You might have heard these three words (body, mind, and soul) used together before, or you might be wondering what nutrition has to do with your mind and soul. After all, isn’t nutrition just fuel for your body? If this is the way you think about food, you are not alone. Food is fuel, just like putting gasoline (or electricity) in your car. It is the energy utilized to make the body function. Food is composed of and broken down into three macronutrients: carbohydrate, protein, and fat. All of these components can supply energy, and many of the people I talk to want to narrow food down to just that, an energy supply. I often hear things like, “I only want to see food as fuel” or “I only want to eat exactly what I need” or “I just need you to tell me what to eat and I’ll do it”. While that may sound appealing it is also extremely limiting and to be honest, unrealistic. Food provides more than just nutrients. Food also feeds our mind and soul.

Can you remember an experience with food from when you were growing up? When I think about my childhood related to food, I am flooded with memories. I recall standing at the kitchen counter with my mom learning how to make my late grandmother’s famous spaghetti sauce. There was no real recipe, just some things written on a small piece of paper. We measured by pouring the dried herbs, sugar, and salt into our hands, and my mom would say, “about this much” as we dumped it into the tomato sauce. We would let it cook all day, going back to taste it and see if we needed to make any adjustments. The aroma of the sauce would permeate the entire house, and no matter where you were, you knew what was for dinner. To this day, that is how I make spaghetti sauce, and it has always been one of my favorite foods.

I have clear memories of camping with family and our entire camping crew. They are still referred to as,  “the camping group”. We would go multiple times a year to the beach or up north to the beautiful Redwoods. One of our favorite things to make was something termed Sycamore Sludge, named after one of our go-to camping spots. I know the name itself might not sound oh-so-appealing, but let me tell you, it was scrumptious and the perfect camping food. My friends and I would ask for it every trip, and we would devour it! It was boxed macaroni and cheese cooked over the camping stove with cut up hot dogs mixed in. It might have been lunch, an easy dinner, or maybe both!

My maternal grandfather passed away when I was in sixth grade, but to this day, when I see fresh peaches or someone mentions homemade ice cream, my thoughts turn straight to him. Peach ice cream was his favorite! I can picture the wooden ice cream machine plugged in on the back porch, churning away, as we played in the jacuzzi or ran around the yard. Peach ice cream was a treat, because peach season in California is limited to a couple months in the summer. The days were sweltering, but once the ice cream was done, it was pure bliss. It was perfectly creamy with a frosty undertone. Its color was off-white, and the smell of fresh peach radiated when you opened the lid and touched your nose with every bite. While I haven’t had homemade peach ice cream in ages, the smell, texture and taste are still as vivid as they were those summer days.

For many years I practiced softball for countless hours a day with my teammates and coaches. We would were always on the field during the hot summer afternoons. There were days when my coaches would end practice early and say, “ice cream on us”. We would all walk across the street to Thrifty’s and pick whatever ice cream flavor we wanted. My favorite was always Chocolate Malted Crunch. We would sit outside on the cement, talking and laughing, without a care, and then head back over and wait for our parents to pick us up. It was a time for us to bond as a team and with our coaches.

You see, if food was only fuel, and only about eating the “perfect” (whatever that is) amount for my body, then I would not have had those experiences nor those memories that are still clear as day. While our bodies need us to consider the fuel we put in to feel well and function as a whole, our mind and soul also need us to consider how food may affect them. Food feeds more than just our bodies. It can provide enjoyment and comfort. It can serve as a tool to bond with others. It can be celebratory or used to connect and serve during times of grief. It can be a fun way to explore smells and textures. It can be a way to remember people and experiences of the past.

I know for some people that can be scary. It might feel scary that food will provide enjoyment or comfort. “If I allow myself to enjoy eating or to eat for comfort, will it ever stop?” Utilizing food for anything other than strictly nutrients has gotten a bad wrap. While always eating to “stuff” down unwanted emotions and never allowing yourself to feel, or always eating when you are bored and not finding other activities to engage in, or always eating past fullness and dismissing your body’s cues can be problematic, doing these things sometimes is normal and appropriate. Food has always been a part of cultural and familial traditions, eliciting emotions and bringing connection. When we take that away, we miss the joy that food can bring in more aspects than just feeding our bodies. Further, when we narrow food down to just nutrients, we tend to think about it in terms of good and bad or healthy and unhealthy, and in doing so, we create stress and potentially isolation or missed experiences. When we are critical of ourselves and the food we are eating, we create an internal environment that makes it more difficult to digest food and to listen to the signals our body, mind, and soul are sending about what we need. When we are relaxed and able to enjoy food without judgement, we can hear these signals, assess them, and make choices from a place of self-care. Our soul-self knows how to nurture and guide us and it always acts from a place of love, not fear. We just need to be open in order to listen to it.

The body, mind, and soul connection is not easy to categorize. It is all intertwined. We can see how making choices affects all three aspects. For instance, choosing to do yoga stretches, strengthens, and energizes the body, quiets the mind, and reconnects to the soul. Choosing to barbecue with friends, feeds the body with nutrition, stimulates the mind through conversation, and enlivens our soul through love and connection.

In short, food is fuel, but it also has the potential to feed us more on an emotional and spiritual level, and I believe, that is how it is meant to be. My hope is that we can come to a place where we view food and nutrition as something that can strengthen and impact not only the body but also the mind and soul. When all three aspects (body, mind, and soul) are cultivated and in alignment, we treat ourselves and others with love and respect, and we thrive individually and as a whole. This is my goal in helping you to heal your relationship with food.