Sadhguru reminds us that food is about the body, and the best way to decide what to eat is to ask the body. He explains that rather than developing eating habits which only make us function repetitively, it is better to decide on our food consciously through our intelligence.

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Full Transcript:

Questioner: So my question is should we believe in that like the qualities of vegetarianism, non-alcoholism, celibacy, practice them so that we make our body fit. So that that kriya of eleven minutes will be more effective?

Sadhguru: Oh, see, this is what I have been saying right through – why even eating is a moral value? Food is about the body. We must eat what is suitable for this body but right now you are talking about making food into a habit. I want to tell you there is no such thing as good habit or bad habit. Habit means you’re functioning unconsciously. If you are functioning unconsciously that’s the bad thing because the whole thing about being human is we are capable of doing things consciously. That is the beauty of being human that we can do everything consciously. What an animal does unconsciously we can do the same thing consciously. We can eat unconsciously or we can eat consciously. We can breathe unconsciously or we can breathe consciously.

Everything that we can do, we can do it consciously. The moment we do something consciously suddenly that human being looks very refined and wonderful. Just because somebody walks and speaks consciously, doesn’t he become a beautiful human being? Yes or no?

Participants: Yes

Sadhguru: That’s all. So why is it that we are trying to develop habits as if this is a good thing? Habit means fixed realities where you don’t have to think. You get up in the morning and it’ll happen to you. No, don’t try to automize your life. That is not efficiency. That is the efficiency of the machine. This one is supposed to function intelligently and consciously. Nobody is expecting it to function like a machine.

So about food and stuff – food must be suitable for the body that we eat for – it is for the body. This is the building material for this body the food that you’re eating. What is the appropriate food unfortunately is all messed up right now. Traditionally we ate very sensibly in this country but these thousand years of invasions has brought other kinds of food cultures and today the national diet is pizza or pasta. What is it…which is one, I don't know, both are competing. So we are losing our sense about food. It’s definitely time to look at what is the most suitable thing. If I go into that food, it's a very long process but you must experiment with food, not just by the tongue, but by the body. You eat something today and see…just learn to observe how agile and how active your body feels after eating this food. If it feels like it wants to go to the grave that’s not good food. if it feels like it wants to be alive after eating this – except coffee because that’s a stimulant – if you eat food and your body feels very agile and alive that means it's good food, body is liking it. If you eat something, it feels dull that means it's not liking it. It’s having difficulty with it that’s why it feels dull. So just on this basis. There’s a much, I mean this is the very simplistic way of putting it.