How does a minimalist eat?

Here's a sweeping statement that I'll stand by: Simple foods simplify life.

A minimalist eats uncomplicated food. And when you break that down, it turn out to be vegetarian. I am by no means an advocate of vegetarianism, and this is not the arena to discuss the ethical issues behind meat and animal products.

But when it comes to minimalism, vegetarian food wins, here's why. (I would throw half of these reasons out of the window, but the other half is good enough.)

But before you vegetarians start gloating, vegetarian food does not automatically amount to minimalist eating. If your precious plant produce needs hours of prepping, needs to cook for half an hour over LPG fueled fire, simmering with spices flown in from 7 different states before it can be consumed, there's hardly anything simple about it, is there.

I am talking about raw foods. Locally procured, simply prepared and freshly consumed. Minimal time, effort and energy from plant to plate, and minimal digestive effort by the body.  Could you do it?

I am a big foodie, but I think this will be my year to start out in the sattvic, simple diet direction. It is not a forced decision, in fact it is not even a decision. Especially with my strong yoga practice these days, I notice the digestive load that complicated foods put on my body. (I mean even home cooked foods - fry 7 ingredients, grind with coconut, simmer with odds and ends that have been soaking overnight. The worst culprits are our starchy, nutritionally pointless breakfast items)

The myriad health benefits manifest themselves rapidly, and I spot the first effects in my yoga practice. There is so much more focus, I'm able to go deeper into postures and hold them for longer. The mind is clear and quiet.

I don't know how this will evolve. Right now, I'm eating raw food a couple of days a week, whenever possible. Going forward, I'll step up RF to alternate days, slowly easing into the system till cooked, complicated foods are like dessert -  an occasional, enjoyable treat. May take years though.

Lest you should think this is something of a fad diet, think about how sad it is that we now think of simple, straight-forward food as a fad. This is not any kind of diet plan. This is a lazy man's dream, a way of simplifying your life in one fell swoop. Think about it - no sweaty kitchen time, no complex recipes to remember, no stocking of dozens of ingredients, no expensive fuel to buy, no digestion pills to swallow after meals.

The RF menu is surprisingly wide open:

i. Practically any vegetable you can manage (Think beyond carrot and cucumber, you! tender green beans are great too. As is cabbage, radish, turnips, tomatoes, onion, capsicum, tender leaves of all greens like spinach. Actually, experiment. Try a snake gourd. You'll be surprised how many vegetables taste rather nice when raw)

ii. All edible fruit you can lay your hands on

iii. Sprouted pulses. Any pulse. Buy it whole, soak and sprout. Spritz lime juice and chow.

iii. All edible nuts and seeds. Include coconut in nuts, and in seeds, sesame, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds.


To take a minimalist approach to food, just think about how, and how much, you can reduce the number of steps it takes to get the food from the plant to your plate.