Eating, Living, Dying

We start living and dying at the same time.

We start feeding upon birth. The food that we eat nourishes and energizes the cells of the body, multiplies them, and spurs growth. The nutrients that enter the body determine our health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, the same nutrients, particularly protein and carbohydrate, that are supposed to strengthen and protect the body from illness and disease, bring poisons and toxins into the body triggering dysfunction, deterioration and decay of the body cells and their eventual death. The accumulation of sugar, fat, salt and the uric acid waste that goes with the nutrients that the body receives, is the major cause of weight problem, cardiac diseases, cancer, stroke, hypertension, sclerosis, arthritis, vertigo, premature ageing and many other debilitating maladies. It requires external intervention to prevent the dysfunction and decelerate the deterioration of the cells before their time.

Indeed, we are what we eat. The doctors advise us to reduce, if not to stop, eating this and that when we complain about pain here and there in the body. But many disobey any prescription that curtails the pleasure of eating. The doctors also advise us to detoxify our body by doing some regular exercises. Many simply shrug this off too. What most want are a prescription and regimen that result to immediate and miraculous cure without sacrificing bodily pleasure and comfort. But this is ambivalent and is asking for the impossible in the protracted fight against the diseases of abundance.

To reduce or to stop eating something for sometime and to meditate and do regular physical exercises reduce stress, detoxify the body and may lengthen our days on earth. I lose weight from 3 – 5 kg during the Holy Week when I eat nothing but fruits. After two days of fruit diet the waste that comes out from the body losses its foul smell. IF I want to I need not change a shirt for two days because it still smells fresh despite the Lenten and summer heat. I really feel clean, body and soul, after one week of meditation and fruit diet.

I also feel clean, refreshed and recharged every time I play rounds of lawn tennis, when I go swimming, and after two or three hours of mountain biking. The feeling of wellness is just great.

Try it. It is never late.