One view to many views to an evolutionary view

What started it all was open-minded curiosity.

After a long conversation with a friend on various topics like religion, culture, and Ramadan, I decided to start a one-month meat-free experiment on the spot. It was a big change as my (seemingly healthy) eating habits included meat/ fish on almost every dish but I was curious to find out how difficult it was going without. To my surprise, it was easier than I thought, and that got me thinking. If I could survive and thrive on a completely different yet enjoyable diet that had various logically beneficial reasons, what else was I missing? What is healthy food anyway and what other questions should I be asking about food?

At the same time, I met my later-to-be wife Kertu, who joined my increasingly deepening contemplations on the backstory of food. Little did we know our hearts were opened to a new inclusive dimension of food (the green 6th lens pictured here). Once you see it you can’t unsee it anymore. At one point we became passionate vegans, excited and skilled in plant-based foods (we even made a course about this) but also deeply hurt by the inability of our friends and family to care about the bigger picture. That pain dominated and fueled our growing interest in food, but there was always something different in our approach.

We had found our calling in food like many others. But it was our open-minded curiosity that kept us on continuous independent research that eventually freed us from any particular way to see food (including veganism, whole foods plant-based, paleo, raw foods, traditional foods, carnivorism, juicing, fasting, etc). Over many years we included more views, experiments, scientists, and history – all of this, often, contradictory – and started recognizing distinct worldviews that we (and everyone else) goes through that shape the experience of food. A dominating single-minded view became a balance between many perspectives (which is complex due to the vastness of the self), which eventually became a simple structured evolutionary journey – the 8D Food Approach. 

We now embrace a rich multidimensional lens that allows us to use food as the everyday guru. Instead of “just food”, or healthy food, or comfort foods, etc, we can instead use Food as a daily reminder of the deeply multidimensional and interconnected reality. It’s a privilege to recognize this simple, pure yet powerful opportunity and we would like to introduce it to as many people as possible.