The Benefits of Eating vegan or Vegetarian on a Retreat
Your body is built out of what you eat. Nutrients like vitamins and minerals are vital to processes like optimal brain function and energy creation. When you feel burned out and fatigued, chances are that you are too tired to prepare food. So, what do you do? You buy prepared meals or order fast food. Eating a meal high in carbohydrates and sugar can provide a temporary high, but soon your body starts craving more and more of these unhealthy foods.
Retreat from unhealthy eating
Bad eating habits can cause dips in energy and blood sugar, causing you to feel tired during the day and causing mental fog. Studies have actually shown that eating too much processed foods, sugar and white carbohydrates can even contribute to anxiety and depression.
One of the reasons people go on a retreat is to get away from their bad eating habits and try to do a nutritional detox. Eating vegetarian on a retreat will support the detox process and benefit your meditation and yoga practices. Most retreats offer a clean eating meal plan that are usually plant-based and can be vegetarian or vegan.
People who eat vegetarian diets are known to have lower risks of certain chronic diseases. This is because vegetarian diets are low in harmful saturated fats and cholesterol and high in fibre, vitamin A and C, folic acid, potassium, magnesium and phytonutrients. Chances are if you start following a healthy vegetarian diet, your weight, cholesterol and blood pressure will go down and so will your risk of developing other chronic diseases.
How will eating vegetarian on a retreat enhance your experience?
Retreats are purposeful getaways aimed at healing and revitalisation. The first step to help aid this is nutrition. Once you cut away the mind-dulling carbohydrates and sugar, you will start experiencing clarity of mind. This will help you focus better on your mindfulness practice and self-discovery.
Retreats are meant to bring you closer to nature, to see it through new eyes and appreciate its beauty. Nutritional fruits and veggies are nature’s biggest gift to us and once you start seeing food as energy, giving off good or bad vibrations, you will start to appreciate it more.
Eating vegetarian on a retreat allows you to experience the mood boosting effects of foods. After a day or two of clean eating your craving for sugar and carbs will start to go away because your body has found a healthier alternative energy source. You will have more energy for your yoga practice and can meditate for longer periods at a time.
Nature friendly
It is also important to remember that eating a plant-based diet is more friendly to the earth. The production of meat takes more water and fertiliser than the farming of plants. Most of the time the animals are kept in stressful environments and fed GMO (genetically modified organisms) grains. GMOs are known to have a negative impact on hormone balance in humans. Big meat plants are also erosive to the earth and can cause deforestation.
If you decide to eat meat after your retreat, ensure the meat is free range, organic and GMO-free and treated humanely.
Resources:
1. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/becoming-a-vegetarian
2. Vegetarian diets: What are the advantages? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15702597
3. Vegetarian, vegan diets and multiple health outcomes: A systematic review with meta-analysis of observational studies. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26853923