nutrition – Page 2

During a visit to Holy Vajrasana Temple, I encountered the beautiful and meaningful practice of Oryoki. Often translated as “just the right amount,” Oryoki is a ritualized way of serving and eating food that combines efficiency, mindfulness, and gratitude. Its roots trace back to the Buddha’s time, embodying the Middle Way of taking neither too much nor too little—an ethos that resonates deeply with the principles of simplicity and compassion.

What Is Oryoki?

Oryoki originated during the Tang Dynasty in China and later influenced practices such as the Japanese tea ceremony. It is widely practiced in Zen monasteries as a way to unify daily life with spiritual practice. The ritual involves a meticulous series of hand gestures, silence, and mindfulness during the meal.

Monks sit in meditation posture, waiting to offer their empty bowls to servers, who portion food to the requested amount. Every movement is intentional, every crumb is appreciated, and every element is designed to minimize waste. Even the water used to wash the bowls is partially consumed and the remainder returned to the earth, often to nourish the garden.

Simple and Balanced Eating

The meals at Holy Vajrasana Temple reflect the Oryoki tradition, featuring fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and tofu. With minimal spices or stimulants, these meals are designed to nourish the body while keeping the mind clear and alert. Every effort is made to include the five flavors—sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami—and the five colors—red, green, white, yellow or orange, and black, blue, or purple.

Chefs follow the principle of eating simply, allowing the natural flavors of ingredients to shine. Eating in silence encourages mindfulness, helping participants savor each bite and truly appreciate the food’s journey from soil to plate.

Lessons in Gratitude and Reducing Waste

One of the most profound lessons from Oryoki is its emphasis on gratitude and sustainability. The practice reminds us to take only what we need and waste nothing. Participants are encouraged to finish their meals completely, leaving no remnants.

This principle can extend to our daily lives, especially during the holiday season when overindulgence and waste are common. By being mindful of portion sizes, recycling food scraps, and making thoughtful purchasing decisions—like avoiding vegetables wrapped in plastic—we can honor the spirit of gratitude and reduce our environmental footprint.

A Holiday Reminder: Gratitude Over Excess

As the holiday season approaches, let us take inspiration from these temple traditions. Instead of overindulging, savor each meal with mindfulness and gratitude. Remember those around the world who face hunger daily, and let this awareness guide us to be more conscious and compassionate in our eating habits.

Wishing you a joyful, mindful, and healthy holiday season! Let us cherish the food on our plates, honor the hands that prepared it, and commit to a less wasteful, more compassionate way of living.

Link: https://peacelilysite.com/2024/11/08/the-temple-way-of-eating-lessons-in-gratitude-simplicity-and-reducing-waste/

Source: https://tricycle.org/magazine/eating-just-right-amount/

From The Guardian

Study is first to track people at different time points in life and finds close link between nutrition and cognitive ability

A healthy diet in childhood can help protect mental sharpness into old age. Photograph: Katarzyna Bialasiewicz/Alamy

A healthy diet earlier in life could help keep you mentally sharp into your 70s, and even ward off dementia, according to research that followed thousands of Britons for seven decades.

While most studies on diet and cognitive ability have focused on people already in or reaching old age, the new review was the first to track people throughout their life – from the age of four to 70 – and suggests the links may start much earlier than previously recognised.

The research adds to a growing body of evidence that a healthy diet could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and slow age-related cognitive decline. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.

“These initial findings generally support current public health guidance that it is important to establish healthy dietary patterns early in life in order to support and maintain health throughout life,” said Kelly Cara, of Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Our findings also provide new evidence suggesting that improvements to dietary patterns up to midlife may influence cognitive performance and help mitigate, or lessen, cognitive decline in later years.”

Cognitive performance can still improve well into middle age, but typically begins to decline after age 65, the researchers said. More serious conditions such as dementia can also develop alongside age-related decline.

For the new research, scientists studied 3,059 adults from the UK who were enrolled as children in a study called the National Survey of Health and Development. Members of the cohort, called the 1946 British Birth Cohort, have provided data on dietary intakes, cognitive outcomes and other factors via questionnaires and tests over more than 75 years.

Researchers analysed participants’ diet at five time points in relation to their cognitive ability at seven time points. Dietary quality was closely linked with trends in cognitive ability, they found.

For example, only 8% of people with low-quality diets sustained high cognitive ability and only 7% of those with high-quality diets sustained low cognitive ability over time compared with their peers.

Cognitive ability can have a significant impact on quality of life and independence as people age, the researchers said. For example, by the age of 70, participants in the highest cognitive group showed a much higher retention of working memory, processing speed and general cognitive performance compared with those in the lowest cognitive group.

In addition, nearly a quarter of participants in the lowest cognitive group showed signs of dementia at that time point, while none of those in the highest cognitive group showed signs of dementia.

While most people saw steady improvements in their diet throughout adulthood, the researchers noted that slight differences in diet quality in childhood seemed to set the tone for later life dietary patterns, for better or worse.

“This suggests that early life dietary intakes may influence our dietary decisions later in life, and the cumulative effects of diet over time are linked with the progression of our global cognitive abilities,” Cara said.

Study participants who sustained the highest cognitive abilities over time relative to their peers tended to eat more recommended foods such as vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains, and less sodium, added sugars and refined grains.

“Dietary patterns that are high in whole or less processed plant-food groups including leafy green vegetables, beans, whole fruits and whole grains may be most protective,” said Cara.

“Adjusting one’s dietary intake at any age to incorporate more of these foods and to align more closely with current dietary recommendations is likely to improve our health in many ways, including our cognitive health.”

Link:https://peacelilysite.com/2024/07/05/healthy-childhood-diet-can-keep-mind-sharp-into-70s-and-ward-off-dementia/

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/01/healthy-diet-in-childhood-keeps-mind-sharp-into-70s-and-wards-off-dementia

Tag: nutrition

Healthy childhood diet can ‘keep mind sharp into 70s’ and ward off dementia