Food Stress and Eustress

Last week I was invited to have dinner in one of the five star hotel. It was a Eustress or positive stress with lot of good feelings and imagination of good food, aroma, environment etc etc.

In reality there were many dishes and I had one mouth. To maximize the joy of the limited time and space of stomach, I decided to taste each dish that had a visible appeal. Taste is something that would be known only after the food goes inside. So most of the food that did not have good taste was pushed into stomach space. Meanwhile the limit switch in stomach gave alarm that the normal capacity is full. However the greed to taste more dishes bypassed the signal. In the end when there was no spare capacity, I stopped eating with grief that few more dishes were not yet tasted.

This happens with all of us. Many times the Eustress suddenly turns into –ve stress when our expectations were not met or our perception of joy turns out to be different.

Food quality has deteriorated in last century with the change in people’s choice. Diet changed from more of  carbohydrates and vegetables to more of fat and sugar. Fat gives rise to cholesterol level and sugar to diabetes. Overeating led to the problem of being overweight. People forgot the basic difference in hunger and appetite.

To extend the topic of food stress further, in some parts of Africa and Asia ( even India) food is a scarcity because of improper food management. In some of India’s go downs food rots but not given to people.

Uncontrolled usage of pesticides is traced back to cereals. The worst case is the residue of pesticides are  carried over from grass to cows, milk and then back to human. This pesticide residues have harmful effects on human body.

 

Self help:

Food has emotions associated with it. Try to remember when you had similar food last time with whom, when what was the occasion and what place.

Give attention to your eating, do it manfully.

It is said that the yogis can feel the emotions of the persons who had prepared food for them. Similarly if you give more attention to the food you are eating at various places, you may feel some food at some places give strange feelings ( after about an hour of eating). Try to avoid going there. It’s your intuition that is sensing something wrong there. It may not be limited to the content of the raw material but the feelings of the employees who are not paid enough or the cook with ill intentions etc. It works.

Now you can tell easily. Food prepared by your mother and your wife, which tastes good and why?