QuestionDear Evelyn,
Fortunately, I am a young, healthy person with no digestion issues, but I try to become as conscious about proper nutrient intake as possible. I have read some of your older posts stating that microwaving food ruins the dynamic force in food beyond repair. From my experience, indeed, whenever I eat microwaved food (baked potatoes basically), I feel my stomach not being very happy. I am concerned that the induction cook top I switched to some two years ago is equally damaging, although there are some differences between microwaving and induction cooking (the magnetic field itself doesn't cook the food, but just heats the pan/pot and heat radiating from the cookware in turn cooks the food). Could you please shed some light onto this issue?
Thank you so much,
Alina
AnswerDear Alina,
Lovely to hear you take such a deep interest in all the aspects of your diet. Indeed HOW you cook a meal is of great importance, as seen from a holistic, and especially Anthroposophic perspective. In the "olden days" already, the type of pot mattered as much as the method; also something can be said about the type of heat. This is an integral part of preparation, which is ultimately all about making the foreign substance of food more compatible to your system (i.e easier to digest, metabolise, process and transform into thinking, feeling, and action - as guided by good health).
Different methods suit different types of food, which requires one to understand the nature of the food one eats. This begins with respecting the dynamic that is within each foodstuff, be it vegetable, animal or mineral (eg sugar and salt). Minerals are hardest to transsubstantiate usefully (or spiritualise), then plants, then animal-produce (dairy and meat are most akin to human substance). In consuming ill grown or badly prepared vegetables we make life hard on ourselves. By consuming ill farmed or badly prepared animals, we absorb lots of toxins fairly easily (a most extreme case: think of BSE - mad cow's disease - etc.). Being aware of this, we need to consider a holistic way of "creating" our food. This includes the right time for harvesting, and sowing, fertilising, crop rotation, etc; and we need to learn to consume in accordance with our real needs not simple tastes (dependent on age, health, season).
A plant most of all (but an animal no less) is like a bed for cosmic influences. This is what makes the dynamic health of a plant so much more important than shape, size or catalogue colour. There are planetary forces and constellations at play. The type of fertiliser (again, this has more to do with HOW you fertilise and less with what), and the further processing are all important (incl. addititves, packaging etc). Capillary-dynamic testing shows up many differences between dynamically grown produce and other. Their very structure differs on a cellular level. This level can be enhanced by going with the cosmic flow. Freezing and conserving rob the life force of a plant, and bad quality farming or slaugherhouses stress animals out to the point of their hormones becoming toxic or burdensome to us in the meat we eat.
The cosmic energy available to us, packaged or wrapped up in these plants and animals needs to unfold in a substantial manner. We must become sensitive how this cosmic nutritional current works and learn to identify it by how it looks.
Flowers wave the cosmic flags! They unfold and furl in the wind, waving many blessings our way. When they are this freely cosmic, their truly nutritive substance is quickly gained (essential oils). Seeds are bursting with solar energy and are the culmination of a longer or shorter journey of the plany under the starry heavens. Some of the cosmic energy can be accessed simply by cold pressing (oil). This is almost so "pure" we must only take small portions of it if we don't want to suffer physical damage from it.
The ripening forces of summer, so hot and luxurious, make it possible for us to eat food raw, like most fruits. Fruit was prepared by the sun. If we futher prepare fruit (apples, quince, rosehip, sloeberry, elder etc) it is to soften them, or make them less adstringent. They are usually autumnal, slower to unfold, and can retain more life forces for it in many cases, becoming thereby almost medicinal on the one hand, or toxic when eaten raw, on the other.
Flowers and seeds, as all of the plant, are subject to carbohydrate processing. Where the carbohydrates are less diluted or rarified (made light) by the world cosmos we find cellulose (we use as fibre), as in leaf and stalk. Finally, the starch that is made least light and warm of all, deep and heavy, and cold in the earth is found in roots and tubers. Here it is stored as hope for a brighter, new future.Things become more substantial, the more the cosmos falls upon the earth. Cooking is all about approaching the cosmos (in a reversal of matter); transforming, re-warming, de-materialising, so that it nutrients may be absorbed by our bodies more readily, more efficiently, as goodness, not a burden (so much of our modern food is little else but that).
These facts disclose that there is a right method of preparation for each part of the plant, as there is for each part of the animal, or each animal type (fowl, fish, farm animal, game, etc). There are different ways of exposing them to heat (in fat, or water, or directly by grilling and toasting) and different types of heat. Lastly we must not forget the medium between food and heat: the pot.
For example, one does not tend to steam potatoes but boil them, while one preferably steams broccoli for example; flowers need very light cooking and a quick brush or better still, envelopment with steam is best. If you would boil cauliflower too long it becomes a lot less easily digestible, because it becomes more cabbage like, with its cosmic nature destroyed by the (mineral) hot water and its cruxifera/cabbage plant nature remaining cooked half to death.
Roots and tubers, much more removed from the warm sun, can endure - even need - more emersion, stronger heat, and slower heat, can therefor be boiled for a longer period of time in soups and stews, and sweeten up wonderfully in an oven. But the orange colour of a carrot betrays someting sunny and flowery, which reveals how much less tough than a turnip it will be, and lends itself to being processed raw, aswell. (The sulfuric quality of the orange colour carries its own heat).
Stirfry is great for leafy and stalk parts (cabbage, celery, leek etc), fruits (peppers for example) and sprouts, giving a short sharp burst of fire back to these sun-loving parts. Best of all is "sweating" in a bit of sunflower or olive oil. This leeches none of the juices, incl. taste and vitamins/minerals.
