Hello Nexians!

I'm a new memember and I'd like to create a new topic about something I'm wondering these days.

I'm really interested in food, taste, habits, emotions and psychedelics. I'm exploring myself and I would like you to share your experiences to make them together and maybe understand a bit more about it.

I wonder the following questions:

- Have you experienced a change in your diet since you started taking psychedelics? If so, with which psychedelics?
- Do you think could be a relation between some kind of taste and some emotion involed?

Whatever you can imagine that has a relation with the topic will be welcome



Anahata.

For sure! I stopped eating meat after my first psy-experience (with LSD). I also try to minimize my intake of processed and modified foods. I generally stick to organic fruit and veg, basic foods such as bread, rice, beans, pasta etc. I also feel I have a lot more control over how much I eat; I used to be able to eat obscene amounts after smoking cannabis and had no real desire to ration myself - just because I wasn't becoming 'overweight' it seemed okay...



I stopped eating meat after spending a while tripping looking at cows. I thought to myself that a natural carnivore would see those cows and think "mmmm, that looks tasty" and probably proceed to kill and eat the animal if it was hungry... My parents and many close friends are vegetarian so I had a few people to give me advice on cutting out meat, and it was easy! No cravings at all

As for other foods, it just feels natural to be eating what grows from the earth without too much messing around with it - try and eat a McDonald's on mushrooms and you'll see what I mean! I feel a million times better for having a good diet now and I thank psychedelics soo much for that - they truly have the power to improve life almost limitlessly if used with respect.

How about you? Did you experience anything similar?

I have stopped eating meat since getting involved with Psychedelics, but I have to admit I still do eat fish from time to time. Often while I am, I beat myself up for it thinking there's no difference between the importance of a shrimp and a cow- but somehow I still think there is

+1 also on sticking more to organic and raw foods. I find now I mostly snack on oranges, nuts, and stick away from pretty much everything in the middle of the grocery store ^-^


Oh yea- one last thing- I also enjoy ice cream WAY more now that I only have it once a month or so hehe

well it had to do with more than just psychedelics but they did play a big part (aya/lsd/mush/MJ)..especially in showing me what i was doing to my body by eating junk food all the time..not to mention the brain. our brains are the most sensitive and complex things in the friggin universe, so it just makes sense that the things we use to fuel and build it should probably be of good quality heheh

basically now i just drink spring water..i don't eat any processed foods or meats.. and try to eat as much wild and organic food as i can. the results have been pretty remarkable for me. but i don't recommend people try transitioning straight from a standard american diet to one like this too quickly. Some can do it. but most, like me, had to make the switch gradually. breaking the physical and psychological addictions to all the crap out there these days can feel magnificent

yeah it can definitely set yourself up to fail if you try to switch to fast

i sort of had that problem as well in the beginning

I had a recent stint as a raw vegan and am now adding in some healthy animal products as of lately. I think it's important to learn how to eat fruits and vegetables, but we should also remember that high quality animal products are also an important part of human diet. Remember i'm not talking about overeating or eating out of proportion. Just in moderation. For example grass fed dairy, raw milks and cheeses. Pastured eggs. It's just that we eat a bunch of processed animal products which are fed gmo grains and treated like crap... Those are my thoughts on food right now

My wife and I transitioned to vegetarianism about 18 years ago. It was a gradual transition: first red meat, then chicken, then fish. During this time (and to this day) we researched and experimented a lot to keep our diets both balanced and enjoyable. At the time of the transition, psychedelics were a huge part of the picture for both of us. Developing a stronger sense of connection to the whole world, animals included, was part of what led us to this decision. I don't miss meat, but that's largely because we eat a lot of really amazing home cooked food.

More directly: once I was on a heavy dose of shrooms and ended up somehow with a dictionary in my lap. I'm an artist who enjoys painting organic stuff, so I looked up the word "organic". But my brain just instantly connected the definition with food, and I suddenly developed a very strong aversion to non-organic produce, which persists to this day. We spend a lot on our groceries but hey, it's an investment into your only material possession that really matters: your body.

And on a totally different note... This seems like a good place to talk about one of my more memorable bad trips.

