Soul-Full Eating by Maureen Whitehouse
VIA KATYA SLIVINSKAYA

For me, food has always been more about joy than health, so I was happy as I turned the pages of this hefty read to find much talk about the enrichment of the soul. Although the gentle, far-from-preachy voice of the author takes us through the many food paradigms of the diet world (finally!), acknowledging its myriad confusing contradictions, the term “nutrition book” would be a misnomer for this one. Its scope is much broader, linking the way we eat to as many avenues of life as you can think of. Everything about Soul-Full Eating is comforting, which makes it a good one to keep around rather than reading once and tossing.

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COPYRIGHT 2007 Midwest Book Review
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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I found this book captivating; I was expecting a cookbook of sorts but instead found a wonderful blend of nutritional handbook and spiritual guide. The author wants us to return to a time when eating food, the “most natural and innate part of existence” was “an enjoyable part of life” and not “an obstacle to surmount, a chore, or a situation to fear.”

The first step toward achieving this state of affairs is to change our mental approach toward selecting, preparing and consuming food.

The first section of the book addresses the ten key concepts of consciously changing the way we think about and choose food. Along with these changes will come a spiritual and emotional transformation that will affect all other areas of our lives. Whitehouse emphasizes that this transition must be gentle and gradual and leave us feeling fulfilled, not deprived. The author’s tone throughout the book is never preachy, and always infused with sympathy and understanding. She intersperses her own experiences and research into these subjects which helped her own personal transformation and which she hopes will help ours.

Each chapter in the second part of the book, Know Thy Food, “informs us about a different aspect of nutrition, such as the role of enzymes, genetically engineered foods, protein, dairy products, water etc. She also devotes chapters to the trouble with caffeine, sugar and salt intake. Whitehouse managed to very succinctly answer all my questions and doubts about water filtration, probiotics, organic products, and artificial sweeteners.

“Stepping Up To A New Plate, “ the final section of Soul-Full Eating discusses different dietary practices such as juice fasting, eating raw food, ayurvedic, kosher, macrobiotic, food combining and others. Whitehouse also provides guidance to overcoming emotional eating, losing weight, and healing yourself with food. Each chapter ends with a thought to ponder and an exercise to put into practice what you learned and initiate change. She also provides resources and recipes when it’s called for.

This is a book you will return to again and again for inspiration. On every page, this author’s mission and vision is evident: “When you begin to see the entire world on your plate each and every time you eat – when you see how your choices impact you and the world – you automatically align with a deeper truth and commit to living it. Love yourself and everything you consume and then pass this awareness on, one blessed plate-full at a time, to another.”

What a wonderful way to begin a new year!

Beatriz F. Fernandez is a university Reference Librarian. She holds a Masters degree in English Literature and Library Science. She is a freelance writer working for Natural Awakenings Magazine.

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In her provocative book, Soul-Full Eating, Maureen Whitehouse artfully combines her knowledge as an expert in nutrition and spirituality to guide you along a delicious and rejuvenating Soul-satisfying path. It’s one based on the love of food that anyone – no matter what their faith, religion or personal philosophy – can follow.

Take this spellbinding journey to consciousness, if you would like to: Become aware of simple, yet dynamic changes you can make in how you select, prepare and eat food that will increase your vibrancy and personal energy. Explore the best approaches to diet available today – including Raw Foods, Macrobiotics, Ayurveda, Acid/Alkaline Balance, Food Combining and the “new” Kosher. Gain cutting-edge knowledge about weight loss that brings self-love along with dropped pounds. Use foods to stimulate the body’s ability to rejuvenate and heal. Deepen your spiritual connection on a daily basis while you take a stand for a compassionate and sustainable world.

Graham Christian – Library Journal

Whitehouse’s journey toward this book is in itself a wonder: she was a model and talk-show host before her encounter with A Course in Miracles. Since then, she has become a popular speaker and writer and the creator of a process called the “E3 Transformational Triad”-none of which is required reading for this charming book. Neither a recipe book nor a diet plan, Whitehouse’s book helps readers negotiate their way through a variety of food choices while remaining aware of the spiritual implications of food and diet. For most collections.

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With stunning and sharp insight, Maureen shows us how a deep sense of personal fulfillment and well-being can be found at mealtime — just by paying attention to ourselves and the food in front of us. She balances cutting-edge nutritional and spiritual information (backed up by comprehensive and documented research) with personal stories that everyone can relate to and practical tips for integrating her information into everyday life. Learn how to select, prepare and eat food that will make you feel more vibrant and energetic; learn how to make diets last and how to “diet” without feeling deprived of what you love; use food to rejuvenate and heal your body; and deepen your daily connection and commitment to a compassionate, sustainable world.

Maureen Whitehouse has served us a mouthwatering menu of insights, facts, resources, practices and a fresh looks at perhaps the only thing all humans, planet-wide share in common: FOOD. Soul-Full Eating is an impressive addition to anyone’s food book collection, especially for those with an interest in not only diet and nutrition but also spirituality, health, ecology, and alternative medicine. No matter your current relationship to food, this book will meet you where you are and help you add the piece d’ resistance to your life — love!

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For many, eating becomes an obsession, and one most often tinged with guilt. Soul-Full Eating shows that how we eat is just as important as what we eat.

