One afternoon, a wealthy businessman was riding in the back of his limousine when he saw two men, by the roadside, eating grass. He ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.

''Why are you eating grass?'' he asked one man.
''We don't have any money for food,'' The poor man replied.
''Oh, come along with me then.''
''But sir, I have a wife with two children!''
''Bring them along! And you, sir," he pointed to the other man, "why don?t you come with us, too!''
''But sir, I have a wife with six children!'' The second man answered.
''Bring them as well!'' said the rich man.
So the two men gathered their families and they all climbed into the limousine, not an easy task with so many people.
Once underway, one of the poor fellows says, ''Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us with you.''
The rich man replied, ''No, I must thank you, the grass at my home is about four feet high!''

Let?s hope none of us have to resort to grass eating when times are tough, but the purpose of my talk today is to argue that we need to eat more variety. We don?t want to be stuck on one kind of food, like grass and be forced to be lawnmowers for some rich guy.

To understand why variety is so important to our nutrition and health, I want to present an energy model of nutrition. Usually we think of nutrition as nutrients, vitamins or minerals, or other chemical entities that add to our nutrition. Chinese medicine talks about nutrition from an energy standpoint. I remember what a famous Chinese black tantric Buddhist master said, "What is visible is finite. What is invisible is infinite." Sure, we can identity various molecules as nutrients, but the energy associated with various nutrients or foods gives you more to consider.

The Chinese view of energy uses the circle as a helpful tool. If energy flows in a circular direction, and clockwise, the same way that our food travels in our large intestine, at different points on the circle, the direction of the energy flow changes. The Chinese happened to divide the energy circle in 5 parts. We can imagine this by thinking of a 5-pointed star in our circle. You can see that the direction of the energy at the top point has reached its peak and is heading down. At the point, to my left, the energy is headed left and more downward. At the left lower point, it heads further downward and begins to head to my right. At the right lower point of my star, the energy heads right and begins to move upward. At the right point of my star, the direction of energy is the rightward and moving up.

If we consider any food, would it be fair to say that each food will direct energy in the body closer to the direction of one of the five points of my star? Although I have no scientific basis to prove this, wouldn't it be fair to say that a food will direct energy either more up or down, and either more right or left. We'd be able to figure it out which point we are most similar to if we could in fact measure this energy. Unfortunately we can't do this, but for our present purposes, this is not really necessary.

For optimal health, good blood circulation is important to deliver nutrients and to eliminate toxins. The Chinese say that chi, the unseen vital force, directs the flow of blood. When the chi flows freely throughout the body, then the blood will also circulate freely.

When we eat the same foods all the time, we set up a pattern of stagnant energy in our bodies. Remember, from physics, that in order for there to be a flow of electricity, you need to have a difference in electric potential. Something has to be more positive and something more negative for there to be a flow of electrons. In the same way when we eat a greater variety of foods, we set up a better environment conducive for the flow of energy and chi in our bodies.

In fact, I believe that the cancer is caused from eating too much of the same thing. Consider that when we keep eating the same thing, it creates a habitual energy pattern in our body. This excessive energy pattern may predispose to the excessive growth that leads to cancer. You could almost say that what you like to eat the most is probably what will kill you. This makes sense in terms of balance and variety.

How many of you eat papaya every morning for breakfast? Maybe not so many in this audience, with younger individuals and more mainlanders than locals, but often, several students in my taichi class will admit to doing this. I tell them to stop this and eat more variety: what about other fruits besides papaya? You can still have papaya now and again.

My best recommendation to offer you is to try a few bugs. This improves on your variety. I?m teasing some, but I?m serious also. A little bit of variety can go a long way. It makes total sense that a few grubs could give you a different energy flow in your body.

I have given you an energy model of nutrition to help you understand why variety in your eating can lead to better overall health. Variety makes you more alive, gives you versatility, and leads to greater ability to cope with all life situations.

It's like a variety of bras. Women demonstrate the value of variety in many of their fashions. If you ever go to the lingerie department, and I always do, to learn what variety means, you?ll find bras in every shape, size, color and material. They've got it all covered. The Catholic type of bra supports the masses, the Salvation Army bra lifts up the fallen, and the Neurotic type makes mountains out of molehills. Of course, they have the legal brief bra that is designed to make false impressions.