It was my birthday. I'd fasted all day, as I normally do before taking acid or shrooms, then at sunset took 300ug of LSD. This is a dose that I'd usually consider fairly light (I can paint or tattoo on 300 and get good results). I was having back problems at the time, and my wife gave me an amazing hour long deep tissue massage as I was coming on. She left the room as I began to peak, and I lay on the table looking at three of my paintings on the wall. They are a trio of glowing images that are each part of a larger series, which all together form a sort of superstructural theme that informs everything that I do. This fact was really sitting in me at that moment, when a quiet chanting voice began in my head. It was my own voice, chanting: "This is my path... This is my path..." and soon it was two voices, both of them mine... Then three, ten, a hundred, a thousand voices, chanting in perfect unison; this is my path... A billion, trillion, quadrillion, decillion voices, chanting in a thunder that shook my whole being: "THIS IS MY PATH..." and then I sort of snapped out of it, sat up, took a deep breath. Holy crap.

I needed grounding, and fast. Food! That sounded nice and physical and mundane, so I dismounted the table and wobbled into the kitchen. In the fridge were some leftovers from dinner, a raisins/brown rice concoction. Sounded good; served myself a small bowl.

With the first bite I recognized the strong contrast: the salty, vinegar soaked rice with the sweetness of the raisins. I somehow concluded that these elements directly represented all kinds of aspects of my life, not just food related ones, and that I needed more of one element, and far less of the other. That one would kill me and the other would save me. The only problem was, I couldn't figure out which one would do which.

It felt like a life or death question: Raisins, or brown rice? So, for my birthday, my wife spent the rest of the night babysitting me as I went through wave after wave of existential panic. The whole night wasn't all bad and in fact featured a few transcendental moments. But the food thing factored into the picture in a very weird way.

Welcome to the Nexus Anahata... When you've got a moment, drop by Introduction Essays, and introduce yourself!

One badass moment, daaaamn


I will only add that I cannot stand refined/processed foods at all now. Also my body developed a harsh dislike for pretty much all noxious substances. However all of these changes occured after I stopped using psychedelics namely in the process of integrating my journeys.

And yes tastes and emotions are fundamentally linked in a certain way. It is recommended to practitioners of certain meditative spiritual/monastic paths that they eat an extremely bland but highly nutritious diet. This is to train the body's ability to cease desires by strengthening one's ability to resist temptations. The logic is that richly flavoured foods are an indulgence and being used to indulging regularly carries over into every facet of life.

Not only that but all foods are passively psychoactive and the various vitamins and nutrients and phytochemicals and other things in them bind to various bodily receptors each producing a certain pronounced emotional effect. For example spices would have an aphrodisiac effect while tryptophan heavy foods would be sedating and calming. In addition to that many such foods are actively psychoactive and of course entheogens would be a subset of this class.

Then we have the finding that the hygiene of the mouth is a powerful predictor for the total health of the entire body; in that poor oral hygiene is linked to all sorts of disorders such as diabetes, heart disease and so on and the correlation works in both directions. The mouth is a gateway for psychoactives of all kinds and one subset includes toxins, those in the atmosphere and also those produced by organisms that make their way into one's body and also the byproducts of food.

So all in all, great idea for a thread. It is only now that I understand how absolutely important it is to observe the 'dieta' common to all ethnobotanical shamanic practice even for the average psychonaut. There are so many subtle factors in food that decide entirely your whole life. The food you eat today is literally the decider of your tomorrow: sleep quality, energy levels, desire to push one's boundaries, confidence levels, ability to make sound financial decisions and of course creativity and intellect. Forget the stock market, invest your money's worth directly in that which goes straight into your gut because that alone is the source of true power.

Sure, I went from a back and forth vegetarian-meat eater, to a 100% raw vegan for a few years..all organic and at times fruitarian.

That did not work in the end. Now I appreciate meat and animal products more than ever, and I no longer believe in the raw food thing either. We evolved with fire. I eat all organic food, mostly local and some wild and lots of home grown stuff and I drink the purest wild spring water I collect and nothing else. I feel like I am the closest to an indigenous diet I have ever been and it is how I evolved to be eating. I dont eat any wheat or anything with gluten and I dont eat any pasturized dairy ever.

I can say this..I felt like I got the message before with ayahuasca that this whole raw vegan thing was super great..until I slowly over time started to feel like complete crap and drank ayahuasca one day and woke up needing to eat some meat like it was screaming at me to do it. Maybe I needed to detox from a SAD diet before doing what I am doing now...but the whole no meat, all raw thing seems to have only been viable for the short term and I dont ever want to feel how I felt at the end of it again. I have yet to meet a long term vegan in real life that is healthy.