A great way to cook delicate parts of a plant (aromatic herbs, flowers, fruit) is by coating them in a very light eggy crust and frying them. You make them seed like: and protect their highly delicate cosmic composition. Think of courgette flowers, acacia flowers, sage leaves which are delicacies in some regions.You don't want to send them into decomposition by exposing them to a kind of compost-heap experience over slow heat! We steep flowers and leaves for a tea (in water taken off the boil for a moment) and eat some leaves entirely uncooked best (in salads). Raw foods can be healing (forcing you to make new efforts by yourself in order to transform the substance into energy), but even they can do with some preparation (a dressing: oil is warming for example; or peeling to minimise the tough fibre, for examle in a cucumber). Prepared food is truly sustaining and therefore a daily necessity. This explains the simple human comfort of and dignity to be found in one hot meal a day.
Taking this into consideration, and assuming you know fresh is best, we come to the question why on earth change our cooking methods, which began on a humble open fire? Then we will look at utensils (pots and pans), which are essential to the further unfolding of the cosmic properties in food.
Albeit, direct fire (inspite its charm at a campsite, or barbeque) is only suitable for cave-man food, a little too "raw" and "direct", its inner quality is pure and, if not ideal in many homes, a wood-burning stove has become a popular option (for the wealthy!) in the traditional Victorian type "range". Already with this one heat source we can note that each fire will be different depending on the type of wood used. A cosy log fire in the hearth will testify to that: some woods spit, others burn quickly, leave a residue, or make fine charcoal. Each tree type has a different Spirit being attatched to it making for those qualities to manifest physically. Chemical analyses of ash can only in part reveal this varying quality. Something cheerful dominates a fire, bringing good cheer and optimism. As a raw energy, it can of course also become conflagrant in the wrong hands!
A test can be found in Rudolf Hauschka's Nutrition, which compares cooking on electric, gas, coal, wood and straw fire (before the induction days). Electricity gave the worst results: it densified. Just think how ozone is densified oxygen in an electro-magnetic field of the earth. The glow of a lightbulb is a forced and violent process (on an atomic level) not a Ur-consuming and releasing one, as in a fire. Electricity is an opposite of light (not darkness which is a partner of light in an interplay of tone and hue). It is anti-natural in that sense and it weighs down into a solid, dead-like state.
It is ruled by a Spirit energy that belongs to a world of the sub-natural, incl. magnetism, atomic energy, microwaves. It stand in opposition to Goodness and Health. In many small and necessary ways it contributes to our progress, which is fine, when kept in balance with life-force. But we all know how draining electric light can be, especially fluorescent strip lighting (now banned in many schools in Western Europe), or how tv and pc can make one into a zombie; and many people are beginning to recognise the problem with electro-magnetic fields. Within such fields we lose control over our own balance between light and darkness and become susceptible to all sorts of disorders, imbalances and outright disease.
The heat from the source of energy chosen penetrates the pots and pans to reach the food. The food should fit the pan like a pea fits its pod. We all know some foods cannot be cooked in an aluminium pan (causing a toxic reaction) and enamelware also has limitations. It may not be surprising to know that aluminium has a special fondness for electricity, as it is won electrically (out of clay) so it is not a very natural material. Aluminium also influences the flavour negatively, especially milk will taste metallic. Potato and starch turn an ugly brown. Iron cast pots are too heavy for light vegetables, trapping them in a fierce heat. Stainless steel makes for a lighter option. The best results are reached in ceramic pots with glass lids or better still casserole dishes made of earthenware. Chefs like copper, too. Gold would be best energetically speaking, but we are not all King Midases! Try to use separate pans for milk, fruit and onions - no matter how well you wash up (with a friendly detergent) not all scents can be removed. Find the right lid, neither too heavy or too light. The ingredients need to "breathe" ever so slightly. Wooden chopping boards, spatulas and spoons help enhance the living dynamic. The worry about microbes is somewhat hysterical when proper care is taken of these implements - and a separate plank is used for meat always.
Finally, it would be ideal to cook with a soft water. The calcium in hard water becomes insoluble when heated up and forms a fine (imperceptible) crust around whatever is being cooked, not helping it to unfold itself. An old kettle will reveal how much limestone build-up there can be. A hot water tap will be more calcified than a cold one. Pre-boiling water helps soften the water, which is useful to know when you are cooking very delicate products.
I have very limited knowledge of induction cooking, and even less practice! But a large appliance reliant on electro-magnetic waves does not sound an attractive thing to have in one's kitchen. I have to add that I am also no fan of mobile phone (stations) in a kitchen. So, I might be a little too neurotic about dotting i's and crossing t's when it comes to electrical goods. After all, I would not do without a fridge (but I have a tiny ice-cube freezer only). The problem with the electricity of an induction cooker is that it goes directly into the pot: here it creates the heat. In effect the food is directly exposed to electro-magnetic waves, unlike with a tradtional coil or smooth top electrical cooker, where a pan still mediates. You lose the protective bedding of the pan, and end up with a kind of modern cave-man situation of cooking over an open fire, but then a dead one.
Next we will have to conclude that non-metallic cooking pots are not favoured by induction cooking (bad conductors of heat). So we lose that dynamic and potentising force already. Not very much else can be said about this method of cooking, since holistic sources make little mention of it when a gas (or if without a choice, electric) cooker and an electric oven are good enough for what you would like to prepare holistically. It is the cook who has to opt for electricity, when gas is not in supply, who sometimes might fancy a change and go for the more advanced technology of induction, since timing, cleaning and safety are all trying issues with cooking electrically. Chefs swear by gas, however.
However you cook, whatever you cook, I wish you much enjoyment and healthy meals always! Ultimately your energy overrides all the other HOWs in cooking. If you prepare with love, respect and dedication, a lot of the other negatives you might have to cope with can be compensated for. Nothing in life is just a sum of pros and cons.
Hoping to have given you some considerations to go on,
Love, Evelyn.
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