Food For The Soul

Why do we eat? When I was a young girl, I often asked myself this. I was struck at how much our food intake is not due to hunger, but for other reasons. Comfort. Anxiety. Habit. The desire to be social or even to please. I have to admit, I found this unsettling and confusing: I was recovering from some unhealthy eating patterns at that time and craved a way to eat “right”.

My attitude to food has changed and deepened since I did a Masters of Science degree in Chinese Medicine, to pursue acupuncture. Chinese Medicine has allowed me to look with respect and understanding at the fact that food does, and is meant to, feed our emotions as well as bodies.

Somewhere in the past few decades, eating - or the reasons for eating - became a moral issue. We are quick to label food as “good” or “bad”, and a day when we stick to a diet as “good”. Emotional eating is seen as a weakness by some, and as something akin to sin by others.

Yet, food and the soul have been connected for as long as mothers lovingly put infants to their breast. We even use phrases that link them together: food for soul, gut feeling.

We are hard-wired to show love and friendship by offering food, to bond over food, and to find comfort in food.

Enter Chinese Medicine and its fabulous blueprint for marrying the tangible and intangible effects food has on us. Each taste is seen as connected to a particular emotion, as well as having a certain impact on one’s energy. Matching food to the health, constitution and emotional needs of a person is a very developed art. The five basic tastes are connected to the Five elements, and each of these in turn is connected to an internal organ system as well as an emotional or mental state.

For instance, sweet is the taste of the Earth element and the SpleenPancreas system, which combines functions of digestion, immune function and muscle health. (If you are wondering how such diverse functions can be considered one system, briefly ponder the link between insulin production, glucose metabolism and energy production within a muscle, or gut health and the immune system). If you had the experience of craving sweets when studying for an exam or trying to meet an urgent deadline, this is because our intellect, Yi, is also fuelled by the sweet taste. Moreover, Earth is the centering, mothering element: sweet taste is like giving yourself an internal hug.

To give another example, salt is related to the element of Water – unsurprising, when we consider its effect on water metabolism. It connects to the Kidney-Adrenal system. The emotion that relates to Water is fear, while on a spiritual level, it relates to willpower and the wisdom that comes from experience. Eating salty flavoured foods can make us feel more grounded and more confident in our immediate reality. The implications of such understanding of food are huge. Firstly, eating is not a one way system, where the ideal to aim for is mindover-matter control. So please, do not ever feel guilty or remorseful about your food choices! That guilt makes us more sick than the worst food we eat.

Instead, let’s look at our relationship with food as an important feedback from the mind and the body.

Cravings, excessive appetite or lack of appetite all have a reason. Observation and acceptance are always the first steps to healing. If you had a hard day, it is absolutely fine to crave something comforting.

Honour what your body is telling you. This does not mean devouring a full box of chocolates or crisps every time, however; it might mean brainstorming healthy ways to meet your body-and-soul needs, both with food and beyond, and possibly getting treatment to balance certain structures, for example, acupuncture for calming the mind, digestive fire or adrenal fatigue. I often analyse my client’s diet as an acupuncturist and we work together in a gentle and creative way to find options which are healthy and satisfying for their emotional needs.

Meanwhile, go enjoy that meal with your loved ones, a drink with your friends, or indulge alone in a culinary experience. When you are mindful, so the food will feed your body while the joy will feed your heart.

Iga Amal Czarnawska, MSc CM, LicAc, MBAcC. You can read more about food in Chinese Medicine on Iga’s blog: vitalitywithin.me/blog