We all know that food, like air and water, is vital to support physical life, but to master an effortless, healthy relationship with food, we need to see the spiritually nutritive quality of food. Eating nutritious meals for the pure enjoyment of eating them with soulful, sacred intention enables us to realize we are not just a body, but an eternal being!We are encouraged to “eat with love what is grown, prepared, and served with love.” Eating what we really don’t love denies our brilliance and self worth. We all want to feel a sense of fullfillment, but turning to food to give us that feeling of fullness simply does not work. We need to unveil our soul and find pleasure in the satisfaction we receive when we eat soulfully rather than superficially.I found this book to be a wealth of information. Maureen Whitehouse explains 10 key concepts to feeling well-nourished, balanced, energized, and able to live your life’s purpose. Other areas covered include the importance of enzymes; genetically engineered foods; the truth about protein, fats, and oils; and facts on sugar, salt, and caffeine. Many approaches to nutrition are discussed in great detail with easy-to-read charts and diagrams. Place Soul-Full Eating in the nutrition, spiritual life, or health area of your store.

In “Soul-Full Eating: A (Delicious!) Path To Higher Consciousness”, author and nutrition expert Maureen Whitehouse explains just how a deep sense of personal fulfillment and well-being is to be found in eating foods that resonate with the human soul. Featuring engaging and illustrative personal accounts that enhanced the presentation of cutting-edge nutritional and spiritual information (backed up by comprehensive and documented research), “Soul-Full Eating” is informed, informative, and thoroughly ‘reader friendly’. Readers will lean how to select, prepare and eat food that increases their vibrancy and personal energy; explore the best approaches to dieting; use foods to stimulate the body’s ability to rejuvenate and heal, and deepen a daily spiritual connection and commitment to a compassionate, sustainable world. “Soul-Full Eating” is an impressive addition to personal and community library collections, and particular recommended to the attention of non-specialist general readers with an interest in diet, nutrition, spirituality, health, ecology, and alternative medicine.

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In Soul-Full Eating, A (Delicious!) Path to Higher Consciousness, nutrition and spirituality expert Maureen Whitehouse helps you become aware of simple, yet dynamic changes you can make in how you select, prepare and eat food that will increase your vibrancy and personal energy.  Explore the best approaches to diet available today, including raw foods, macrobiotics, ayurveda, acid/alkaline balance, food combining, and the “new” kosher.  Deepen your spiritual connection on a daily basis while you take a stand for a compassionate and sustainable world, and eat your way to enlightenment.  Available in stores or visit www.experienceaxiom.com.

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A friend put me in touch with Maureen Whitehouse, a former model and now author of a new book, Soul-Full Eating. Maureen sent me a copy of her book to review. Now, it is a pretty book with a serenely beautiful cover photo it’s a lettuce leaf (I think) and something that looks like a animal bone stuck in something that could be some sort of fruit. It is all a little blurry and abstract. But it does remind me of the decor of some of the nicer high-end spas I have frequented.

The subtitle of the book is ” A (Delicious!) Path to Higher Conscious.” Oh, oh, I’m thinking, this may be a little too zen for me. I practice yoga because it is a great exercise and my main stretching activity. But I have never really been the meditating sort. I avoid the silent dinners at my annual visit at Rancho La Puerta, not being able to imagine how someone could pass up the chance to blab with the terrifically interesting people who attend that spa.

So, you can imagine my mind set when I started reading Soul-Full Eating. Each chapter starts with a quote. “Eat with love what’s grown with love, prepared with love, and served with love” is the basic principle of Soul-Full Eating. Hmmm.

Each chapter also has exercises to perform to help you understand the ideas presented in that chapter. The first chapter’s exercise was “Just for one day, do only what you genuinely love to do.” Yeah, right, but what about all of work I have to do. Who is going to write the post for The Doctor Weighs In?

Things aren’t going well for me and this book until I hit page 24. There, the author described a “mind-fullness” exercise that she uses in her True Beauty workshops. She describes how she walks into the workshop, and without saying a word, hands the participants three raisins.

Then she asks them to examine the raisins as though they had never seen a raisin before. They are to experience the raisin with what Zen Buddhists call ” beginner’s mind.” She tells the readers to get three raisins and do the exercise while reading this section.

So, I go to the kitchen and open the package of raisins that has been sitting, untouched, in my cupboard for several months (no, really several years, I think). I pick out three raisins and sit to read the section.

First, she tells us, examine one of the raisins carefully. Look at it closely and roll it in the palm of your hand. Lo and behold, the raisin I have picked out is actually two raisins stuck together. Had I just popped it in my mouth, I never would have known that. Next you lick the raisin. It is softer than it felt in my hand. At last, she tells you to put it in your mouth, but not chew it or swallow it, rather let your tongue explore it. Amazing, as I explore the raisin, it starts to get soft and feels like it is plumping up. It likes being in my mouth.

Now, she tells us, to slowly chew , but still not swallow. You are to chew that little raisin until it liquefies. That takes a long time. Meanwhile, you start to really taste the raisin. Ordinarily, if I eat raisins, I just pop a handful of those little sugar bombs in my mouth and swallow. I am not sure I ever really thought about the taste before.

The raisin tastes pretty darn good, earthy and sweet, but not too sweet. It is nice. I swallow the juice. It took about 3 minutes from touch to swallow, considerably longer than my usual “grab and swallow” raisin eating approach.

The author instructs us to repeat this exercise two more times. Each time consciously exploring the raisin and trying to find something new about it that you didn’t notice before. By the time I swallowed the third raisin, I realized how good it was to roll a raisin in your mouth with your tongue. And, how much flavor it has when allowed to slowly disintegrate and dissolve with during the long slow chewing process.

I must say, this exercise did get me in touch with my feelings about raisins in a way I have never experienced before. This, according to Maureen Whitehouse, is mind-full eating. I think I like it! I think I like this book. I think I’ll read the rest and will try to do what Maureen says — that is to really be there when I eat. Soul-Full Eating, a pretty good idea.

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