Love is food

These days people have become diet conscious and the papers are full of advices of dieticians on the right kind of food and weight loss, etc.

But inspite of all this hype, obesity remains a big issue and the addiction to food doesn’t seem to decrease.

The intellect knows all about the harmful effects of a certain sweet or fried food but the tastebuds are so tempted by the the delicacy that one’s tongue cannot resist. People binge on unhealthy food and later take medical help to deal with the side-effects of unconscious eating.

Once a disciple asked Osho, “Why can’t I stop eating? It sounds ridiculous but I just can’t stop myself.” The first thing that Osho said was not to judge himself, not to condemn the act. If we start condemning a habit, we close the door to understanding it. While the act of eating is just a symptom, meanwhile, the disease is in the mind.

For understanding the problem, we have to be open and receptive to the situation, watch the craving for eating that pops up in the mind. Watch how the tastebuds start producing saliva, every cell in the body becomes active and the body is ready to gobble the food, reviving the memories of the pleasures of eating it had done before.

To be able to watch every nuance of the body and the mind when they are geared up to eat a favourite food, we have to be very alert and develop an attitude of a scientist.
The Osho insight is that if a person is eating more, it is a symptom of a certain undercurrent.

Food is always a substitute for love. People who don’t love, who somehow miss a life of love, start eating more. It is a deeply unconscious process. He goes to the root of the association of food and love: “When a child is born, his first love and his first food are the same thing -- the mother. So there is a deep association between food and love; infact food comes first and then love follows. First, the child eats the mother, then by and by he becomes aware that the mother is not just food.”

“The first day, the child cannot understand love. He understands the language of food, the natural primitive language of all animals. The child is born with hunger; food is needed immediately. Love will not be needed until long after -- it is not so much of an emergency. So the child becomes aware of the association of food and love. So, the child feels that whenever the mother is loving, whenever food is available, love is available. Whenever food is not available, the child feels love is not available, and vice versa. This is in the unconscious.”