It's no secret that what we eat affects our health, but how does it affect the mind? Can eating specific foods help you think more clearly, improve your ability to focus, or increase your creativity? By the same token, can avoiding certain foods have a similar effect? Can your diet also increase or decrease your odds of experiencing expanded states of consciousness or awareness?
Those are the questions I'll be exploring over the next few months as I transition from being a carnivore to being a vegetarian. During the first month, I'll eliminate only meat, fish and poultry. That will put me in the category of "lacto-ovo vegetarian" -- a vegetarian who doesn't eat meat but still eats eggs and dairy products. During the second month, I'll also eliminate eggs and dairy products, which will put me in the vegan category.
My goal is to observe how the change in diet affects my mind, and to get answers to these questions, among others:
- Will I think more clearly or have an easier time focusing?
- Will I feel more creative or inspired?
- Will I notice any changes in dreaming or an increase in the frequency of lucid dreams?
- Will my awareness or sensitivity increase?
- Will I notice changes in my emotional state, in how I react or respond to various situations?
- Will my experiences during meditation and other consciousness-related practices be affected by the change in diet?
I'll stick to a vegan diet for a minimum of a few months. I believe it will take at least that long (probably longer) for my body to fully shed the toxins from my current meat-eating diet and adjust to the new neurochemical balance triggered by the vegan diet. If the positive results outweigh any negative results, I'll remain a vegan for the long-term. It's something I've often considered doing over the past few years, but until now I wasn't ready to make that change in my life.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I love seeing that you’re doing a vegan experiment!
I’ve been vegan for about 11 years now. If you want to talk about vegan food, nutrition, staples of the diet, easy things to make, feel free to send me email. Vegans LOVE to talk about food. It’s what we do best.
Hi Ben,
I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian for a couple of years (approximately ten years ago) but I did it all wrong. Back then my diet consisted mostly of bread, pasta, cheese, etc., and nowhere near enough fruit or vegetables, so I eventually gave up and went back to eating meat. This time around, I plan to do it right and stick to a diet of mostly fruits, vegetables, legumes, etc.
My goal is to make this a permanent change rather than a short-term experiment, but using it as an experiment will be fun too. I don’t like to enter into an experiment with a pre-formed expectation of certain results, but in this case it’s difficult not to do that since I already know I feel better whenever I eat more fruit/veggies and less meat/dairy products, and I know I also usually feel better when I eat more fresh food and less processed pre-packaged food. But, I’ve never thoroughly tracked the results or kept detailed notes about it, so hopefully the experiment will prove interesting one way or the other.
~ Kris