Warmth, Food, and Energy: Building a Space
Imagine that you found a dwelling that pleased you; that whetted your appetite for a place in which to stay and work. So, you lit a match, set it on fire, and waited for it to burn to the ground; somehow capturing most of the ash, steam, and gasses that it emitted in the process. The energy produced by this fire’s warmth was also collected and stored. Since it was a very hot fire with plenty of strong wind to supply oxygen, the process was quite thorough. In fact, at the end of this event, you would never know that this pile of ashes, water, (somehow trapped) gasses, and stored energy used to be someone’s dwelling place. Nevertheless, you collected everything and carried it off to be sorted, processed, and made into something new that now now comprises part of a dwelling in which you can accomplish some of your goals. Although not nearly exact, the situation described can be a partial imagination (with all of the attendant moral questions that arise about the process) representing the digestion of food by human beings. At the forefront is the the question of sacrifice (which means ‘to make sacred’), and the ideas of annihilation, freedom, individuality, and the making of something new from the most basic building blocks under the agency of unfathomable wisdom.
Warmth! There is a lot of it out there now; heat waves with their attendant increase in deaths in vulnerable populations, fevers accompanying certain viral illnesses, hotheaded anger in response to injustices, and burning enthusiasm for high ideals. Personal warmth is something to protect and keep separate from the world in order to maintain health and indeed even being alive. We may think of a body without warmth, if it stays that way, as a dead body. However, a corpse does becomes warm if it is in a warm environment; in other words, something dead eventually shares the temperature of its surroundings. It must succumb to natural laws in environmental processes. Of itself, a body without life remains static, unchanging. A hallmark of life is its forever changing dynamism. For example, a healthy person’s heart rate and temperature will change (within a well-defined range) according to time of day, environment, activity level, emotional state and nutritional status. A steady state (unchanging condition) is a dead state. To remain as healthy living human beings, we must make a warmth that is entirely our own and then maintain this individualized, fluctuating ‘warmth-situation’ within the boundary defined by our skin while remaining in relationship with the outside world.
The nature of fire or warmth has historically been a centrally important teaching in spiritual, philosophical, and scientific schooling. The Seven Holy Rishis of Ancient India made it a primary concern of theirs that their students understood certain qualities of warmth or fire. They made sure that their students were aware that when something burns, and its warmth becomes strong enough, it produces light. They taught that on earth, there is a price to be paid for producing light. Light itself is considered as spiritual in this type of learning because we can’t see it (we only perceive with our senses its effects on things). The Holy Rishis understood that all things and processes must be maintained in balance and when something that cannot be perceived by the senses (light as something spiritual) is produced on earth, it must be paid for by sending something material (smoke) down into the sense world. Since fire can be separated into both spiritual and physical components, it is considered as a bridge or doorway between the world of the senses and the world of the spirit. Likewise, because human beings can consciously perceive outer warmth by simply touching an object with their skin, and can also perceive their own inner warmth with their more inward capacities, warmth stands at the threshold between the outer physical world and the soul-spiritual aspect of a human being (see Note 1). World religions and spiritual traditions have long recognized the process of making human warmth as sacred; hence the widespread practice across so many cultures of prayer or ritual before food is eaten. A Greek word for digestion, χώνευση (‘chó̱nef̱si̱’), also refers to a ‘smelting furnace’…not just ‘oven’ ,’stove', or even ‘fire’; but ‘smelting furnace’! Smelting furnaces operate at extremely high temperatures, more or less annihilating a metal ore so that the metal itself can appear in its pure form. Modern science recognizes that a combustion process occurs when we digest food; i.e. physical substance is destroyed with the help of oxygen and this process manifests as bodily warmth, energy for bodily functions in the form of ATP (see Note 2), and ‘waste’ products.
The task of our immune systems is to discern between what is ‘I’ and ‘not I’ in our bodies, and activate defenses against whatever is ‘not I’ to prevent it from becoming active within our personal boundaries.
In order to generate individualized warmth, human beings eat food for fuel and breathe in oxygen to ‘feed the fire’ of digestion. The entire digestive tract is really still part of the outer world - just a long tube that is open at both ends! While we may have eaten steak, potatoes, and a salad for supper, what finally is absorbed into our inner-warmth sanctuary (blood and lymph) ideally has nothing left of its original worldly character. As foundational substances consisting of a mixture of generic amino acids, fatty acids, simple sugars, and other trace elements (no longer steak, potatoes, and salad!) it is ready to take on the stamp of the individual person. Whatever cannot be properly used for the human being’s purposes is released back to the outer world as waste. When foods have not been completely destroyed as to their original character before they are absorbed through the walls of the intestines, (in other words, the blood and lymph does actually receive some ‘steak, potatoes, and salad’), then the immune system is activated. The task of our immune systems is to discern between what is ‘I’ and ‘not I’ in our bodies, and activate defenses against whatever is ‘not I’ to prevent it from becoming active within our personal boundaries. If the immune system has to react chronically (as in the case of ‘leaky gut’ when food that has not been fully destroyed makes its way into blood and lymph regularly) then disease processes such as allergy or inflammation result. A fever is an effort instigated by the immune system to intensify the individualized warmth so that it burns out what is ‘not I’ and does not allow it’s activity within the confines of our skin. For optimal healthy function, a human being must be able to put the full stamp of its own individuality on any substance that comes into their body. Another context in which to think about this process is that a healthy human being is morally responsible for what happens through the agency of their body; so ideally all substances and processes in the body should be fully in service of their higher individuality.
