh from the wrapper. I call it aesthetic foodism - the need for what nourishes me to also please as many of the senses as possible. If it doesn't look and smell, as well as taste good or feel good in my mouth and belly, I probably find myself without an appetite for it.
I'm not a vegetarian or anything special, but I don't often eat meat because it's hard to make it appealing to me. (Meat really doesn't smell good.) Likewise overprocessed foods smell of the chemicals inside them and the machines they've been run through, instead of smelling like food and tasting like something with life in it.
I eat when I'm hungry, and when I'm full I stop. My appetite tends to be fickle, so when I finally feel hunger and have the chance to enjoy food, I indulge, but stop short of gluttony because food stops being pleasurable when I'm stuffed sick.
That's about the extent of my ritualization of food. It's easy enough to practice every time I put something in my mouth, and private enough that no one is bothered, or even aware of it.
:D
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