Today I wanted to shortly talk about the mental and spiritual benefits of following plant-based eating.
About 6.5 years ago I started getting my (gross) life energy from raw, soaked, fermented, and sprouted foods. I’m sure this way of eating boosted my memory and ability to analyze info. It also improved my outlook on life, and ability to deal with difficulties, small and big.
(Although I do supplement my diet with fermented cod liver / butter oil or skate liver oil. As well as eggshell powder, and a few raw eggs yolks during winter)
– Of course, including more raw, Earth-friendly grown produce doesn’t guarantee that you will become as smart as Einstein one day. But you might.
– Neither being a raw vegan guarantees that in 5 years you will be as wise as Solomon.
– Avoiding meat and milk also doesn’t guarantee that eventually you will love the whole world. But some day you may love many things about it.
– Similarly, being a vegan for 20 years doesn’t guarantee that ultimately you will be as zen as a monk who spent 20 years in the mountains. But you will be calmer and smarter in the tricky situations that life brings you.
Cognitive and mental aspect
It makes sense that if the bulk of your calories comes from fresh organic greens and veggies, good raw fats (walnuts, avocado, flax), herbs, fruits and pseudograins, you have lower level of bad cholesterol (HDL), less build-up in vessels, less heavy metals, less toxic waste products etc. These all shrink your chances of developing mental and cognition-related conditions.
Similarly, you have higher level of inflammation-fighting compounds and brain-friendly phytonutrients. These give you faster brain synapses, more resilient neurons, better functioning prefrontal cortex.
To familiarize yourself with prefrontal cortex: it’s an area of the brain that is just behind your forehead. It’s responsible for logical thinking and decision making. As well as your behavior (like ability to resist urges and control temper).
It also makes sense that when you quit putting animal products into your body, especially meat, you reduce the amount of fear, helplessness, and anger you experience in your daily life. The emotions that an animal undergoing when being killed or if kept in non-humane conditions have inevitable affect on us to a variable degree.
Spiritual aspect
Same story with spirituality.
For the most part, any spiritual practice / religion you look into, in antiquity and today, the followers are obliged or encouraged to reduce foods and substances that trigger or promote certain passions (and, hence get on a way of spiritual advancement). In certain cases it’s alcohol. In others, it’s garlic and onion. In some others, it’s pork or beef. Or it can be nearly everything: meat, alcohol, garlic, recreational drugs, etc.
In other words, a clean plant-based is recommended.
Re-cap
Given above and all other good things you know about adhering to plant-based eating, it’s not surprising that in places of studying and learning, like reputable schools and universities, organic wholesome foods with fresh greens and fruits are made available for students.
After all, there is nothing new under the sun. Raw veganism and veganism and other plant-based lifestyles are not a novelty either. Generally speaking, if you point at the map and go back centuries or millennia back, at some point somebody there advised vegetarian / vegan lifestyle for various purposes, including climbing intellectual or spiritual heights.
Main references:
https://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/02/18/at-what-age-is-the-brain-fully-developed/
https://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/7-straightforward-ways-to-strengthen-your-prefrontal-cortex-hint-the-most-important-part-of-the-brain/
https://draxe.com/15-brain-foods-to-boost-focus-and-memory/