Conscious Eating Part 1

Conscious Eating.

Gabriel Cousens, M.D.

Foreword.

I BELIEVE THE GREAT AMERICAN PAINTER, Frederick Remington, would have appreciated Dr. Gabriel Cousens and this book, Conscious Eating. Remington was a gifted and courageous frontier artist who went to the American West in the mid-1800s to see and survey the new territory. He then reported to us by painting vivid and insightful pictures. Gabriel Cousens is also surveying a most important and exciting frontier-optimal care and feeding of the total human being Gabriel Cousens, M.D., is a physician, teacher, nutritionist, artist, scientist, visionary, and spiritually awakened man, with something very important to tell us. Daily in his medical practice and research he sees what our food choices do to us to create glowing health or to promote dread disease. In Conscious Eating Dr. Cousens has not so much written a valuable nutritional guide as painted a most remarkable picture.

He uses his many insights into the effects of food on the human body as "colors" on his palette-rich textures of nutritional science, brilliant flashes of spiritual insight, and deep shades of intuitive logic and common sense-to outline and ill.u.s.trate the rich landscapes of applied nutrition. His years of clinical experience and research, as well as his personal depth and awareness, combine in his snapshots, portraits, and ultimately, murals, that ill.u.s.trate how what we eat, think, and do determines who we become- and how we can optimize the process.

Yet, Dr. Cousens is wise enough to know that each person must find their own way to their optimal health program. He clearly describes and maps the nutritional territory, from the wellsprings of the religious origins of conscious food choices, through the thickets of myths surrounding vegetarian nutrition, to the vantage points of wise shopping and food preparation-all along encouraging us to determine our own course according to the truths of our own body.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens is a nutritional pioneer who sees the larger picture of food and health and who cares enough to report back to us so we may make the wisest choices. As a student of nutrition, as well as a teacher, I know I learned a great deal from Conscious Eating. The nutritional frontier makes more sense to me now, and I'm sure this book will enlarge your world too -not to mention making you a much healthier "explorer" in the process.

Conscious Eating will vastly expand your understanding of the role of optimal nutrition in creating true health. This book will be seen as a pillar in the growing body of foundation work on vegetarianism. You are in the hands of a most capable nutritional guide-Dr. Gabriel Cousens-enjoy the journey!

-Michael Klaper, M.D.

Author's Update.

SINCE THIS BOOK WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1992, there has been an increasing demand by Conscious Eating readers for a center to transition into a "conscious eating" lifestyle. In response to this growing need, we have developed a retreat where we have expanded the vision from "conscious eating" to conscious living. The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center is located on 166 acres on a beautiful southern Arizona mesa, surrounded by a magnificent 360-degree view and nestled in the Patagonia Mountains. The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center is an innovative, rejuvenative, spiritual, eco-retreat center committed to the integration of all healing life forces for complete body-mind-spirit energization and renewal.

At the Tree of Life we have created a menu of awakened living. Every aspect of our lifestyle-organic gardens, life force-preserving food preparation methods, ecologically sound strawbale architecture, hybrid solar energy systems, the heartfelt quality of our human interactions, and the spiritual energy generated by our committed staff-all contribute to creating, supporting, and sustaining the living of life in balance.

Partic.i.p.ants learn on an experiential level how to draw healing energies from the Divine and the elements of Earth, air, sun, water and the living planet as a whole.

I continue to expand our highly effective rejuvenation programs, which incorporate the best elements of nutrition, Ayurveda, homeopathy, acupuncture, naturopathy, Tachyon technology, and other healing modalities. Here on this blessed land, surrounded by its mountain views, we connect with the natural rhythms of nature through sunrise and sunset ceremonies, yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, nature hikes, sweat lodges, and the profound awakening of spiritual energies nurtured by an uplifting lifestyle and environment.

One reason that people are drawn to the Tree of Life is the integrated, comprehensive, in-depth nature of our unique programs. We offer medically supervised juice fasting programs and group spiritual fasting retreats which accelerate conscious physical, emotional, and spiritual evolution and often eliminate or greatly improve chronic diseases. Our Ayurvedic Panchakarma Process ("Five Purifications") heals inner imbalances caused to a large degree by the hectic pace of modern living. Panchakarma is a time-honored and extraordinarily effective method of restoring inner calm and increasing high-level wellness. The Tree of Life also offers cla.s.ses in live-food preparation and organic gardening. Intensive individual, couple, and family therapy sessions are facilitated by me, available only with advance reservations. Feel free to call us and let us know how we may serve you.

