I Made It With Love

When I was growing up, it wasn’t uncommon to hear someone say after a great meal “Wow, that was delicious! What made that so good?”

My mom, the consummate home chef, would answer, “It’s so good because I made it with love.”

Then it would be dropped because, of course, love is that special ingredient that makes everything taste better.

It became a common answer to a common question and still to this day, my mom will always answer the question “How come this tastes so good?” with “Because I made it with love.”

Now you may think this is silly.  How could love make food taste better?  How could something that you can taste, feel or touch make any kind of difference.

How come I always smile when people eat and then exclaim how delicious their food is?  How come I answer in my head “because it’s made with love”?

The answer is simple.  You can taste the difference when food is prepared with love. 

It won’t be sweeter.  It won’t be more pungent or aromatic.  There won’t be an obvious outward difference.

The difference will be internal.  The difference will be in how you assimilate your food.

I can’t promise that food made with love will have fewer calories or won’t let you gain weight.  I can’t say that food made with love has a higher nutritional value but I will say that the experience of eating will be different.

When my mom would say her food tastes so good because she made it with love, she didn’t actually mean that *Love* was an ingredient in the pantry.  She didn’t mean for us to take her literally.

What was meant was that the experience of her food was love- that the energy she put into preparing her meals was one of positive, loving energy.  Nourishing her family was a high priority.  Because she wanted to nourish her husband, her kids, her friends, she gave each spoonful of the meal a more potent nutritional value than any fruit or vegetable could ever give.

She gave it her love.

What does this mean for you?

This means that the next time you’re enjoying a meal, recognize that there was a deliberate intention around the experience of your meal.  Perhaps great care was taken when choosing ingredients.  Perhaps the chef carefully prepared your meal.  Perhaps even the company you keep while you eat is having a positive effect on your meal.

Take into account the overall experience of your meal.

Choose, prepare and enjoy your meals all with the intention of getting the most out of them.  Take time to be grateful for the love that surrounds the act of nourishing yourself and others.

Whether you cook or not, whether you eat alone or with others, take time to notice how imbuing a sense of love and pleasure to your food does make it taste better.

And then you’ll know the answer to the question, “Why does this food taste so good?”

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