Eat Right in Your Way to be Better Teacher

This question may seem a bit awkward. How can I ask such a question? Everybody knows the answer.

True everybody knows an answer to this question. But essentially not that everybody knows the same answer. Even if the answers can be similar, still it can be far from being complete. 

So before we get to the point of food for teachers we have to get to the point of food for all of us human beings. Why do we need to eat food and also why do we need to eat some foods over many other foods available. So how do we choose the right food?

We eat food to survive. Is this true? Well in one perspective it seems ok. But then in another perspective this definition does not exactly go with the very human purpose. 

All animals and plants need food to survive. We also need food to survive as long as we will relate ourselves more closely with all the other life forms of this planet. Many will say that is quite perfect. But is that so?

The very fundamental question about human existence is does humans live to survive? If so then why do the same human often undertake tasks that put their survival into question? Like summiting a mountain or exploring another planet.

During Covid 19 pandemic, there were so many scientists, doctors and medical workers put their survival into big question by forming the frontline to fight the virus and pandemic. And that obviously put all of their survival under a great uncertainty. 

Just for the case of analogy, we can seldom see one animal is consciously putting its own survival into deep uncertainty to ensure the survival of another one. They always run for their own survivability first. 

These and their can be innumerable examples of activities and behaviors that can indicate that human life is not designed to drive on the basis of survivability. Then what can be the exact purpose?

In one sentence it is not possible to describe human purpose. Still just for the sake of discussion here, we can say that humans do not live to survive but survive to live and live to excel. 

This quest of excellence only can define one human separately from all the other biological entities of this world. If we exclude this point of pursuit of excellence then there hardly remains too much to differ between a human and another life form. 

Here we discuss human education and the whole of the core of human education stands on the purpose of excellence. Parents send their child to school for the purpose of facilitating them to learn to excel. Teachers teach their students for the purpose of making them learn to excel. Hence this is the true core of a human existence. 

So if we are properly aligned to our very core purpose to learn to excel then most naturally and most perpetually all our activities and behaviors will be directed to drive ourselves in that purpose. And food also is a part of our behavior and activity. 

Thus a properly aligned human person will select his or her food on the core purpose of the pursuit of excellence. And that includes all the students and all the teachers. 

In this article we are particularly discussing the food of the teacher. But it will indirectly benefit the students and anyone else. 

After the question of why do we eat,  the next question arises is what do we eat?

There is plenty of literature on different diet issues of humans all around the internet and elsewhere. But the problem is different. Not everybody will need the same diet. Not every diet will be suitable for everybody. 

The main problems of dietary documents all around are they are not categorized. A diet has to be categorized on multiple variables. Profession is one of the most important variables. And we seldom find something like that. 

Here we will discuss the teacher’s diet. Though teachers are also of various kinds. Like there are music teachers, sports teachers, science teachers, language teachers and so on. We cannot go that depth over here. But we can comfortably assume a generic teacher and continue our discussion. 

A teacher’s daily diet need not be too complex or cumbersome. But ideally the diet has to be simple and easily digestible. Why so?

Giving education and taking education both are jobs of mental concentration. Our ancient literature believes that education is next to meditation and almost as spiritual as meditation itself. And I believe everything starts with education.

So the very activity which defines and shapes our entity and personality as human, that is not supposed to be taken any lightly. Also what we intake that we become and that we propagate. That intake starts with our food intake. 

Teachers are preachers of education, and are like priests to the students who show them the way to the world of education. So ideally the diet has to be of that standard. If that sounds too rigid then at least it can tend to be like that. 

Ideally a simple vegetarian diet is best, just as the diet we tend to follow in our spiritual standards. If being vegetarian is a great problem then at least maintaining the food simple is important. 

A good and light health of a teacher can help him reach the domains of education better. He will be able to engage more mental attributes and concentration. And that all will help towards a better and high quality education of his students. 

Our Indian ancient philosophies are much more deep and strict on these factors of human education, but in our average life it is usually not possible to hold up such standards. So I am just diluting and generalizing some of the parts and portions.

Contemporary western education and medical system is still developing. And on the path of research they are also slowly approaching those theories that our ancient philosophies professed thousands of years ago. 

So there has to be no point of disbelief or disregard. The only point is whether we are capable of upholding that standard or not. And we can try to be as close as possible if we are sincerely progressive on the path of our life and education.

Let us see what a daily diet can look like. Daily diet of any human being has to be an appropriate amount of macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are proteins, carbohydrates, fat/oil. Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. 

It is easy to say that our diet has to contain carbohydrates, protein and fat. Now the question is how many of them? What will be the correct ratio of the three? 