At the Tree of Life we a.s.sist you in overcoming what we lovingly call "the dark chocolate side of healing," which is the hidden resistance to healing. We skillfully and compa.s.sionately help you let go of your addictions to the unhealthy habits that bring on chronic disease and much misery. These addictions include negative lifestyle habits, poor food choices, the tendency to form unhealthy relations.h.i.+ps, and addictions to such health-depleting substances as coffee, tobacco, sugar, et cetera, all which keep us from reaching our full potential. In many people, we help release psycho-spiritual blocks that kept them stuck in self-defeating cycles of destructive habits.

Equally important, but often overlooked, is undiagnosed biochemically based depression, as well as other biochemical imbalances of the brain and body. These imbalances may be caused by hypoglycemia, neurotransmitter deficiencies in brain chemistry, food allergies, previous alcohol and other substance abuse, or candida, among other causes. Helping people rebuild their neurotransmitter pathways as part of their healing from drug addictions and depression has become a particular area of interest to me. With this approach I have seen people able to come off antidepressant drugs and be freed of a variety of alcohol, drug, and other life addictions that I have directly addressed in this new edition of Conscious Eating.

We specialize in creating personalized programs to help you heal into health and happiness. All the healing modalities and programs that we offer at the Tree of Life systematically help you overcome these life-force-depleting blocks to higher levels of rejuvenation and awakening. Becoming free of addictions is just the first step in the rejuvenation process. We want you to become free on all levels, free of all limitations-for only then can you fully experience the natural joy of being Divinely alive.

Although the center is fully operational with a certified Kosher, organic, live-food restaurant called The Tree of Life Cafe, and eight tasteful, casita-style residential units, meditation sanctuary, gardens and hot tubs, we are still in the process of flowering to our full physical potential.

For those of you who are lovers of nature and pioneers at heart, there is much we can presently offer that can create a powerful healing transformation in your life. In fact, in the short time we have been open, guests from 28 countries have come to share the "raw life" with us. They return to their homes around the globe rejuvenated, inspired, and empowered.

The Tree of Life is a unique concept of an ecological, spiritual, health vacation. We want to empower you to succeed in your efforts to create a more healthy lifestyle and have a good time while doing it. The key to changing to a more healthy lifestyle is inspiration for the commitment to change, rather than simply more intellectual education. This is where the real secret to healing happens. This inspiration we call the Tree of Life Experience.

We have designed a rejuvenation environment to empower people with skills to change their lifestyles. We also provide on-site and home support to help individuals, couples, and whole families make the transition into joyous health. It is a pleasure to see people begin to drink deeply again from the fountain of joy within. It is your birthright that awaits reclaiming!

You are welcome to contact us at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center for additional information or reservations.

P.O. Box 1080 Patagonia, AZ 85624 Tel: 520-394-2520 Fax: 520-394-2099 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.treeoflife.nu Blessings for joyous health on every level, Gabriel Cousens, M.D.

December, 1999.

Introduction.

A NEW BEGINNING is DAWNING. Conscious Eating was written to help bring about, and prepare for, this new day. Conscious Eating is the awareness of how the food we eat affects our body, emotions, mind, and spiritual life. It is understanding how what we eat directly affects the planetary ecology and the degree of peace we have with the human and animal life on this planet, and even who lives or starves to death. It is my hope that this expanded approach to nutrition prepares and inspires the reader to increase awareness of the Divine and to partic.i.p.ate in this dawning of the golden age of peace.

In this revised edition four complete new chapters, a lot of new information on enzymes, over 100 new recipes, our 14-day menu, and a variety of other features have been added. These chapters more fully empower the reader to understand the vital importance of a healthy diet and how to achieve it. Chapter 3 has breakthrough research on fast and slow oxidizers, parasympathetic/sympathetic metabolism, and the whole concept of physiological dominance in relation to individualizing your diet. Chapter 8, Deficient Diet: A Cause of Physical and Mental Degeneration, and Chapter 9, The Addictive Brain, highlight the serious effects deficient diet is creating in our society. Chapter 30 is the most comprehensive chapter (as far as I know) ever written on optimal nutrition for vegetarian and live-food pregnancy. A healthy pregnancy is the key for rebuilding the physical and mental health of our society.

