Vital Energy from Food

By Josephine Holistic Health Consultant©2014 

Farm to market to table

Every Saturday morning, during the summer and fall months, I go to the weekend Farmers Market.  Dozens of different organic farmers selling their vegetables, fruits and some prepared foods.   Every year, more and more people show up to support our B.C. farmers.  This excites me because this means more people see the value in eating locally.  

Having said that,  many of us these days are aware of nutrition when we prepare our food, but how many of us stop to consider the quality of the vital energy we get from our food?

All living things carry vital energy, also referred to as Chi. Vital energy is what sustains us and energizes us.  We get most of our vital energy through the air we breathe and through our diet. 

The food we eat varies considerably in vital energy. Factors such as growing methods, storage conditions and cooking methods will all affect the life force energy of our food.

The nutritional content of vegetables we eat today is far poorer than it was 50 years ago.  Soil depletion has reduced the nutrient content of our food supply.  In most areas of the world, the land has been over-farmed and overgrazed.  In most of the world, manures and other mineral-rich products are not put back enough on the land.  This has depleted the soil quality.  In many other areas, the soil is just of low quality and is difficult to improve.  This produces food that is low in many minerals, in particular, but also low in vitamins, and hundreds of other nutrients found in food.

Public Garden in Vancouver, BC

If your vegetables are organically grown and picked just before eating, they will be filled with vital energy and their nutritional content will be high.  On the other hand, if the vegetables have been stored for six months before being transported across the globe then the chi energy will have long faded and the vitamins will be much reduced.   I cannot even compare the vegetables I buy at the farmers market and the organic veggies I buy at the health food store because the freshness, odor and flavor are so much different.  Even garlic picked fresh is filled with a life force.  Taste is so much more powerful and tastier.  Likewise the taste of fresh peas eaten from the pod is a world apart compared to frozen or canned.

My best advice to everyone it to always consider buying your fresh food as close to the source as possible.  I am fortunate, since I have access to farmer’s markets for 6 to 9 months in the year.  In the winter months, farmers provide a service bringing vegetable boxes door to door. The food is generally more expensive than buying from supermarkets, but the health benefits outweighs the cost, not to mention that you are making an ethical choice by supporting local growers. 

In my view, food connects us all.  By eating quality food, filled with Chi, it helps us stay healthy. When we are healthy, we all function better, physically and emotionally.  We tend to want to argue less, and feel more at peace with ourselves.

Vancouver Farmers Market

A final note, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, they believe that raw foods are too ‘cold’ — or yin — in nature and require too much energy from the body to digest. The cold, hard-to-digest nature of raw foods puts a damper on the body’s digestive fires. Overtime, this can weaken the body’s digestive system causing bloating, gasiness and poor absorption of the nutrients in foods. The body’s energy becomes depleted from having to support the weakened digestive system which results in less energy for other bodily functions such as reproductive organs. 

Thus, vital energy from freshly picked vegetables to plate, does not mean raw.  We need to cook our vegetables, if we truly want the full health benefits.

To Your Health,

Your faithful servant,

Josephine