Calculating this is not a very easy task. A lot of variables work for any averagely standard human being. And the counts are way high if the person does not belong to the standard average. To avoid too much technical complexity lets bind ourselves to the standard average. 

Teaching is usually an almost sedentary job. Though not as sedentary as an IT professional or a clerk. And not as laborious as a mason. Thus a teacher is not likely to consume too many calories unless he is a sports teacher. 

Thus a medium calorie diet would be sufficient and good for the teacher. Ideally it need not exceed 2000 calories. Now the question is how will this calorie come?

Calories can come from all the macro nutritions but we need to choose from where we want our calorie in what ratio. 

Sportsmen and dwellers of cold lands may need a considerable amount of fat and oil calorie sources. But a teacher of a tropical climate like ours would not require that much. Something around the minimum healthy intake of less than and around 10 gms per day will be sufficient for biological requirements. 

Protein is also a good source of calories but breaking down protein requires a lot of biological resources like digestive enzymes. With average digestive capacity breaking down too much of protein is always not an available choice. 

Hence protein is biologically more important as a building block of our body and not exactly as a calorie source. In times of scarcity the body can use proteins as a calorie source. And only people of certain extreme sports require high intake of daily protein for better and quicker muscle recovery and performance.

Carbohydrates are the most economic and easily accessible food and energy source for our purpose.  Though nothing is good at too much. All food has to be properly balanced and aligned with the caloric and nutritional requirements of one individual. 

After carbohydrates then comes the requirement of protein foods. Proteins are building blocks and are a major factor in growth and development. Growth of body and brain both. 

For anyone who is in the academic world, growth of the brain and nerve is important for cognitive development. It applies equally for all teachers as well as students. 

Fat is the next important thing. Many think that fat is almost an enemy. There are a lot of similar myths on our food and nutrition. Fat is a necessary food and its deficiency can cause many diseases including immunity disturbances and skin problems. 

But again too much fat for the taste factor of food can become harmful. Even the source and type of fat is also important in order to make the best use of it. Among the best sources are pure cow ghee, pure butter, olive oil and mustard oil. 

These were macro foods. There are micro-foods that are essential for proper biological function. Micro foods are required in minute quantities. Vitamins and minerals are such kinds of food. 

One of the most important vitamins for teachers and students is vitamin B complex. These are a group of vitamins that together perform many important functions including growth and nourishment of brain cells and nerves. 

These were general food and nutrition. Everybody knows something or other about these. But there are many herbs which can do immense benefit to teachers and also to students. Now we will discuss a few of such herbs and natural agents. 

Taking Care of Voice and Throat

Teachers are always using their voice and throat. Be the class offline or online, they need to speak a lot in their classes. So they also need to take care of their voice and throat more than other people. 

One important natural product for the voice and throat is honey. Every teacher must include a spoonful of honey every morning. It is not too costly and also easily available. 

For the purpose of voice, the honey has to be taken directly so that it climbs down slowly through the throat to the food pipe or the esophagus. It is better to keep like that for around 20 to 30 minutes and not take any other food or water in that time. 

Students can also use honey in the same way. They also speak a lot the whole day. Many get coughs and colds every now and then. Honey will be useful in that also. 

Taking Care of Memory and Cognitive Faculties

This is very important for any teacher and student. The motto of our education is to promote the development of mental and cognitive faculties within ourselves. Anything that can assist us to achieve this (without undesirable side effects) can be considered as beneficial. 

Brahmi is one such thing. It is available as a leafy vegetable as well as tonic and tablet formats. For many, cooking the leaves is not always an option, so they can opt for the tonic or tablet. 

This herb is the best herb for our brain. It helps to promote memory and conserve nerve and brain cell health. It optimizes blood flow and metabolism in the brain. It is even good for eyes and other sense organ functions at the nerve and reflex level. 

This is perhaps one of the greatest gifts of Ayurveda to us. The use of this has been forgotten. Ancient seers and sages used it as a promoter of nervous energy. It is the best herb for scholars and all who are associated with education and learning. 

This is all for now. I hope teachers and students as well will feel a little more inspired for better food and nutrition after reading this article. If so then the purpose of my writing will be fruitful. 

I can see today people follow very degraded food habits, which ultimately eat up their performance as a human being instead of promoting it. Such anti-developmental attitudes are extremely harmful and costly to all levels of individual engagements including the society, the country and the humanity as whole. We are harming everything that comes our way.

I would keep writing more about such food and nutrition. Maybe we can have a version 2 of this article soon. Till then I hope we all can eat good and live good.