4 Levels of Eating Which area do your eating habits fall?
Ed Bauman
- Eating for Pleasure - This level is the most primal, instinctual approach to eating, to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Eating is for immediate gratification. Refined sugars, flours, dairy products and damaged fats comprise eating choices. This is the most immature level of food selection.
- Eating for Energy - Blood sugar regulation is the basis of this level. People choose foods that are more substantial, complex and that allay hunger. This level is a highly acid forming, allergenic and clogging diet pattern. This level of eater is generally unconcerned with the ecological impact of food choices.
- Eating for Recovery - As we sow, so we reap. The cumulative effect of Levels One and Two is the inevitability of poor body composition, diminished energy, health and brightness of mood. Many people will go on a 'diet' at this point and find themselves slipping back into old habits. This is an adult level approach that can be tiresome, judgmental and sometimes driven by supplementation to achieve results rather than using them to replenish reserves.
- Eating for Health - The goal of this approach is lifelong learning about nutrition, healing and culinary arts. It follows Level Three but brings more personal choice, variety, seasonality and strategy to one's personal needs, tastes, ethnic origin and commitment. Eating at Level Four is not a formula, but rather by discerning what the body needs and what is the best choice available becomes a lifestyle. By eating well consistently, a person learns what foods best nourish and sustain during stressful changes that threaten health and impede recovery. In E4H the maxims, "food is your best medicine" and "know thyself" find a synergy that opens the way to wellness and service.
4 comments:
I have received a lot of question regarding these levels. Most people toggle between 2 and 3. There is a lot of dis-ease in the body and as a society we don't take enough time to recover. As much as our spirits may want to soar, well, we are just tired. We end up in a high acid state (allergies, asthma, joint/muscle pain, low energy, obesity, sarcopenia, etc.).
Reaching the eating for health state is not where everyone may want to be, too much work, most people think. But really, it is like swimming against the tide rather than flowing with it.
One conscious choice a day will change the course of a lifetime.
:-) !j
Cool blog- I'll be sure to come back and read it as you continue to post.
I think the levels are really cool! I'm probably around 3 1/2. I didn't put in my nutrition post that I wonder if I think of nutrition too much as a panacea, to the exclusion of other healing modalities. But I keep coming back to the idea that our bodies really do depend on what we put into them each day and that if you want to be well, or we want to recover, that's one of the best, and possibly the first, places to look. Good luck with your blog and your research!
Welcome archangel! Thanks! Come back anytime!!
Food is such big business and most of us are so detached from our bodies. Yikes! Therein lies the quandry.
Nutrition is such an easy place to start because...everybody eats...now whether we eat consciously or not is the issue. Most people are so programmed by advertising and a general lack of knowledge on how the body works that it is easy to fall into the trap. Living on the wicked whites...really messes with the mind, body, spirit thing...
Nutrition is also a beautiful compliment to any modality of health & healing. It can serve as springboard, support or even a rudder depending on how deeply you choose to do the work.
Looking forward to chatting with you more. Have a great weekend! ~j
Post a Comment