Our food choices and the way we lead our lives are both the cause and effect of our diet and lifestyle. Our choices reflect the state of harmony with oneself, the world, all of creation, and the Divine. This synergistic view of nutrition is part of a core understanding of what it means to live an integrated, harmonious, and peaceful life on this planet. In this book, the reader will begin to understand the following: 1. How the spirit, mind, emotions, body, and even our hereditary expression are significantly affected by the food we eat.

2. How to develop an individualized diet.

3. A new paradigm of nutrition and a.s.similation.

4. How to determine your own psychophysiological const.i.tution and how to eat to enhance this specific const.i.tution.

5. How to balance one's individual acid-base relations.h.i.+p or pH. Some of my original, clinical, acid-base research and the concept of dominance will be presented for the first time.

6. An in-depth approach to the psychological and spiritual aspects of developing an optimal individualized diet.

7. Four transition phases to conscious eating and the transition to a vegetarian way of life from biological, emotional, psychological, and spiritual perspectives. This includes practical ways of making and sustaining this metamorphosis, even when traveling.

8. A wholeness approach to diet that explores the larger planetary implications of what we eat, including effects on the ecology, conserving natural resources, world hunger, and world peace, as well as ethical and moral issues regarding cruelty to animals. You will see how a vegetarian diet, and particularly a nondairy vegetarian diet, creates the preconditions for making the s.h.i.+ft from h.o.a.rding of natural resources to sharing of these resources. This is because a nondairy vegetarian diet consumes from one-tenth to one-twentieth of the energy and natural resources of a flesh-food diet and therefore can potentially create an abundance for the needy millions of G.o.d's children.

9. Vegetarianism as the dietary part of the blueprint for enhancing our communion with the Divine and ushering in the age of peace.

10. The role of vegetarianism in different spiritual and religious traditions. You will be introduced to how vegetarianism has been recognized as an important part of most world religions and spiritual practices when they are carefully examined at their core level.

11. A new concept in the art of live-food cuisine that shows how to prepare food to enhance your awareness of conscious a.s.similation and to match your psychophysiological const.i.tution. Recipes are designed to help us eat our food in a way that brings out the food's full energy on the most subtle levels.

12. Consideration of many of the issues, concerns, and questions raised about the adequacies and advantages of a vegetarian and live-food diet.

One cannot eat one's way to G.o.d, but a vegetarian diet-and particularly a high-percentage live-food diet-is a powerful aid in the process of spiritual evolution. However, without the context of right livelihood, right a.s.sociation, love, and connection with G.o.d through meditation and/or prayer, the practice of vegetarianism may result in an unbalanced ego state. A vegetarian diet is a true blueprint and a precondition for the golden age that is about to dawn. How else could the lamb lie with the wolf/lion?

Conscious Eating is a comprehensive effort to bring clarity and light to the most essential questions regarding our food choices and the process of living healthfully, happily, and in increased harmony with the Divine. After reading this book, one can no longer claim ignorance concerning the effects of diet on personal and world health. You, the reader, will have been sufficiently informed, coached, and alerted to these most important issues.

May all be blessed with the inspired will to make the changes in diet that are needed to enhance their communion with the Divine. In Revelations, chapter 2 verse 7, it says: He (she) who has ears, let him (her) hear what the spirit says to the churches: To him (her) who overcomes, I will give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of my G.o.d.

Principles of Individualizing the Diet.

THERE ARE A GREAT MANY DIETS OFFERED TO THE PUBLIC as "the best" diet for everyone. A major purpose of this book is to give you, the reader, some basic guidelines on how to develop a diet that is individualized to your specific needs, rather than trying to fit everyone into a general prescribed diet. This section empowers the reader with a new set of conceptual tools and an integrated approach to diet by presenting a complete theory of nutrition and a.s.similation, and by considering one's particular acid-base balance, individual psychophysiological const.i.tution, lifestyle, the energetic subtleties of foods, and the seasons as they all relate to one's individual const.i.tution. This section also presents a general approach to individualizing the diet-called conscious eating.

Preview of Chapter 1.

TO CREATE A HEALTHY DIET, one needs to understand more than simply food; one needs also to understand one's physical, psychological, and spiritual self. It is important to have a template of conscious living that establishes food choices in their proper perspective in the context of Divine communion with prayer/meditation, love, wisdom, right companions.h.i.+p, and love and respect for oneself, others, Mother Nature, and all of G.o.d's creation. For many, this means not living to eat or eating to live, but eating to enhance one's communion with the Divine. This chapter gives much "food for thought" and challenges the reader to look at his or her dietary motivations. What is it you really want out of life?

