Nourishment for Our Enjoyment and Bodily Needs
From the description of the TWOFOLD HUMAN BEING we can understand that the puzzling questions of nutrition which
human beings are confronted with to an extreme degree in modern times cannot be
properly solved without recognition of the polarity between physical man and man of soul and spirit.
In accordance with the twofold nature of the human being we must
distinguish between the needs of the physical body for food substances
and energy, and the intrinsic human need for the pleasurable sensations
and feelings of well-being stimulated by eating and drinking. The task
of a holistic approach to nutrition is to provide sustenance for both
needs in a balanced manner. Only through harmonisation of these polar
needs can we hope to achieve healthy eating habits.
There is more than enough evidence that people today are still far
from achieving such balance. On one side we have people who are
predominantly interested in enjoying food without much consideration
about the effect on their body. This type of person enjoys eating their
favoured foods, in spite of all existing evidence about the harmful
effects of specific foods. For example, they will enjoy eating ordinary
cakes in spite of warnings by nutritionists that "generally, there are
no cakes that can be considered to be good for you from a health point
of view." [1] Such people are not really interested
to know about how food affects their own organism.
On the other side there are people who are very much concerned about
how to consume only healthy foods. This type of person will eat
something just because they have been presented with scientific evidence
about the health benefits of a particular food. They might regularly
drink wheatgrass juice because it provides
chlorophyll,
amino acids, minerals,
vitamins, and
enzymes,
and not because they really like its taste. Such people are inclined to
take food supplements because they want to get more calcium, or
B-vitamins, and similar; but there is no pleasure involved when consuming pills!
There can be many other manifestations of such one-sided
standpoints. The main point is that nobody is completely wrong or
completely right. Here we encounter one of the most common problems in
relation to nutrition – that is, generalisations of one-sided truths.
The intake of food stimulates many activities and processes which are
highly complex and multifaceted. Unfortunately people tend to focus on
one or just a few aspects of nutrition, leaving aside or ignoring those
which do not fit in with their views. Without being aware of the
complexity of the human organism and the multitude of inner processes
set in motion by eating and drinking, we can never arrive at more than
one-sided truths. This causes people to become proponents of various
'ultimate' dietary rules without any ability or even attempt to
understand other people with contrary standpoints.
However, the explanations given by spiritual science can serve as
peacemakers among the vast number of nutritional schools and diets based
on one or few specific aspects or nutrition, for they can enable us to gradually develop an understanding
of why there are such confusing variations and contradictions within the
field of nutrition. This is possible because "spiritual science does not
give rules, but only wants to explain how things really are. It does not
stand for this or that kind of diet – what it actually does is to enable
people to understand any form of diet. Then each may arrange his life as
he wills, according to these great laws of existence." [2]
Getting familiar with the fundamental principles of nutrition is the
first step necessary for expanding our knowledge of nutrition. Only with
the help of these principles can we avoid the danger of getting lost in
a vast amount of detail. And only with the knowledge of these principles
we can hope to find "the right balance between what a person enjoys and
what is good for him." [3]
Subjective versus Objective Facts of Nutrition
When we investigate questions of human nutrition we must take into
account all heterogeneous needs of human beings. One widespread illusion is that all we need is to find
out what is the best diet on the basis of scientific nutritional research
and then promote it as the nutritional recommendations for the whole
population. Decades of working along these lines has not decreased problems
of nutrition; on the contrary, problems are worsening and expanding.
There are several reasons for this lack of success. Among them is the
very nature of scientific research. "After all, when we consider what made
western science so successful, we have to realize that it was not a quality
that leads us to a deeper understanding of the human being, but rather one
that takes us farther and farther away from it. What are the goals that
those scientists who have accepted the principles of (scientific research
in) the last three or four centuries strive to accomplish for their field of
science? Their goal is to develop
concepts of the things around us and of
the human being that are as much as possible, perhaps even completely, free
of any human emotions or Will impulses. The more the subjective, personal
element can be excluded from scientific inquiry, the closer these scientists
believe they have come to achieving the ideal of scientific research."
[4]
We can immediately see the drawbacks of such striving for
objectivity in regard to nutrition and health. "The drawbacks of the purely
scientific approach reveal themselves particularly clearly in medicine.
After all, the chief goal of the natural sciences is to completely eliminate
the human being from their concepts by looking at the world in a purely
intellectual way and by studying natural laws intellectually and through
experiments. Through observation, scientists learn as much as can be learned
in this way about the effectiveness of this or that remedy or natural
product. But they lack an inner understanding of the human being as a whole
and of our relationship to nature's products, be they food or remedies. It
is only when we proceed in an unbiased and trusting way from mere natural
science to medicine that we realize what it really means to eliminate the
human being from our methods and then to apply what we have learned to the
human organism.
The natural sciences eliminate everything coming from within us in order
to, as they claim, achieve objectivity. However, this takes its toll.
The sciences achieve objectivity, but at a price: the human being is no
longer included in this objective science. First, scientists remove
themselves from their investigations – so it is no wonder that the human
being is not included in the science they establish. But then the scientists
try to apply their findings to human beings. This will prove to be
impossible because the human being as such has not been taken into
consideration all along." [5]
Thus we have described the limits of a conventional scientific approach
to the research of the questions of nutrition. If we want to get out of this
blind-alley we have to recognise the existing polarity between objective,
measurable facts of the human organism and various foods, investigated by
diverse branches of natural science, and the subjective perceptions and
understanding of food and nutrition, which each of us has been developing
throughout our life. We are different by the fact that "forming mental
pictures already gives our conceptual life an individual stamp. Everyone
looks at the world from his particular place. His concepts connect
themselves to his particular percepts.
