Food is also a question of relationship >>> Guide by Jasmin Peschke: From Food System to Food Organism

Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 19 June 2023

Healthy eating is a question of relationship. It starts with the time one takes to attend to the flavours one can distinguish. Shopping is also part of it, because it reveals what foods and consequently what kind of food production consumers support.

Enjoying a strawberry has economic implications? For Jasmin Peschke there is no question about this. “If you find one strawberry tastier than another, you will naturally ask where it comes from. By buying strawberries from a farm that you know, you support its growing methods.” For Jasmin Peschke, a PhD nutritionist, the same applies inwardly: connecting with the food one eats not only enhances sensory perception, but a mindful, explorative tasting experience also promotes digestion.

“A healthy future is possible by transforming the food system – i.e. production, processing, sales and consumption – into a living organism, in which everyone involved works independently, like organs in a body, and yet the whole works together for a healthy future,” Jasmin Peschke adds. The food expert has put together exercises that can help people to be more mindful of the food they eat and achieve a more beneficial eating experience. Even if they do not necessarily eliminate food intolerances, they help to increase digestibility through the enjoyment of food – and contribute to healthier farming.

“Detachment from this relationship results in the detachment from our own needs,” says Jasmin Peschke. She suggests talking to others about how they perceive the flavour of a particular food. A food diary also calls awareness to what one eats in a day, including the occasional snack.

Jasmin Peschke is certain that the conscious development of a relationship with food and with one’s own eating habits will affect food production. Thinking less in terms of a ‘nutritional system’ and more of an organism will also make a difference, she says, “An organism develops, and it absorbs and transforms impulses.” This is how a consumer’s relationship with a strawberry can have an influence on how it is produced.

(2053 Zeichen, 329 words/SJ; English by Margot M. Saar)

Contact person Jasmin Peschke