Human development through diet

We are what we eat; and spiritual and intellectual progress may be helped or hindered by what food is eaten and when. Homeopathic and holistic methods emphasize the importance of diet. The Tantric ritual of fIve elements uses food and sex to gain inner knowledge. Traditional Chinese methods divide food into cold or warm and prescribe them in treatment of persons who are predominantly warm or cold. Buddhism and Hinduism look to the harmonizing the five tastes - sweet, salty, vinegary, bitter, hot. Shojin-ryori, Japanese vegetable cooking in the Zen tradition, emphasizes the five tastes plus "soft" taste, such as tofu. It aims to restore connections with the natural environment which has been distanced through modern, centrally heated and air-conditioned living. In this tradition, even the tableware relates to the season.