The whys and the whys

The hows over and done with, onto the whys.
In short, it is for reasons of:

• Health (a better diet, digestion, and skin).
• Willpower.
• Community.
• Spirituality.

There, that was short, wasn't it!?
This is less short...

Health.
I am in posession of one of the greatest waist-line sins... a sweet tooth. It seems that sweet treats have become a daily habit, a punctuation for my moods, a strong presence in my shopping basket.
3 of my biggest body image woes (in this image-conscious society) are all contributed to by sugar. Innocent-looking sugar that, in its common granulated form, comes with a price (as most foods do). Bought from farmers at low prices, carbon-stomping it's way to our shelves to appear not as the sugar-cane that is a staple film-prop and backdrop in many Indian movies, but a processed bleached condiment of its former self.

Left: Jaggery being made
near Kadrabad, North India.
Abskii.




Switching to brown fairtrade sugar is really a cinch. But cutting it out? Now that's a tougher task. This moves into the subject of:

Willpower.
There is a lure that sweets hold - especially for an evolutionary reason. A childs predisposition for sweet tastes guides it away from the sour or bitter indications of possible poison (stilton cheese being an example, an 'aquired taste' for some adults. It's MOULDY for crying out loud! But oh so grown-up...).
And a fancy for dessert when not one. more. drop. of lasagne can even be considered, apparently ensures that we receive the range of vitamins that living by bread and meat alone cannot give.
(If I get more time I will look for some links or references to back all this up! But they do make sense, don't they...). So when we consider this, we can see how sweetness can hold notions of childhood, simple times, and comfort - what most people would like to return to sometimes, even if it is just for a moment. Resisting this is hard.
For me personally, it's also about eating out of habit, of boredom, and because it is there. So practice in resisting mental urges for what the body is not calling for means a return to listening more to my body and responding with care.

I live in a town in South England that has a large muslim community, and as asian culture is something that has been present for most of my life, references to Ramadan and Eid, fasting and fireworks, Diwali and Dusshera, Langar and love, are abound in my Indophile tendancies. With a sad lack of community of my own [based on any faith or common denominator].....
it just feels good to take part. :)