What is food?

Is its purpose taste? Is its purpose to satiate hunger? What is spiritual food?

Dictionary Definition
food [ food ]
1. source of nutrients: material that provides living things with the nutrients they need for energy and growth
2. solid nourishment: substances, or a particular substance, providing nourishment for people or animals, especially in solid as opposed to liquid form
3. mental stimulus: something that sustains or stimulates the mind or soul

Jullien’s Definition
Food is any natural substance that energizes the mind, body, or soul.

The purpose of food is to give energy. The purpose of physical food is not for taste—although taste is a plus—or to satiate hunger, especially if the substance is unhealthy. The body needs energy to operate and survive. Howard, oftentimes the things that we eat take our energy away because of how much energy they require for the body to process them in comparison to how much energy they give us. There is stored energy in most of the things we eat, but some foods give more energy per helping than others.

Inspiring or insightful information is also a source of food for thought. It feeds curiosities, questions, and our desire to grow. When information challenges our current way of thinking, we either reject it as nasty because it doesn’t fit our limited taste buds, or we try it to expand our palette. New flavors of information actually increase our hunger for more information that taste similar. I remember the first time I had Ethiopian food—it didn’t taste like anything else I had ever tasted, but it made me want more. Information works the same way.

Spiritual food includes any inspired experience. It comes in many forms—interactions with people, moments of gratitude, serendipity, or synchronicity, love, gift giving and receiving, acts of service, quality time, words of affirmation, heartfelt physical touch, etc. Spiritual food creates e-motion which is a feeling-based energy that can be used for whatever one wants.