A Few Words About Our Relationship with Food as a Result of my Travels in Spain

If you have been following my blog posts over the last 6 months, it should come as no surprise that I enjoy everything about food. It's a substance that is multi-faceted and fundamentally, is a necessity of healthful living on this planet.

(Mandarin oranges from Spain.)

I am keenly interested in understanding how it's grown, produced, prepared, presented, shared and consumed.

As humans, we eat to live and we live to eat. Many would argue, that from a health perspective, we should only be concerned with eating to sustain the health of our bodies. I would like to suggest that the power found in the food we ingest, is boosted when it's been prepared with positive intention and the ingestion of it, is shared in a social setting that is content.

(Freshly squeezed orange juice.)

The food then becomes further enhanced when we dedicate time specifically for the activity of eating with intention.

( A breakfast table lovingly prepared by Donna Rippey.)

In my mind, allowing your body the time it needs to be re-fueled, surrounded by others, in a contented environment elevates the act of eating to an art-form which produces the greatest vitality. 

Collectively, among all who practice the art of ingestion, in this way.

I invite you to think about this critical subject for a minute.

When was the last time you remember achieving this level of gastronomic enlightenment while waiting in a drive-through fast food line, and then eating in your car, by yourself?

Do you think the food was prepared with any positive intention, other than to move you through the process quickly, so that the next person behind you in the line can be pacified?

How does that type of re-fueling effort affect your body's ability to digest and use nutrients?

In many parts of the world, we have become conditioned to think that we don't really "need" to consciously choose what we eat, who we eat with or dedicate specific time to do it.

(Shopping for fresh fruit and vegetables in the market of Cadiz, Spain.)

We see the direct results of our relationships with food in the health of our bodies. This becomes very evident when we travel to different countries where the art of eating is still practiced and given the highest honour.

This became quite apparent to me during my recent travels through the Andalusia territory in southern Spain. 

There, eating and drinking with others is a celebrated ritual. 

(A beautiful egg and potato frittata, topped with fresh red peppers, prepared by Donna Rippey.)

I witnessed more time being dedicated to this activity than any other activity preformed in a day by the Spaniards,... other than sleeping... and even that is questionable.

Eating is more than surviving, it is truly living.

(A late afternoon lunch, shared on Victoria Beach, Cadiz, Spain. The dressing on the salad is avocado and mustard. It was so delicious that I made my own version of it, a few days later and I will share the recipe in another post.)

Use your kitchens and your dining tables.

Share with others.

I welcome your comments and invite you to join me...you will always be welcome at my table. ;)

To your health! 

Salute!

~ Rebecca Ryan