Food is life-giving away its own life to make your life. If only you were aware that so many lives are giving up their own lives to sustain your own, you would eat with enormous gratitude. If you eat with that kind of gratitude, you will naturally eat only to the extent that it is necessary.

The food will behave in a completely different way in your system; the way you treat it is the way it treats you.
Your consciousness is very important in determining how a certain food behaves in your system. Let us say two people are eating food with exactly the same levels of nourishment and their health and absorption rates are about equal. One person eats the food with joy while the other simply eat it as nourishment. The one who eats with joy will need much less food and will get better nourishment than the other person. There is scientifi c evidence to prove this. Every human being who is a little sensitive to life always knows this. If you eat with gratitude and reverence, you will see whatever you eat will work wonderfully for you.

The true joy of eating is that you are conscious of some other life willing to become a part of you, to merge and mingle with your own life and become you. This is the greatest pleasure a human being knows – in some way something that is not him is willing to become a part of him. This is what you call love. This is what people call devotion. This is the ultimate goal of the spiritual process. Whether it is lust, passion, devotion or the ultimate enlightenment, it is all the same – it is just the scale.

If it happens between two people we call it passion; if it happens with a larger group we call it love; if it happens much more indiscriminately we call it compassion; if it happens without even a form around you, it is called devotion; if it happens in its ultimate scale, we call it Enlightenment.
This beautiful process of constant demonstration of the oneness of existence is happening at your mealtime every day. Food, eating, is a demonstration of the oneness of existence. Something that was a plant, something that was a seed, something that was an animal or a fi sh or a bird, just merging and becoming a human being, is a clear demonstration of the oneness of existence, of the hand of the Creator in everything that is. Make the simple act of eating into fulfilling the will of Creation and the tremendous experience of knowing the joy of Union.

Just a few decades ago, the way humans looked at food was largely influenced by local culture, tradition and seasons. Local produce, fast becoming a rare and expensive commodity, was once the natural diet of millions.
Food products labeled ‘healthy’ one day are abruptly dismissed as ‘lethal’ the very next. Foods touted as nutritious and life-enhancing by one study are declared carcinogenic by another. The latest ‘celebrity diet’ is always around the corner, waiting to be trashed by nutritionists.

So taking all this into consideration, what is the correct, balanced diet for our bodies in the long run? How is one supposed to differentiate between good foods and bad foods? How does one find the best diet?

The answer, simply enough, lies within.
When it comes to food, don’t ask anyone. You must learn to ask the body and listen to it. You should eat what your body is most happy with.
– Sadhguru
In the Yogic tradition, the way food is perceived goes beyond biology and chemistry. Food is alive, with a quality and prana (life energy) of its own. When consumed, the quality of the food influences the qualities of our body and mind.
The line ‘you are what you eat’ takes on a whole new meaning. If we pay sufficient attention and become aware of the subtle connection shared between food and the body, we will effortlessly know from within what we need to eat and how much.
We will not need to seek external sources of information. Armed with this awareness, what is merely a daily intake of food can be transformed into a beautiful process of nourishment and union.

The true joy of eating is that you are conscious of another life willing to become a part of you, to merge and mingle with your own life. This is the greatest pleasure that a human being knows; in some way something that is not him is willing to become a part of him. This is what you call ‘love’. This is what people call ‘devotion’. This is the ultimate goal of the spiritual process

Source: SadhGuru (Jaggi Vasudev), Isha Foundation