After yesterday’s delicious recipe, I would like to add another blog entry about food. Indian food, to say it more precisely. No, wait, food in India will be the better description. Food in general as well as the question whether you should eat it or not – due to health reasons.
These questions came from a conversation some of our guests had in the past week. One guest told that she would never eat outside on the road, thinking of the dusty situation of the streets and the quality and hygiene that these stalls can definitely not provide. Another guest argued that it was all a question of the mind, of the head. That you wouldn’t have any problem eating that food if you just had the right, positive attitude!
Oh well, you know, I am always in favour of a positive attitude. Without that, a lot of things don’t only seem worse than they are but really also get worse. I definitely believe that being positive helps you to stay in better health. If you are very negative, you are also easily afraid. By that, your system is in a constant state of stress. It takes up energy to keep it this way – which means that this same energy cannot go into strengthening your immune system. It will not be able to handle an attack as efficiently as it would normally do – and you get ill more easily. Additionally, due to your negative attitude, everything will appear much more horrible to you!
That is a very quick and compressed description of my general idea of positivity and health. There are however a few very big factors that are more important than your attitude: bacteria, germs, harmful chemicals and the like!
You cannot, just because of your positive attitude, eat poison and survive! I know some very positive people who still had to fight with bad diseases, not only food-related but in general! Again, a positive attitude will not keep you away from health problems!
Now if you are travelling in India and you ask me for my or our advice, I would say don’t eat out on the road. I don’t eat there myself because I take care of what I put into my belly and body. A lot of people who have been to our Ashram were very fine as long they ate here – but once they were travelling outside and decided to eat wherever they could find something, they fell ill.
Indian people can eat there because their bodies are used to this bacteria. They have been eating that from the beginning of their lives. This doesn’t mean that this bacteria is better for them – but you, coming from a western country with a stomach that has never seen such mean bacteria can fall ill!
A positive attitude is definitely the right thing to have. At the same time, please take care where you eat and what you eat. Go into restaurants instead of eating outside on the road. Don’t drink juices out on the road either, even if the fruit was whole and complete in front of your eyes – you don’t know with which water they were washed and what kind of bacteria is in the juicer which is being used there!
I don’t want to make anybody afraid but this is something you can read in every single guide book as well. Take care of your body please – even while staying positive!