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The Spiritual Seeker Can Change the Normal Human Focus on Food to a More Balanced Perspective That Supports His Focus on Sadhana · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  In the ordinary life in society, food plays an especially
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  important and high profile role. We treat food as a centerpiece
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  of our various celebrations, as rewards, as comfort when we are
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  under stress, and as something we consume out of boredom or
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  inattention. Food taste, food preparation,
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  food choices all become major topics of consideration and
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  discussion. For those who live in a
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  circumstance with modest or low food availability, there is
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  obviously a focus on acquiring enough food for the basic needs
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  of the body. This is tempered by other life
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  needs and a recognition of the scarcity in the 1st place.
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  Despite the need, food cannot occupy a central place in the
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  lives of people who simply do not have access to sufficient
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  food, although it still occupies an important place.
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  As availability becomes possible for those who are in a position
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  to reside in a society with an abundance of food and wide
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  availability, we see the role and focus on food actually
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  increasing. There may be some habit or
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  instinct carried over from a past filled with scarcity that
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  overcompensates beyond current actual need.
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  There is, however, a lot of social interaction that
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  accentuates the desire for food, for special tastes or types of
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  foods, and which uses food as a reward, as a solace, and as
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  compensation for other needs. Health professionals and
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  researchers bombard us constantly with information on
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  various nutrients we need and the risks attended on not
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  acquiring those nutrients, which further increases our anxiety
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  about getting enough and the right type of foods and our
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  fixation on food. So much for the ordinary life
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  and society. All of this focus on the
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  physical body and its needs or demands tends to create a sense
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  of dullness in the consciousness, accentuating the
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  action of the guna of tamas. For the spiritual seeker, this
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  focus on food becomes a major distraction if it is not
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  addressed by definition. The spiritual aspirant needs to
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  to direct his focus on the sadhna, on the aspiration, on
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  the receptivity, on the surrender to the higher
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  transformative forces and on the rejection of various
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  distractions that come through the background that all human
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  beings bring to the process, which includes all of this
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  enormous focus on food and its availability, its taste, its
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  preparation and its role in our lives.
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  The spiritual seeker, as he shifts his focus away from the
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  physical body and the vital nature and begins to adopt the
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  standpoint of the psychic being which uses the human instrument
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  but is not bound by it, can begin to have an entirely
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  different relationship to food. If we look at our use of an
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  automobile, we treat it as a tool or instrument for achieving
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  certain objectives. We need to ensure it gets the
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  fuel it requires when it requires it, but we do not
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  generally think about feeding it fuel until the tank is close to
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  empty. Similarly, the various nutrients
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  in the form of other fluids such as steering fluid, brake fluid,
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  transmission fluid, windshield cleaning fluid are only
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  addressed occasionally during times of maintenance.
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  Generally, if we begin to look at the physical body along
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  similar lines, we can find a more balanced approach in our
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  relationship to food, and thus we can reduce the time and
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  attention and importance we give to it at present.
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  This opens up more time, focus and attention for the spiritual
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  pursuits, Sriorovindo notes. Quote Do not trouble your mind
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  about food. Take it in the right quantity,
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  neither too much nor too little, without greed or repulsion as
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  the means given you by the Mother for the maintenance of
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  the body in the right spirit, offering it to the Divine in
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  you, then it need not create Thomas.
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  End Quote reference. Srioro Bindo, Faces of Yoga,
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  Chapter 4 Desire food Sex page 66.