Buddhism Final

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Nutrition and being healthy has recently become something like a fad in America. Many people obsess over calories, scour every label to see how much fat a food item has, buy diet cookbooks, and subscribe to fitness and health magazines. However, what millions of Americans don't realize is that health isn't just about monitoring the calories in your food. Being healthy includes taking care of your mental, emotional, and social health on top of physical well-being.
The teachings of the Buddha and the philosophy Buddhism emphasizes this practice of "Whole Health", which is vastly more important to living a healthy life than just focusing on physical well being. Modern day science only focuses on food containing only physical material and keeping the physical body in good shape, but hardly focuses on the mental, emotional, and social aspect of being healthy. Is eating well and getting enough exercise important? Of course it is. Should it be the main focus of one who is truly looking for a healthier lifestyle? To answer that question, the teachings of the Buddha will be examined and explored to argue what "being healthy" really means and if modern science has been teaching the wrong steps to being healthy for hundreds of years.
We will first start by defining what the term "Whole Health" actually means, and what modern science is currently teaching people as the correct way to be healthy. According to the publication "Buddha's Idea Concerning Food and a New View of Nutrition" by Hyeon-Sook Lim, Sang-Ju Hwang, and Sung Bae Park - ( the publication of which will be referenced throughout the rest of this essay) describes Whole Health as: "An integrated state of well-being of mind with true enjoyment, well-being of soul with true deli...

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...iritual phenomena cannot be separated. It is also stated that "Mind and even soul are intrinsically linked to the body and vice versa, as body is connected to the mind and soul and each influences the others." Basically, that food doesn't just affect your physical health.
When discussing what the Buddha said about food, we must of course discuss the First Precept and the universal practice of vegetarianism. The First Precept, in short, states that we must refrain from harming or killing living creatures. This of course results in the notorious vegetarian diet that essentially prohibits Buddhists to have the consumption of any and all meat. In Buddhist practice, it is thought that each food has various levels of energy associated with it.

Works Cited

"Buddha's Idea Concerning Food and a New View of Nutrition" by Hyeon-Sook Lim, Sang-Ju Hwang, and Sung Bae Park

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