Our skin, our breath, and circulatory processes are the means for keeping inner warmth stable and separate from surrounding warmth. The skin senses the outer warmth (see Note 3) and regulates the flow of blood near the surface of the skin accordingly. The skin is cooled mainly by evaporation of sweat which is dependent on proficient circulation in the small blood vessels at the periphery of the body. Human skin not only senses, defines, and guards the boundary of personalized warmth, but also gives a gift of personal freedom. Rudolf Steiner comments that a dog is something of an epitome of lack of freedom and that its long snout gives us an image of this truth (ruled by its nose!). A dog pants in order to dissipate warmth when it gets too hot. We do not need to ‘pant’ under normal circumstances because we have skin instead of fur! We can sweat and even ‘breathe’ through our skin to regulate body temperature while using our mouths for the gift of speaking when and how we want to - a way of sharing warmth for better or for worse. This example illustrates an aspect of how breathing is related to bodily heat regulation and conservation.
Just because our warmth is individualized and personal, we can, and some would argue we should, share our warmth. But in order to share anything, It first needs to be our own. The story of St. Martin is a powerful image of one aspect of this truth.
A few things that can be supportive to health during warm weather:
1) Stay hydrated - this means electrolytes also; especially if you are exercising, sweating and/or the climate is very dry. Sweating helps prevents excessive or inappropriate outer warmth from entering into our body, and helps to radiate out excessive inner warmth.
2) In addition to copious fresh fruits and vegetables (especially citrus fruits), take extra vitamin C such as an ‘EsterC’ which tends to be easier on the stomach; vitamin C has been shown to help stabilize the collagen in our connective tissues when temperatures are very warm. Vitamin C also supports a healthy absorption of iron - which is an important support of personal will forces (a symptom of anemia is tiredness).
3) Eat less and eat lighter; cooling the body requires extra metabolic energy to move the circulation out to the periphery (and away from digestive organs) and produce sweat; digesting food in itself requires energy and produces more heat requiring more oxygen for ‘combustion’. Swiss researchers report an increase risk of inflammatory bowel disease relapse in patients during heat wave periods. The study also found an increase of infectious gastroenteritis during heat waves, with the strongest impact following a 7 day lag time after the heat wave. The authors noted, "There is evidence for an increase of IBD hospital admissions by 4-6 percent for each additional day within a heat wave period. Presence of a heat wave was estimated to increase the risk of infectious gastroenteritis by 4-7 percent for every additional day within a heat wave period. In the control group there was no evidence for a heat wave effect.” So in other words, the longer a heat wave goes on, the higher is the chance of serious digestive trouble for people who are already predisposed. For some people, ‘Bieler’s Broth’ used as a ‘fasting food’ can help slow down an outbreak of digestive troubles.
A not yet peer reviewed study suggests that fermented foods may be helpful not only in keeping the gut healthy for many people, but also for general immune strength. They are already partially digested and thus take less energy to digest, many are high in vitamin C, and preliminary (not yet peer reviewed) research has found that in countries where many are eaten, there has been dramatically less death from Covid-19. Preserved lemons and a fruit and vegetable juice product called Recht Regulat by BioPure are two possibilities among many to reap some of these benefits.
4) Know your risk factors and limits for sun exposure and err on the side of caution. Some sun exposure is healthy, but everyone has their limits. Take care of your skin by covering it and by having sufficient beta carotene (fruits and vegetables again!) and essential fatty acids in your diet and/or supplements. Dry skin brushing on a daily basis ‘exercises’ the circulation near the surface of the skin thus keeping this essential organ healthy and resilient.
5) if you have breathing troubles such as asthma, check into Buteyko Breathing. The exercises in the book ‘Close Your Mouth’ are simple and effective for anxiety as well. And you don’t have to add yet another expensive medication or supplement to your pill box! As mentioned in the dog example, breathing and oxygen utilization are connected with how efficiently we cool ourselves. Be discerning and conscious of how you share your warmth in the form of speaking, sighing, and singing.
Note 1: For a more detailed discussion of warmth as a bridge or threshold, please see this lecture by Rudolf Steiner.
Note 2: ATP = adenosine triphosphate. It is the energy currency of the body and powers everything from our thinking processes to the activity of our arms and legs. Phosphorous is an element which represents light (think of matches or the word ‘phosphorescent’).
Note 3: There have been scientific and philosophical debates over whether heat and cold are separate entities or cold is merely ‘an absence of heat’- in other words, not having reality in its own character. It is interesting that human skin ‘sees’ heat and cold as separate entities in that human beings have both ‘warmth receptors’ and ‘cold receptors’ in the skin as sensory organs. We evaluate the relative warmth or temperature of something that has been touched by comparing the perceptions of both types of receptors. It’s all in the relationships!
