Nutrition
What I eat is lived mindfulness for me – I don’t just ask whether it fills me up, but: what am I actually taking into myself? A few thoughts, facts and my homemade remedy.
Conscious living · Nutrition
What am I taking into myself?
“You are what you eat” – I have heard this sentence since childhood, and the longer I live by it, the truer it becomes for me. Food is not just fuel. It is the material from which my body rebuilds itself day after day. Every meal becomes blood, cells, thoughts and mood.
That is why conscious eating doesn’t begin with a diet for me, but with a single question I ask myself before every bite: What am I taking into myself right now? This question changes everything – it turns eating back into a mindful, almost meditative act.
My gut thinks along
What fascinates me most is our gut flora – the microbiome. Trillions of bacteria live in our gut, and they are far more than digestive helpers: a large part of our immune system sits in the gut. Researchers at the Charité in Berlin have shown that not only the composition of these microbes, but also the kind of foods we eat, influences our immune function. So my gut literally thinks along – when I nourish it well, it nourishes me back.
- Fresh and alive: Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir or yoghurt bring along living lactic acid bacteria that support a diverse, balanced microbiome.
- Colourful and plant-based: Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables provides fibre – the food on which our good gut bacteria depend in the first place.
- Little ultra-processed: A major Lancet analysis from 2025 names a high share of heavily processed foods as a key driver of diet-related chronic diseases. Such products are often very energy-dense (around 378 kcal per 100 g) compared with fresh fruit and vegetables (about 68 kcal per 100 g).
- As natural as possible: The closer a food is to its original state, the more of what my body really needs is still in it.
My natural “antibiotic”
One of my favourite home remedies I have been making myself for years – a sharp, living brew of naturally cloudy apple cider vinegar and everything nature has to offer in the way of heat and warmth. I take it preventively and especially when a cold is announcing itself:
- Ingredients: naturally cloudy apple cider vinegar, garlic, onion, chilli, fresh ginger, horseradish and turmeric.
- Prepare: finely chop or grate all the solid ingredients and put them into a clean screw-top jar.
- Pour over: cover everything completely with the apple cider vinegar and close the jar tightly.
- Let it steep: let it steep for 2 to 3 weeks and turn or shake the jar vigorously once a day.
- Strain: pour the liquid through a fine sieve and store it cool and dark.
- Use: a small sip daily as prevention – and more as soon as I notice a cold is on its way.
Conscious eating in everyday life
Fresh instead of ready-made
The closer to the original, the better. Fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables land on my plate ahead of anything that has already been pre-cooked in bags and cans.
Fermented every day
A spoonful of sauerkraut, a little kefir or kimchi – living cultures for a diverse gut flora are part of almost every meal for me.
Read labels
The shorter the list of ingredients and the fewer words I can’t pronounce, the more likely it ends up in my shopping basket.
Eat mindfully
No screen, slowly, chewing well. When I really taste what I am eating, I also notice much sooner when I am full.
Water first
We often confuse thirst with hunger. A glass of water in the morning and spread across the day is my simplest habit of all.
Cook for yourself
Whoever cooks for themselves knows what is in it. It doesn’t have to be elaborate – simple, fresh and prepared with a little love is more than enough.
“Eating is lived mindfulness – I don’t just ask whether it fills me up, but what I take into myself.”— Daria Czarlinska
For me it is not about deprivation or strict rules – they make eating joyless. It is about attention: consciously noticing what I offer my body, and giving it the fresh, living and real more often. Even small changes carry me a long way over time.
This text reflects my personal experiences and does not replace medical or nutritional advice.
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