He thinks the general
concept in his special way. This determining factor results from the place we occupy in
life, from the range of percepts that belong to our environment. Another
determining factor depends on our particular constitution. Our soul-bodily
nature is indeed a special, well-defined entity. We each connect special
feelings – and, indeed, in the most varying degrees of intensity – with our
percepts. This is what is individual in our personality." [6] But scientists
brand our individual experiences in regard to health and nutrition as
'anecdotal evidence' – that is, as unreliable, subjective experiences which
do not deserve serious consideration.
"The exact opposite is done in what spiritual science strives for. Here,
the whole person is involved in developing a view of the human being and the
world. The dissecting, analytical, experimental methods of contemporary
science cannot lead us to understand the human being as a whole because
that requires taking everything into consideration, not only what we can
count and measure. We also have to consider those influences we can study
only in its intensity or quality." [7] This means that
there cannot be any solution of any problem related to nutrition without an
active involvement of those who consume food. For what a person thinks about
nutrition and feels about the food he consumes is an essential part of any
nutritional problem and consequently to any solution. Among the worst
experiences in regard to food are hunger and, on the opposite side, when one
is forced to eat something one doesn't like. This demonstrates how important
a person's subjective relationship is to what one consumes. Any attempt to
force upon people the 'right' dietary solution based on scientific evidence
will inevitably fail, because it excludes people – that is, the subjective
half of reality in regard to nutrition. Only through the gradual individual
process of the harmonising of objective and subjective needs can we achieve
transformation of existing nutritional habits towards a healthier food culture.
How we can achieve this? The way out of this vicious circle is by developing a
holistic understanding of nutrition. The nature of holistic thinking is not
exclusive, but inclusive – if it were not, then it couldn't be called
holistic! The holistic approach includes a subjective human attitude
to food and the results of objective scientific research [8], but it
rejects any eventual claim for their universal validity. Something which is
true inside a particular domain cannot be promoted as an absolute truth.
"Materialism has a certain justification; we must learn how to think, as the
materialist does, in terms of the laws of matter, but his thinking must be
applied to the material world only. We must comprehend these laws, for
otherwise we cannot find our bearings in the material world."
[9] Our physical body belongs to this world. However, "anyone who intends to
occupy himself seriously with the paths that lead to a (holistic) conception
of the world must recognise that the first essential is to avoid
one-sidedness." [10] This is especially true in the fields of healing and
nutrition. "All forms of one-sidedness that try to claim universal validity
must be strongly repulsed." [11]
If we look again at the twofold human being "it can therefore be said
that materialistic thinking has its justification, but in certain domain
only. Spiritual thinking must be applied to whatever is subject to the laws
of spirituality and not to those of mechanics. (Any kind of) thinking must
be widened through proceeding from very different points and finally
reaching unity." [12] Thus we can conclude that "when man asserts that the
truth is simple, it is great arrogance on his part; it shows that he wants
to twist the truth to suit his own convenience. It is simply a love of ease
which leads him to assert that the truth must be simple. The truth is indeed
very complicated." [13]
For that reason "among many other capacities which we must acquire, we
must also acquire a feeling of how matters concerning the world can be
approached from many standpoints and from many different sides. We must
gradually learn to become acquitted with ideas and concepts from all sorts
of different sources and sides which will help us" [14] to develop an all
encompassing, comprehensive understanding of the human being and the riddles of nutrition.
For a complementary perspective see:
♦ LOSS OF HEALTHY EATING INSTINCTS
DIETARY CONCLUSIONS & PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
Our ultimate goal towards which we need to strive is to shape our own diets
in such a manner that they will be good for our bodies – demonstrated in their
physical wellbeing – and at the same time that we will still enjoy eating. This
balancing can be achieved only with the help of a holistic approach to
nutrition, including the basic understanding of fundamental principles of
nutrition. In other words, the objective dietary needs of the physical body can
be catered for in accordance with our nutritional insights, and accompanied with
our feelings of pleasure.
There are many ways of balancing, depending on one's nature or
personal one-sidedness. For example, you may see your body as a highly
sophisticated machine and food as the source of essential nutrients
which it needs to keep running. If so, then you can benefit by becoming
more aware of the smell and taste of food, its shapes and colours,
texture and temperature. Be aware that we are actually nourished through
our senses and feelings of sympathy for what we are doing!
However, if you are a person who sees food only as a source of
pleasure and comfort, then you may benefit by trying to learn more about
the anatomy of the human body and how food works inside us after we have
swallowed it. We need to understand that various types of food have very
specific effects on the metabolic processes which are set into motion by
food intake. It is of utmost importance that you become familiar with
what kinds of food do and do not promote healthy metabolic processes.
In both cases the aim is to expand awareness about the effects of
food. Neither the rational not the sensual attitude to food should be
dominant to such a degree that people cause harm to themselves. We
should always strive for a more holistic approach to nutrition, for true
knowledge based on individual insight has a power to bring healing to
our own being.
♣ See
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW EATING 'INSTINCTS'
for basic guidelines for the transformation of existing eating habits.
WARNING: You always have to put the above
practical dietary instructions inside the framework of
GENERAL NUTRITIONAL
GUIDELINES with the aim to know their limits when looking for a solution
of a specific nutritional problem. You also need to be familiar with
THE ROLE OF NUTRITIONAL GUIDELINES
with the aim to avoid any one-sided conclusions.
