What should we be eating to be healthy and vibrant?

This question I have been battling with for my entire life. When I arrived here, at least for the first 12 or so years of my life I didn't have much of a say in what I would eat. We need to trust that our parents and society know best and make the right decisions for us. But once we reach adulthood, we can exercise more of our own choices and think about our food.

It would have been really helpful if God had left us an instruction manual so that we know what we should eat. But perhaps that is all part of the experience of being here? Discovering the answers for ourselves.

For many people, living nearby to chic restaurants is a very important factor to have a high quality of life. As a child, if it was an Italian restaurant or similar, it would always have to be spaghetti bolognese for me. This was my favourite meal as a child. I liked the sauce and the slurping of the pasta.

Gluten-free Pasta

How healthy is spaghetti bolognese?

The pasta is now made from a Frankenstein wheat variant grain that causes weight gain in us. The mince is made from cows or pigs who live short, horrid lives in the most brutal of conditions only to be savagely killed and then chopped up and turned into mince.

We don't know if there are some processes in-between where chemical additives diluted in water are added to the mince.

When assessing what we should be eating to be healthy and vibrant, some of the factors you could consider are:

• what effect does the food have on you

• what does the food taste like

• does the food involve the suffering of others

• how does the food make you feel

• what does your body say it wants

Considering these factors is important because you can cure many illnesses and thrive by controlling your diet and removing toxins that are in modern food from your diet.

Yet it is not that easy. Despite knowing this, we are still attracted to food that makes us feel ill and can have terrible consequences! If a diabetic would rather lose limbs than eat healthily, what does that mean?

preparing the kid's evening supper

Eating lots of fruits can make you feel really good and give you lots of energy. They smell nice, look nice and are sweet to taste most often. But eating just fruits or too much fruit can also be bad in some cases. Perhaps too much acid in the stomach or diarrhoea.

Removing meat and cruelty from your diet can also be healthy with reduced fats and a long digestion period. Not to mention the bad karma from eating dead animals.

But is it healthy long term? When vegans take lots of different supplements to stay fit and healthy. Is that our supposed diet?

The world's top-performing athletes usually eat vegan so there are many arguments to support that it is a healthy option in comparison to the promoted western diet. Although not all of the vegan frankenfood alternatives are healthy.

Very often the traditional food preparation methods are highly sought after and savoured when people seek food produce. This often comes at a premium that cannot compete with supermarket mass-produced food.

Are we supposed to have this sort of relationship with our food where we walk around a supermarket completely detached from where it came from and how it was produced? Have we now become the farm animals in Animal Farm?

preparing a Mexican style bowl salad

Therefore, the healthiest types of food we should eat to stay healthy and vibrant in my opinion could be those where you still have a relationship to how it was produced and know where it came from.

The food you grow yourself would be on top of my list. There is nothing more satisfying than eating produce you have grown yourself. The next best thing would be to visit a local farm that allows you to pick your own from the plants.

I couldn't say that we should eat or not eat any type of food because I have not been told by God what the answer is and I am not a Guru.

I think another important consideration is to consume different types of food in moderation.

Eating something that is not good for you now and again is ok and will not affect you badly. If we are supposed to be vegan, why are we attracted to the smell of cooked meat?

Is this some kind of joke by the Creator to tease us? Or are we supposed to eat meat?

The world is made of yin and yang and perhaps there is a balance to be found somewhere. The beauty and abundance in the world are balanced by the cruel torture and suffering of animals and people too.

Perhaps the best diet is one that makes you feel best and minimises the suffering of others but in the end, we just don't know.

Thanks for reading.

This was my answer to the EcoTrain QOTW here on Hive.

Resources:
All photos were taken by me.
The title made in Canva.