Life and Spirituality

Recent devastating floods that submerged an entire province in southern India – Kerala - drew my mind back to emergency food supplies for humans caught in natural disasters. Food that can be delivered swiftly to such persons needs to be compact, lightweight, and nutritional with a long shelf life. It can then be stored in emergency relief depots and supplied to disaster management teams swiftly. It should be food that can be consumed without cooking. In earlier posts this author has described precisely such a food in the form of biscuits that aside from wheat flour contain micronutrients and proteins, are organic and easily digestible. They were named OFR biscuits. The interested reader may like to look up these posts too. They can be found here  Aside from disaster relief such a food when available, is useful for travelers. They are useful in homes as a snack, for an occasional quick lunch perhaps along with soup, salad or fruits, or, breakfasts along with tea, coffee

  I n my younger days my family was regular meat and fish eaters and this was central to the daily dinner most days of the week. Now older, I have given up on meat and fish as something that is neither good for health nor the soul. However I still consume eggs and milk products since these can be procured without perpetuating violence on animals. This is unlike vegans who shun these latter too. I have given a name of to this latter type of food - Lovegan Food. It signifies love for all life, not just animal life but also plant life. Whenever possible, I try to avoid perpetuating violence on plants too. For example I grow my own spinach but never cut the entire plant for its leaves. Just take some selectively and gently while allowing the plant to go to seed and complete its life cycle. I consume potatoes and peanuts though because these are leftovers from the plant when its life cycle is over. Giving up meat however created problems for planning dinners. The traditional

I n an earlier post I hinted that spiritual persons acquire an intuition that permits them to predict future events at times or facts that are not available through direct information. and that is the source of some of the things I said during the American elections. I do go wrong from time to time because my life is still a far cry from that of the prophets. I am merely a humble seeker but once in a while there is Divine Grace. What I have prophesied has at times has come true against all expectations. Such knowledge comes not just facts but also from communion with the all knowing inner knowledge of the universe that never misleads unlike facts that can. It was for this reason that saints of lore were called prophets. On a lighter note my mind went to guessing what the favorite foods of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the II might be. I have no personal knowledge of the topic not having bothered to research it but here is my guess.   I suspect it is nothing as exotic as

O ne can learn much about foods for good health by observing the diet of the healthiest and longest lived humans on earth. However a broad knowledge of food is necessary in order to draw correct inferences. Recently a 117 year old lady has come to the attention of media. Emma Morano celebrated her 117 th birthday this Tuesday; she was born in the 1800s.   She is fully alert in mind, cheerful and disease free despite her age. Therefore the attention of the world was drawn to her regular daily diet. It turned out to be two raw eggs a day and cookies. Much of the media and world has perhaps erroneously concluded that the magic lies in raw eggs. However, this may lead to harm because in many parts of the world there is danger from salmonella bacteria in raw eggs. This dear old lady has been fortunate enough to live in an area where this infection does not prevail. On reading further the secret lies in the lady not consuming meat and getting her protein requirements fro

The Yoga of Food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food#/media/File:Foods_(cropped).jpg A round 2500 years ago Gautam Buddha advocated compassion and non-violence to all life including animals. This led to a large number of persons adopting a vegetarian life style in South Asia. In recent times the concept has spread further, across the globe. A traditional vegetarian diet consists of not consuming any meat or fish. However milk and its products are consumed freely. In a traditional vegetarian diet eggs are not consumed since these too are regarded as a flesh food. Vegans on the other hand go further and consume no animal product at all including milk. Some years ago, this author proposed the concept of Loveganism that included eliminating or at least minimizing violence to all life, not just animal life but also plant life. Lovegan foods are foods that conform to this principle. Since the introduction of the concept online a few years ago, it seems that some have ta

http://absfreepic.com/free-photos/download/beautiful-sun-beam-on-grassland-4608x3072_66131.html G rass is the most plentiful source of food on our Planet for humans and animals. Of various grasses, some are excellent food sources for humans. Both wheat and rice are varieties of grass. The seeds can be dried and stored for long. Wheat is one of the cheapest sources of food for humans because of its abundance. A few humans are allergic to gluten in wheat and in that case rice or corn is an alternative. http://www.stock-free.org/field-harvest-wheat-haystack.html Humans have a tendency to develop food fads for a few decades at a time such as cholesterol free, caffeine free, gluten free etc. Natural food eaters avoid all such fad foods that are unnatural and have undergone much processing . Those components are essential to the food they are a part of but since individual chemistry of each person is unique and reacts differently to same food, some may be allergic or o

H umans meet their primary food requirements of carbohydrates and proteins from a narrow selection of foods. For example the primary source of carbohydrates for a majority of humans on earth is wheat or rice. Even when it comes to vegetables and fruits, most choose from a narrow selection according to their varying tastes and availability. While all this can meet primary food requirements, for optimum health and well being, a human also requires a whole lot of other micro-nutrients and organic compounds. A shortage of just one micro-nutrient can create serious health problems. To ensure that a person may not miss out on essential components required by the body or mind, it is a good idea to have a large variety in food. However, as mentioned since variety is usually not large in main food items of daily consumption, it may easily be added through a variety of herbs, flowers and other plant parts. Many herbs have a medicinal value and even without knowing its precise medicina

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tilia_x_europea-2.JPG This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. T rees make a tremendous contribution to improving climate and environment of the planet. Many provide food for birds, insects, animal and humans. All know of fruits and nuts from trees but the flowers and foliage of some are excellent as food too. At the present time, when population of humans on planets has increased to around seven billion, food producing trees must become the first choice for planting in homes, towns and forests. An earlier note in this blog described the Moringa or drumstick tree as an excellent one for food in warmer parts of the planet. Its foliage, flowers and fruits are all edible. In cooler parts of the planet another tree, Basswood is an excellent choice as a food tree. It is the best wild salad plant in North America. Basswood leaves make a good salad green in spring and early summ

A view of a Jamun (black berry tree), Morinda and grape wine in author's home T o produce all of one’s own food one would have to live on a farm. However, even the smallest apartment, even a small studio apartment can produce some of its own food and it is a pity if a home does not. Mung bean sprouts, a power house of nutrients can be grown right on a kitchen shelf. Just soak half a cupful of them for eight hours, drain and leave in a covered pot for two or three days while sprinkling with a little water every time you enter the kitchen.In three days it will fill up the pot with delicious mung bean sprouts. Many useful herbs such as celery, cilantro, parsley and basil are lovely in flower pots by a window. There is even a small pretty tree – the curry leaf tree – that looks lovely in a flower pot and its leaves are a delight when added to vegetarian preparations. Even nicer is a long rectangular container in which they may all grow together as a collage, your

A Vegetarian (lovegan style) dinner S everal earlier articles in this blog have reported that it seems a vegetarian diet is a healthier one provided it is well balanced and that it leads to lower incidence of diseases with age. It was also pointed out that some of the strongest and longest lived persons on the planet are those who are vegetarians or nearly so. However this claim was based merely on anecdotal and intuitive evidence and not on a scientific study. Now a detailed scientific study backs these claims. The study was conducted by Oxford University. To quote from a report online at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Vegetarians-lead-a-healthier-life-than-meat-eaters-Oxford-study/articleshow/50226456.cms “The study, conducted by the Oxford University and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is one of the largest analysis piloted on the subject and involved two prospective studies that covered 60,310 persons living in the Unit