How important is diet in the grand scheme of things?

I used to think food was something very irrelevant to an educated member of society. Like in Maslow's hierarchy of needs - food, as a part of physiological needs, is on the very bottom. So I thought: you just feed yourself really quickly and than move on to bigger better things, right?!

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Literature? History? Philosophy? Also discovery, invention, making money, exploring the moon, relationships, terrorism - anything really - yes, very important things. But food was more of a necessity, which, once satisfied, required no additional effort or concern. Like if I was better than thinking about worldly pleasure of food. Or at least thats what I was "feeding" (ha!:)) myself for a while.

I have never given much thought about how my food choices affected me, or anyone around me. Why would I?

Once I started educating myself on health benefits and nutrition, ethical questions of food production and distribution, economical and business side of food, environmental implications, psychology, spirituality, addiction - my "hierarchy" began to change.

Today I have a slightly different perspective.

My food choices affect everything in my life. They affect my physical body... Instantaneously! (We will get on the details of this later, just trust me for now.) They affect my mood, and therefor how I show up in the world and in my relationships. They affect that poor animal that did, or didn't not end up on my plate. They affect the economy, and the businesses I support with my dollars. They affect the environment and the levels of pollution and deforestation. And while I am making my choices I am also setting an example for those around me with several degrees of separation, increasing the chances they will do the same thing. So I am pretty much responsible for what my neighbor's sister's boyrfriend has for lunch tomorrow. No pressure.

And if all this was not enough - I make these choices three or more times a day. Every day. 365 days a year. With every bite. For better or worse... Talk about compounding effect!

Bottom line, based on what I know and how I think today, I believe that my diet (defined as the variety of foods I choose to eat) is not something to be overlooked. It is in fact one of the most powerful tools I have to make a difference in this world, consciously voting for kindness, love and compassion and thus empowering others to do the same.

More spills to come!

Kindest regards, 

Krystyna