Educating the spirit through taste

In food it is possible to grasp one of the most universal polarities that accompany existence on earth. "There is a natural rhythm characteristic of all forms of life: the eternal breaking of the waves that break in and retreat from the shoreline, the moon that rises and falls, the breath of all living beings made up of inhalation and exhalation, the constant beating of the heart. Life depends on this eternal alternation. If it were always night or if our heart didn't relax after every contraction, life would end. Exhaling is just as important as inhaling. Emptying is just as important as filling. We know this is true when we think about breathing, but we have forgotten that this applies to the stomach and mind.

On the rhythm that presides over the existence of the cosmos and living beings, we should not forget the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine awarded in 2017 to three American researchers who highlighted the organic mechanisms underlying the so-called circadian rhythms (from the Latin circa diem), which mark our every day and influence our lifestyle. Abstention and contentment require that the timing be respected and that relations be harmonized.

In short, we can encapsulate thought in a slogan: "Educating the spirit through taste", so that the act of eating becomes a daily spiritual exercise. Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) had already foreseen this in his classic Exercises, where he dictates the "Rules for ordering oneself in eating". In fact, "by respecting the rules of food, we submit to a discipline that God himself prescribes to us", since they "serve to impress an attitude of spiritual asceticism, even when one is apparently carrying out a material act such as the consumption of food".