I. How to individualize one's diet.

A. Perspectives on diet.

B. Mental relations.h.i.+p with food.

C. Eating to enhance our communion with the Divine.

II. Artful intelligence plus trial and error applied to individualizing the diet.

A. Stabilizing time, emotional s.p.a.ce, and how much and what we eat.

B. General goals around which to organize a diet.

III. Psychology of eating patterns.

A. Distinguis.h.i.+ng between healthy intuition and unconscious habitual eating patterns.

B. Ways to become aware of nonfunctional eating patterns.

C. Resistance patterns and excuses people use to avoid changing.

IV. Power of Divine Communion to change dysfunctional eating patterns.

Perspectives on Individualizing One's Diet.

BECAUSE EACH ONE OF US IS A UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL possessing his or her own distinct biochemical variations and functional capacities in the world, there is no set, rigid diet that applies to everyone. In order to develop an appropriate diet that gives maximum support to every aspect of our lives, we need to individualize it so that it is totally functional on all levels. A healthy diet is one that does not barter that which is eternal for that which dieth in an hour.

Although one usually thinks of diet in terms of the body, in the context of this book and the c.u.mulative contributions of ancient wisdom, the most complete understanding of diet is one that is intimately linked with spiritual life. Spiritual life is not something that occurs once a week on Sat.u.r.day or Sunday, on special holy days, or just when one meditates or prays. The all-encompa.s.sing way of life represented by the Essene Tree of Life exists and grows all the time, not just on weekends. The Tree of Life is a metaphor for how we can live as true human beings in balance and harmony on this planet. The roots of the Tree of Life are the universal laws of nature; its branches are the universal spiritual laws which reach to the heavens.

Diet, if looked upon from the perspective of spiritual nutrition, is not a religion or an obsessive, misdirected form of searching for G.o.d. It is simply part of a balanced, harmonious life. Developing such a functional diet for oneself is not a search for a perfect diet, because the only thing which is perfect is that which is beyond the body-mind complex, which is G.o.d, the ultimate Truth of the Self.

The most effective diet is one eaten in the context of the principles that sustain the Tree of Life itself. This template for the conscious living of a spiritual life includes meditation and/or prayer; cultivation of wisdom; good fellows.h.i.+p with other conscious people; right livelihood; respect for the Earth and its inhabitants; love of the family and all humanity; respect for all peoples and cultures; respect for the forces of Mother Nature; respect and love for our own body and mind; and love for the overall totality of who we are.

The difficulty in developing a totally appropriate diet is not the food itself, but our mental relations.h.i.+p to food. Food is more basic than s.e.x. Most people can survive without s.e.x, but very few on this Earth can say they do not need food to survive. Our relations.h.i.+p to food is a primary means of physical survival which enables us to relate to others and learn the lessons we need to learn.

It is G.o.d's natural program that our first liquid food comes from the breast of our biological, earthly mother. Very few would argue that there is anything superior to mother's milk for the infant.

However, after solid food takes the place of human milk, the arguments start about what "should" be eaten. Beliefs about diet and what is "right" to eat are rooted in one's cultural and religious heritage. These beliefs are often very strong.

What we eat is both the cause and effect of our awareness. It reflects the totality of our ongoing harmony with ourselves, the world, the universal laws, and all of creation. Because the way, and what, one eats is often a source of security, people do not readily change their diets unless there is some significant reason, such as pain or disease a.s.sociated with their present eating pattern. This is why it is sometimes true that "there are no such things as incurable diseases, only incurable patients." This famous adage is based on the fact that many folks are simply unwilling to make needed dietary and lifestyle changes, even when their life depends on it.

For many people, eating may be a mechanism for suppressing a variety of feelings, avoiding s.e.xual tensions, and/or avoiding certain painful aspects of their lives. Some people eat in an attempt to make themselves feel good. Others may eat in order to deaden themselves to their feelings or their lives in general. Some overeat in a conscious effort to self-destruct. For others, eating becomes an addictive way of handling life. Some are so afraid of their inner life that when G.o.d calls, they would rather reach for another plate of ice cream than heed this call.

Overeating is a way of numbing oneself to life. Nutrition in the context of the Tree of Life is eating when one is already glowing with life and joy, rather than attempting to gain this joy through food. Individualizing one's diet at the most refined level is eating to further enhance communion with the Divine. The art of conscious eating lies in creating an individualized diet that reflects and supports one's realization of the highest state of awareness, as well as one's need to function in the world of everyday life.