I hear you Jamie... If not for all the eggs and cheese (the highest quality only) I think I'd shrivel up. As long as my body doesn't crave meat, though, I'm quite happy without it.

On a side note, during pregnancy and nursing my wife ate a bit of wild caught salmon... Definitely a protein boost she needed.

I think the vegan/raw diet is kind of extreme, and while I admire the intentions behind it, most folks only stick with it for a short while. It can make for a great detox program though, and incorporating a good bit of the raw philosophy into your diet is a great thing.

Hello!!

Thanks for sharing Nexians =)

HappyHippie, I have experienced different situations related with food and psychedelics.
The last I can remember was a month ago. I took 200ug of LSD and before going to sleep, at 2 or 3am. I was really hungry and my love prepared for me some 'healthy snack'. It was an spelt toast with some sprouts, avocado, carrot and nuts oil on the top. It was really tasty ...BUT! I could realize about something new (for me)!: It was noisy !!!! this krunchy toast resounded in all my mouth and head. I tried to eat it but I could not. Our room was really quiet and this noise was like an explosion inside. I could eat the rest of the vegetables but no more toasted.
Then I started thinking about another possible way to mesure food: the acoustic level. It would be great analize the noise- acoustic of the food and then decide when do we want this 'explosion' and when we want a 'more silent´ food.

Since that experience I try to listen what's going on with food, not only how it is for my stomach, also feeling the first bite.


About vegetaranism and raw food...i'm experiencing it for a while, but I didn't start due to psychedelics experencies.

Another day on lsd, I have also felt myself anxious while eating pizza (a 'good one' only tomato, herbs and mozzarella di buffala) and now when I eat it I can feel it. I wonder if pizza and some other stuff like sweets makes me anxious or when I'm anxious I need this kind of food... At first I thought it could be the second option but since that experience I start thinking about that possibility.


Thanks also Guyomech and Jamie for sharing. I agree this point of respecting the process of changing habits. I stopped eating meat and fish 4-5 years ago because I was shocked with some videos of animals suffering. I didn't like vegetables... I only ate pasta, rice, bread, letuce, tomato, cheese and eggs. I was only 16-17 years old and I didn 't know about eating healthy. WHat happened? I ate some meat and tuna again because I was not doing it in a good way.Luckyly I stopped again last year because I started eating other good stuff and now I don't miss meat at all, only salmon somethimes =)


Thanks also to embracethevoid. This thing about mouth is really important and I also try to hear what happens in my mouth when I eat.
I really agree this sentence you wrote: invest your money's worth directly in that which goes straight into your gut because that alone is the source of true power.
Thanks for remind it to me


Anahata.

One interesting thing is that I simply cannot tolerate pasturized dairy, and I actaully think that is is likely not good for anyone. There are a number of enzymes in raw milk that pass through the digestive tract with the lactose to aid in the digestion of it. There is all sorts of information out there on this..for a very very very long time humans never had pasturized dairy..we cooked meat, tubers etc..and we drank raw dairy.

Now, I have always been "lactose intolerant" and I still cannot even drink the best grass fed raw milk from heirloom jersey cows..I get headaches and other problems when I do..but I can eat aged raw cheese from these same cows due to the extremely low lactose content of it after aging..I can only assume this is why..either way I am completely fine with the cheese even though I am lactose intolerant according to my doctor. I cannot handle pasturized cheese though..my body wont accept it..so this was new to me as I was very much against dairy altogether for a number of years.

The animal suffering thing is horrible..but I dont eat those animals. I have not eaten a factory farmed animal in a very very long time.

Weston Price concluded after his studies that pasturized dairy, along with some other products of industrial agriculture were causing epigenetic damamge.

Also, the first 18 months or so of being 100% raw vegan with no cooked food and no animal products aside from raw bee honey felt like a high..after that 18 months things began to go downhill fast..faster and faster..so please anyone concidering this be aware of that. Dont get so caught up in it becasue you feel great 2 mornth or 6 months later that you are unable to be open minded about your diet later on if things dont end up going so well. I have met a number of people that seem to be in denial about the whole thing and have latched on to this idea that humans HAVE to be vegan to be healthy etc..and not all of them are perfect pictures of health..some look like scarecrows.

after lsa i get unbelievably hungry. like pot muchies X 100.

