Effects of food play a great role in every person’s life. It has a direct and indirect effect on our behavior. We are what we eat because food makes a great effect on our lifestyle. The kind of food we eat, the kind of habits are formed in us.
Effects of Food from Spiritual Perspective
The address has been made to the whole of mankind in The Qur’an “O mankind! Eat from whatever is on earth that is lawful and good and do not follow the footsteps of Satan, Indeed he is to you a clear enemy” (2:168) means “Eat the right stuff” not everything is meant to be eaten or good for you. You should eat only halal(lawful) and tayyib(pure) food.
GENERAL RULE OF THUMB
IN ISLAM EVERYTHING IS HALAL UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
Effects of food have great significance when it comes to worship Allah(SWT). When a person doesn’t pay attention to his eating habits even if he tries to love Allah. He won’t be able to Why? Because Allah is a being that deserves the best of the best of ourselves. When we take something impure in our body, the love of Allah will not come in. People doing salah not feeling the love, people giving zakah and going to Hajj but not really feeling why are they doing that. Because Halal eating is extremely important it has a huge effect on a person’s behavior and lifestyle. When a person pays attention to every morsel of food that goes into his body, only then love of Allah come in.
WHY ALLAH IS LINKING FOOD TO PREVENT US FROM FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF SATAN?.
Effects of food that is not halal and tayyib can be dangerous for our spiritual health, Because if the food that we eat is not halal & tayyib then we will act & behave immoral and as a result following the footsteps of Satan. They are actions of Satan, the action that he calls you to do, does himself and he wants people to do. 1.Disobedience 2.Arrogance 3.Ingratitude 4.Rebellion 5.The one who doesn’t submit 6. He wants us to do haram, he entices us in eating haram so we need to know that 7.Eat with a left hand 8. Anything that Allah has forbidden He wants you to eat it. Why? Because he leads you to immorality and wrongdoing. Why is it so important not to follow in the footsteps of Satan? Allah(SWT) uses the word command here. Satan commands a person to do 2things 1. Suu 2.Fahshaa. Suu is any kind of sin that is considered a sin. E.g. sins that bring harm, Suu is used for minor sins. Satan throughout the day makes us do minor sins. Satan makes you sad by making you committing suu. When a person makes mistake he gets sad and satan likes it because when a person is sad then He doesn’t mind. He doesn’t think straight and He does another Suu and suu+suu+suu becomes sayyiaat(plural) and then satan gets very happy. What else he wants us to do? Al-Fahshaa, Faa Haa sheen is the root word for every action or statement that is exceded that is what fahshaa(Immorality) is. In particular, those sins that are of sexual nature e.g. Adultery, fornication, Immorality, foul language. Fahshaa is an action that is not acceptable at all, our mind disagrees with its acceptance. In the context of eating, Suu means not following the sunnah relating to eating. Why? Because it affects your behavior. If you eat the sunnah way, with your right hand start with bismillah. This will help you stay away from minor sins. Satan commands you to eat food that is not halal so he can offer you fahshaa(immorality). Immorality is widespread in today’s world. Because even Christians and Jews were commanded in their books to eat halal & tayyib but they don’t eat it and not every Muslim eats halal and the same with Christians. Christians are not supposed to eat khinzeer(pork) but do they eat it, YES!! and we see immorality widespread because the quality of khinzeer(pork) is to spread immorality. Khinzeer(pork) doesn’t mind his female having an intimate relationship with another khinzeer in front of him. Swine likes to live in dirt, today people don’t mind getting dirty. Swine doesn’t mind covering they do it in front of another animal. They have no decency and are the same we see in humans today. people wear less & lesser clothes because of the food they eat and we see illegal sex, rape so widespread because of the food they eat. If planning to become a doctor study Kitab ut Ta’am book (book of eating) manners of eating book that we learn from the sunnah. Try to come up with ideas for tayyib food if we can only change our diet and pay attention to eat tayyib, people will get less sick. Advice for patients also, tips to eat according to sunnah. Allah will put barakah in your practice in your health & wealth.
From Scientific Perspective
Felice Jacka, a professor at the University of Melbourne examined the behavior of babies after following the eating habits of 23,000 pregnant women. She says that “We measured their intake of junk and processed foods and also measured their intake of healthful foods like foods with lots of fiber and nutrients etc. and then we looked at the emotional health of their children over the first few years of life from 18months to 5years” Of course, taking into account things such as education, income, the mother’s mental health, these sorts of things and what we saw very clearly. Effects of food play a significant role in the child’s behavior that mothers who ate more junk and processed foods, sweet drinks, salty snacks, cakes, and biscuits during their pregnancy their children had more of these behaviors such as aggression, anger, and tantrums. This disquieting correlation suggests that the mother’s diet impacts the mental development of the baby, though the link remains to be demonstrated on the biological level. In any case, Felice Jacka is convinced. She said that “We also saw in this large Norwegian study is that the children’s diet seemed to be important as well” independent of what mum ate if children were eating too much junk and processed foods, or not enough of the healthful foods, they had more of these anger and aggressive type behaviors but also sadness, anxiety, worry, nightmares. Since then, Professor Jacka’s conclusions have been confirmed by studies in Spain, the Netherlands, and Canada.
Conclusion- So, The conclusion is that foods have a direct effect on a person’s behavior as it is confirmed from the scriptures and scientific research by the experts. So, we should be extra vigilant about our diet and foods that we are consuming whether they are healthy, nutritious, or palatable for us and how it is going to impact our behavior.
