Many of us these days are aware of calorific content and nutrition when we prepare our food, but how many of us stop to consider the quality of chi energy we are getting from our meals?

All living things carry chi energy. Chi is the vital force that sustains us and animates us. We get most of our chi energy through the air that we breathe- one of the reasons that spiritual disciplines often include a focus on breathing correctly, however we can also absorb chi through our diet. Fresh foods still carry a ‘life force’; this has been demonstrated through Kirlian photography. Fresh fruits and vegetables pictured soon after harvest will show an auric glow around them. Cooked foods and foods that have been stored a long time, or heavily processed foods, carry at best a depleted charge, or more often none at all.

The food we eat varies considerably in chi. Factors such as growing methods, storage conditions and cooking methods will all affect the life force energy of our food. If we overlook the unappetising option of eating things that are still wriggling on the plate, then the most chi-filled options will be the foods just picked! The quicker we can get from harvest to plate the more vital energy the food will contain.

It’s believed that sprouting seeds contain most chi; they are also highly nutritious. These foods have literally just burst into life- they are rapidly growing young shoots. If you sprout your own seeds, such as mung beans, mustard & cress, or alfalfa, then harvest to plate can take just a matter of moments & none of that life force is lost. It’s easy and cheap for anyone- no garden needed. Sprinkle the seeds onto plain kitchen paper & keep moist- gently rinse the seeds in water twice daily. You can buy special trays or jars with vents, but it’s simple to poke vents in the bottom of a plastic food tray too & it’s recycling! I’ve found germination quicker if I soak the seeds for a couple of hours first. Your crop will be ready in a matter of days. Harvest just as the seedlings start to put out leaves and eat the sprouts raw in sandwiches or as a salad garnish.

Fruits and vegetables can be chi filled or almost dead. It’s a shocking fact that the nutritional content of the fruit & vegetables we eat today is far poorer than that eaten by our grandparents. Depletion of natural goodness in the soil, long storage and varieties chosen for transportation, uniformity of appearance & shelf life rather than flavour are all factors in this. The life force energy of these foods is correspondingly lower too.

If your vegetables are organically grown in your back yard & picked just before eating they will be bursting with life-force & their nutritional content will be higher too. If they were sprayed regularly with pesticides & fertilisers on worn out soil, then harvested & stored for six months before being transported across the globe then the chi energy will have long faded and the vitamins will be much reduced. Anyone who has eaten a sun-warmed tomato straight from the plant will know the difference in vibrancy between that and the watery specimen from supermarket shelves. Similarly the taste of fresh peas eaten direct from the pod is a world apart compared to frozen or canned.

Try to buy your fresh food as close to source as possible. Where I live it is possible to access farm shops and farmer’s markets, as well as local organic produce in the whole food shop and organic vegetable boxes. The food is generally more expensive than buying from supermarkets, but you are supporting local growers, reducing food miles and often accessing varieties of fruit and vegetable chosen for taste, not shelf life. It isn’t just the chi energy that will be richer- you are making ethical choices that enhance the lives of those you buy from. Bearing in mind that one of the central tenets of the New Age is ‘we are all connected’ this type of food shopping can become part of your spiritual sustenance.

If you need to buy from supermarkets try to choose organic where possible. Weigh this up against the food miles that have been used. So for example I will sometimes buy standard British apples if the organic ones on offer have come half way across the globe- they will most likely be fresher, more chi filled and have made less impact on the Planet on their journey.

Our grandmothers used to shop daily before advent of the refrigerator. This meant the food in the house was always fresh. These days we expect our 'fresh' produce to store for at least a week. Every day the chi energy is falling away & the vitamin content is being depleted. Try to shop for fresh foods little and often.

Make a point of eating some fresh raw food every day & notice the difference it makes to your health, appearance and vitality levels over time.