Eating food appropriate to one's individual needs is a means of extracting energy from our environment in a harmonious way. In today's world of fast foods and food irradiation, the relations.h.i.+p to food has become confused and degenerate. Many of us are disconnected and perceive as foreign the natural foods that Mother Nature offers us. The natural way to eat somehow seems "old-fas.h.i.+oned" or strange. The diseases that unnatural diet causes are so rampant that they are thought to be an inevitable part of life. This is not the case. Western medicine approaches this problem in convoluted ways and continues to spend billions of dollars developing sophisticated technologies to treat headaches while continuing to bang its (and our) head against the proverbial wall. The one who chooses to stop banging his or her head against the wall by giving up destructive food habits is often ridiculed. Our culture has become so upside down that one who chooses to heal and maintain good health with a diet that brings him or her into harmony with nature is often considered the idealist and extremist, rather than practical and appropriate. If this seems far-fetched, consider all the people who have repeated triple by-pa.s.s surgeries for clogged arteries without eliminating the proven cause of the problem, which they could do by adopting a diet that does not clog the arteries.

To make the s.h.i.+ft into harmony is a matter of making conscious lifestyle changes. To do this, and to depart from the disease-generating practices of our culture, is considered heretical and seditious to our current fast-food lifestyle. Though it is difficult to change one's old habits and belief systems, this must be done if one values living a healthy spiritual life. When ambivalent to making these needed changes, some use the excuse that social forces are too powerful.

Nevertheless, in order to develop a totally functional diet, one needs to be willing to examine these patterns and abandon what is no longer appropriate. Eventually, one begins to make food choices on the basis of what maintains and enhances the blissful communion with G.o.d, as well as the feeling of well-being in mind and body As a meat-eating football player from the Midwest, I grew up without meeting a vegetarian until I was 28. Once I realized the spiritual, mental, and physical appropriateness of a vegetarian diet, it still took several years to complete the full transition. To make stable and lasting changes in one's diet, it is best to make step-by-step changes that can be incorporated in sync with the overall context of one's life. One needs a solid support system in order to make a successful, sustained change in the direction of high-level physical, mental, and spiritual health. Making idealistic yet drastic changes often creates imbalances which reverse themselves in short order.

Creating our own individualized diet is positively aided by a dose of artful intelligence as well as a trial-and-error approach. Gandhi, in his efforts to develop the appropriate diet for himself, would make one s.h.i.+ft every four months. Often a change in diet or lifestyle may feel good the first week but not be so good for us after several months. For example, I have observed many people who, in the first few weeks, felt much better when they were put on a high-protein, usually meat-based diet for the treatment of hypo-glycemia. After four to six months, however, they often found that though their hypoglycemia was in better control, they felt worse. This is usually because it takes a month or two to experience the toxic load that comes from the high-protein, meat-based diet. Switching hypoglycemics to a low-protein, high-complex-carbohydrate diet or vegetarian with a higher percentage of protein/fast oxidizer diet (which will be discussed in Chapter 3) maintains stable blood sugar and slowly removes the toxic load caused by the high meat-protein diet. This is the long-term solution to the problem.

The process of individualizing the diet is realistic and basic rather than idealistic. Extremely idealistic or purist diets may even sidetrack us from our spiritual unfoldment. There is an interesting story of Buddha which makes this point quite nicely. In his ascetic stage Buddha was said to have spent several years eating just roots and tubers and standing on one leg in a river doing yogic austerities. He continued to get thinner and weaker until eventually he collapsed and was washed to sh.o.r.e. A little shepherd girl found him. She saw his emaciated condition and decided to feed him some raw milk and rice. In accepting this food, he let go of his ascetic concept of what was the "spiritually correct diet." Although he ate only one meal of this food a day he began to get stronger and sat himself under the bodhi tree; in short time, it is said that Buddha became enlightened. His diet was obviously not the cause of his enlightenment, but it was a functionally appropriate diet for him at that moment which helped to give him the strength to carry on his spiritual evolution. Diet is not the key, but it is a significant aid to enhancing all aspects of our lives, including the spiritual.

The art of conscious eating is learning how to eat just the right amount of food to maximize every aspect of our lives. It is not a deprivation or minimal-eating diet. It is a pattern of eating that adds to our wholeness. It is a diet that requires some sensitive attention to the details of our daily activities. Our hunger for the Divine becomes the overwhelming appet.i.te and guide to our choice of diet.

Creating a Diet.