.

For me milk it's not good neither... I drink oat rice or almond drinks...
but organic yoghurt it's good for my stomach, I still haven 't felt the opposite.
And cheese... mm depends. I try to eat organic ones and the softers. Only some parmesano once or twice a month and I don 't feel it hurts me.

I'm excited actually to try some nice local grassfed raw milk, plan to contact this certain farm soon...I had significant improvements in my health after quitting conventional/pastuerized dairy, so i'm interested in how raw milk would treat me. I would definitely grab some raw milk kefir/yogurt if I could!

I tried a raw egg this week, it was organic and pasture raised. I ate mostly just the yolk and it was surprisingly tasty! I've read lately and heard from couple different places that you get ~80% more nutrition eaten raw, because when cooked the proteins coagulate and makes it more difficult to unlock and digest.


Also I want to add, that improving my diet and going through the ideas of vegan, organic, and raw foods have played a major role in my becoming a better man and developing spiritually.

"I've read lately and heard from couple different places that you get ~80% more nutrition eaten raw, because when cooked the proteins coagulate and makes it more difficult to unlock and digest."

Well, in the case of eggs they are actaully more digestable when cooked. If you eat an egg raw you wont absorb the ammount of nutrients that you when cooked.

In general there is a lot of just bullshit information out there about raw food being more digestable etc..in some cases this is true..like with dairy..but in general this is not the case. You have to look at each specific food rather than just buy into the claims of people who would have you believe that eating raw food necessarily means you absorb more or it digests better etc.

We have had fire for a long time.

"I've read lately and heard from couple different places that you get ~80% more nutrition eaten raw, because when cooked the proteins coagulate and makes it more difficult to unlock and digest."

Well, in the case of eggs they are actaully more digestable when cooked. If you eat an egg raw you wont absorb the ammount of nutrients that you when cooked.

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/128/10/1716.full

In general there is a lot of just bullshit information out there about raw food being more digestable etc..in some cases this is true..like with dairy..but in general this is not the case. You have to look at each specific food rather than just buy into the claims of people who would have you believe that eating raw food necessarily means you absorb more or it digests better etc. It is good to eat a certain ammount of raw food but other things are either better digested cooked or simply have to be cooked to even be edible.

We have had fire for a long time.

I've definitely changed my eating habits as a part of my personal development, and psychedelics have definitely acted as catalysts to some important changes in my path.

I can't say how I would have developed myself if I had never taken psychedelics, there's no 'control group' for myself. In any case I do feel that psychedelics have helped me becoming healthier in general, and have a broader and more balanced perspective on food.

Often it happened that on some psychedelic I ate something or thought about some food and realised it was not good to eat it. And many of these realisations are long lasting!

It's interesting that now I think of things from other levels too. For example, before, I might have bought some food and think just like: "hmm it's cheap and tasty". Now I add other levels like: how this food is for my health, where it came from and ecological/social costs, context where I'm consuming and social bonding, any symbolic meaning I can give to the food, etc etc. And then by considering these different levels and making my own subjective judgement, I can decide on what and how I eat. Also it's funny when you can see these levels happening with other people even though they might not be aware... Seeing weird people eat bad food is quite a scary sight on psychedelics O_o

For sure jaime, I believe cooking is smart in many cases and maybe what I heard is not true. Maybe it is just as digestible...or slightly less? Either way, there seems to be some kind of therapeutic effect maybe...For example, one of my aunts when she was young and was a singer she would eat raw eggs, for her voice I guess. There seems to be some kind of myth surrounding this idea. And Rocky with the raw eggs, bodybuilders throwing raw eggs in smoothies...Is it a bad idea you think? I know the egg whites raw can lead to a biotin deficiancy, but otherwise I don't know.

Well personally I smoke weed and have ingested psilocybin on various occasions and since ive shroomed i have definitely become more aware of my diet. I definitely enjoy fruit more than i did before and i also notice scientific findings & studies ect. regarding diet more so than i did before. It may have something to do with emotion as well because i had a family member recently die of cancer and i did a lot of research on dietary cures and treatment for cancer.

this is interesting though, good luck with your findings!