"The relation of energy to structure is, I think, the central question of biology." - Ray Peat, Generative Energy - Restoring the Wholeness of Life
Some ascetics might make the claim that concern for the physical body is a distraction, and go on eating only rice and getting little movement or sunlight. But having been both well and unwell in my life, I know that it's much more difficult to attune myself to The Divine and to live through my higher nature when I'm feeling unwell. Certainly there is a certain kind of spiritual height that can be reached in illness, or in any dark night of the soul, but when the experience of daily life is getting filtered through pain, brain fog, fatigue... I find this to be distracting and will go on to posit that the health of our vessel, the health of any conduit, is paramount to the reception and signal that vessel can both transmit and receive.
For this reason, I recommend to any seeker or person walking a spiritual path in earnest the works of Ray Peat, Morley Robbins, Jack Kruse, and the like. While nutrition is important, I do believe there are other factors that come into play which impact the nutrition actually assimilated from food consumed such as sunlight, movement, thinking patterns, water, and more.
If this is interesting to you, I can recommend beginning with Ray Peat's incredible book "Generative Energy - Restoring the Wholeness of Life" which can be read here, free of charge. If, like me, you don't like to read books online, unfortunately finding a hard copy of this book is almost impossible, so my solution was to install the Iris blue light filter on my laptop and set it to the "Health" setting which adds a more comfortable yellowish tinge to my screen. You could also print the .pdf if you have access to a printer.
In a nutshell:
- try to phase out supplements then begin adding certain ones according to this protocol
- favor nutrient-dense foods such as organ meats
- eat seasonally and locally (not because it's trendy but because the food will carry more local sunlight and water)
- shrimp and oysters for copper (if you think you're low in iron, like I did, learn from Morley Robbins and Ray Peat about copper deficiency and iron overload being the actual issues)
- don't be afraid of certain sugars like oranges
- wild-sourced seafood (the importance of DHA can't be emphasized enough)
- local springwater if possible, with the next best thing being reverse osmosis water with trace minerals added, consider sitting in the sun to restructure before ingesting
- morning and midday sun, without contacts, glasses, or windows impeding (no need to wear sunglasses ever again)
- varied movement - try not to just rely on visiting a gym once a day, consider little ways to get varied movement all throughout the day - a set of jumping jacks, a set of push ups, dance for one full song, skip across the yard, do cartwheels, sprint uphill, take a walk, go for a swim, hula hoop, jump on a trampoline... be creative, consistent, and wide-ranging with your movements
- eat more raw animal meats as much as possible (wild/grass-fed/fresh/quality only) - if you aren't comfortable doing this yet, start at a Japanese restaurant by ordering tuna tartare, sashimi or nigiri, salmon roe, and raw quail eggs
- minimize the fruits and vegetables you get from the grocery as most are imported from far away and/or grown using artificial light; instead, grow your produce or visit a local farmers market (one pumpkin can be cooked and stored to last as a side dish for the whole week, for example); always think about the sunlight (or lack thereof) present in your food
- be aware of the EMF pollution in your home/work/areas you frequent - set your phone and laptop to airplane mode as much as possible, turn off routers at night, etc.
- limit blue light and LED light exposure always, dim your home as much as possible, and avoid screens after sundown, favoring natural light such as candles and oil lamps for optimal sleep (sleep is when our bodies repair so optimizing it is important for long-term health)
- cold exposure (swimming in wild cold water is ideal, but cold showers are a fine alternative)
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local grass-fed beef heart, beets, raw goat cheese with pomegranate seeds and bee pollen, 100% cacao
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