Vita Illuminata – Lifestyle for Spiritual Seekers

People living in cities run a higher risk of suffering from depression or an anxiety disorder.

Researchers now have a possible explanation: An experiment showed a much stronger response to stress in the brain of city residents.

Moving to the countryside sounds for many urban dwellers like relaxation, better air, less traffic noise and perhaps even time to work in your own garden. In fact, both, growing up and living in a city affects the brain’s ability to cope with stress. Researchers led by Florian Lederbogen from the Central Institute of Mental Health (ZI) in Mannheim elaborate in the science journal Nature on the connection between living in a city and mental stress.

Together with researchers from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, they observed in a series of several trials a total of nearly 160 volunteers solving particular tasks. Part of the volunteers were deliberately put under stress by the researchers: time to solve complicated mathematical problems was too short and the volunteers also had to put up with negative feedback through their headphones during the exercise. During the trial, researchers examined the brain activity of participants using magnetic resonance imaging.

In the city dwellers the so-called amygdala was more active than in people who live in rural areas. The amygdala area of  the brain becomes active during dangerous situations and is a kind of fear center. Changes in the amygdala have been linked with anxiety and depression. In people who lived in a big city with more than 100,000 inhabitants, the activity of the amygdala was  significantly higher than in those from towns with more than 10,000 but less than 100,000 inhabitants.

Among the participants, who had grown up in a big  city, the researchers observed a further difference: the so-called cingulate cortex – part of the frontal lobe of the brain – reacted more strongly. This in turn affects the amygdala. ‘These two regions in the brain are particularly susceptible to stress,” said Meyer-Lindenberg  of the research team.

City Dwellers suffer more frequently from depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia

What’s more fattening, candy or chips?

Over a period of 20 years, researchers have accompanied more than 120,000 people on the search for the worst fattening foods.

The ranking holds a surprise.

It does not sound so dramatic: about 380 grams gained the participants of a large U.S. study on average per year. But as time adds up so does the weight – after the 20 years study period participating men and women carried an average of 7.6 kg more weight around with them than at the beginning of the overweight study.

Using data from 98320 men and 22557 women scientists around Dariush Mozaffarian of the Harvard Medical School detected which foods were more strongly associated with weight gain. As described in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine‘ report, the data came from three major studies – the first and second Nurses’ Health Study, in which nurses across the U.S. participated and the ‘Health Professionals Follow-up Study’, which examined men working in health care. At the beginning of the study participants were of normal weight.

Obesity is a worldwide problem, current data suggest that a half billion people are considered overweight, 500 million even as obese because they have a body mass index over 30.

Potatoes turned out to be fattening

The study participants declared their current weight every four years and also explained what foods they had eaten, whether they practiced sport, smoked and how much time they spent watching TV. The researchers then calculated how changed eating and lifestyle habits impact weight gain respectively loss. So they traced, what foods were eaten more or less and in what frequency in a four-year period compared to the prior four years.

On snack, little surprising, proved as particularly devastating for gain weight: potato chips. Any extra serving (30 grams of chips) manifested itself after four years in the form of 770 grams of gained weight. Per serving of potatoes, 580 grams were gained, while French fries (1.5 pounds) had a significantly greater effect than boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes (260 grams). The drinking of sugary soft drinks was associated with 450 grams of weight gain, red meat and sausages accounted for about 430 grams each.

Surprisingly, however, was the result for sweets: the daily serving of dessert or sweets was associated with an increase of about 180 grams only.

Who, on the other hand, ate more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts or yogurt compared to the previous 4-year-period, diminished their weight.  Weight reduction was about 100 grams per serving of vegetables, 220 grams per serving of fruit, 170 grams for whole food products, 260 for nuts and even 370 grams for yogurt, – in which the study did not distinguish between full-and low-fat dairy products.

Eating nuts in addition to chips to reduce weight?

Well, that is obviously not the formula against obesity. ‘These foods contain calories and can not violate any physical laws,’ the scientists write. That the participants lose weight if they eat more vegetables, nuts or yogurt, can only be explained by the fact that they substituted lower quality food and thus received a fewer calories.

The total influence of eating habits on the weight is more than other lifestyle habits, even if every hour in front of the TV was calculated as 140 grams more weight after four years by the research.

The researchers point out that only 50 to 100 kilo calories too many per day could lead to gradual weight gain, as it took place in the study with many participants. To prevent obesity, they recommend to consume some foods, like chips and sugary soft drinks, less and others, such as vegetables, more.

This is consistent with many well-known dietary recommendations.

The fruitarian diet consists of raw fruit and seeds only and it is more than a nutrition system, it is a life style. Most spiritual seekers are drawn towards vegetarianism or even towards Fruitarianism. The website of the International Fruitarian Organization provides a solid overview of what a fruitarian diet is all about.

After my 10 day detox I tried a strictly fruitarian diet for about a month, but then resorted to the variety of a broad vegetarian diet. While the benefits of a fruitarian diet are eminent, it did not appear to be practical dietary choice for myself  at this time:  I started to feel sluggish after about two weeks as if lacking vital nutrients.

This was one year ago. After this year’s detox I felt different during and after my fast. And having spent some 10 days on a fruitarian diet  I am thriving with vitality. So what has changed from one year ago?

The main difference has been my intensification of Pranayma within my practice of yoga. Effects of Pranayama defy common perception of human physiology. The Sanskrit word ‘Prana’ is a combination of two syllables, ‘pra’ and ‘na’, and denotes constancy, a force in constant motion. Prana is the vital force that sustains not only the body, but creation at every level. The Upanishads relate the following story: One day all the deities that reside in the body – air, fire, water, earth, ether, speech and mind – quarreled about who is superior to all the others. Each claimed ‘I sustain this perishable body’. Prana simply observed the argument and finally declared: ‘Do not delude yourself. It is I, having divided myself into five parts, who supports and sustains this body’. As the other deities did not believe, Prana began to withdraw from the body. At this moment, all the other deities found themselves withdrawing too. As Prana resettled in the body, the deities faund themselves assuming their respective places. Upon this convincing display of superiority, all deities now pay obeisance to Prana.

The science of Pranayama (nyama = to suspend or restrain in Sanskrit) uses the agency of the breath to access the pranic field, to attain balance and control of the mind. The practice of Pranayama involve guiding the respirationbeyond its normal limit, stretching it, speeding it up and slowing it down in order to experience the full range of respiration both the gross and the subtle level.

While  my progress in Pranayama is nowhere near that of  the 82-year-old who claims he has not had any food or drink for 70 years and recently made it into the international press, I can clearly detect a more vivid and balanced life force.  The article in the Telegraph states that ‘Mr Jani, who claims to have left home aged seven and lived as a wandering sadhu or holy man in Rajasthan, is regarded as a ‘breatharian’ who can live on a ‘spiritual life-force’ alone. He believes he is sustained by a goddess who pours an ‘elixir’ through a hole in his palate’.

This may not prove anything. However, from my own experience I can assert that not only food nourishes our body, but that it is a practice like Pranayama, aiming at control of the vital force, that make Fruitarianism a viable dietary choice. Without such a ‘spiritual practice’ and the accompanying gains in concsiousness, follwoing a fruitarian diet may well be beyond the capabilities of the average person aiming at improving general health.