Staying in a state of mindfulness and contemplating about food can serve as a kind of training: strengthening right knowledge, and also as a form of food dana.

There is a western saying, “You Are What You Eat”, this means that food can reflect a person's personality and living environment, including these three aspects of thinking:

First, on the narrow aspect of edible food: the food that we intake is vital for good health. Nowadays, health care products are popular, reflecting people's focus on physical health. Less oil, less salt, less sugar, eating smaller portions, all these reduce the burden of the digestive system, leaving more time for the intestine to rejuvenate to facilitate the body’s detoxification.

Second, in the broader sense of mental health which refers to the sensory impression of food: what we see, hear, think, and even smell, taste, touch, the "sensory impression" of food in our minds, what do we feed on? Does it enhance or destroy mental health?

Do the articles we see and read feed the power of mental stability and peace, or feed the seeds of fear and anger in us?

Is the information and music we listen to feeding our mind to be good and improve ourselves, or are we allowing ourselves to be buried by biased and false information? Or do they feed the seeds of greed, desire, sadness, decadence, and violence?

Is what we are thinking the macro view, not forgetting our original intention, to benefit oneself and others, feeding a positive world view, outlook on life and values? Or are we thinking about selfishness, thinking about how to satisfy our primal instincts and desires in our life.

When consuming these "foods", we have these sensory impressions, and if we do not remain mindful and refrain from, or avoid the "toxins", we and our children will unknowingly feed on violence, hatred, desire and despair, and our living environment will suffer the consequences. We can see that the world today is full of suffering.

Therefore, we have to pay more attention to the choice of sensory impression of food for our mental health, because the prettily wrapped poison of modern civilization is difficult to detect and resist.

Third, from the point of practice: the dining place in the Buddhist ashram is called the Hall of Abstinence, also known as the Hall of Five Contemplations. Before meals, we should meditate on the "Five Contemplations At Mealtimes".

Consider the amount of work for this amount of food: contemplate how much effort it takes to bring this food to the table. Food doesn't come easily! Be thankful.

Consider if our virtuous conduct is complete or incomplete to receive this food offering: contemplate our virtues, reflect on whether we deserve to enjoy the food. Be humble.

Guard the mind to depart from faults, with greed etc as principal cause: when enjoying the food, be vigilant against the rising of mental defilements: greed when the food is tasty; aversion when the food is not tasty; ignorance, eating without tasting or being distracted, using mobile phones or newspapers as a side dish, and using work and meetings as garnish. Be vigilant.

Food and drinks should be regarded as essential regular medication, for healing the recurring disease of hunger and thirst: eat to survive, the focus is to have sufficient nutrition for our health. Hunger is like a disease and food is the right medicine for this disease. Be mindful of self-healing.

Only for accomplishing the path [to enlightenment], should we receive this food: eating (inclusive of drinking, excreting, urinating, sleeping, breathing) is for the purpose of achieving enlightenment, we should not only nourish our rūpa (body), but also our dhamma-kāya (dharma body). Be disciplined and engage in self-cultivation.

From the instinct to eat, then developing into the understanding of nourishing of rūpa (body), dhamma-kāya (dharma body) and mind, which gives a deeper meaning to the phrase "you are what you eat", and thus better understand the requirements of spiritual nourishment – the joy of meditation as food, the bliss of the dharma as food, vows as food, mindfulness as food, liberation as food.