Foodie Fight

Yoga conjures up images, at least for me, sweating people in a small wood paneled room, handling drastically their bodies in poses pretzel-seeking inner peace through the union of mind and body. Healthy living seems to be reason to be riding more of this ancient art, and those who practice yoga (yogis) are constantly harping on the importance of organic food and and "healthy" ways of life. Recently, all this began to change, bites, Yogi Yogi cons in a fight over what food "healthy" consists of. Imagine, if you like, lying on a mat in comfortable sweat pants and matching jacket you bought in a shop yoga on Park Avenue, eyes closed, totally relaxed with your mind clear, while nibbling on a delicate truffle chocolate. Sounds like heaven!

The New York Times last piece in their section "Dining & Wine 'sets a new practice among yogis yoga gourmets. This practice combines the body, mind and stomach in an explosion of strenuous exercise and gastrological too lenient. The Times piece uses a yoga studio on Madison Avenue that serves a large meal of pasta, three (including wine!) directly after one hour of exercise as an example of this relatively new trend. Not only do yoga studios are starting to serve food after school or even during, but studio / fine dining restaurants open as Ubuntu, which opened in 2007 in Napa, California. But never mind all the food and wine combos, focus on what we all want: chocolate. I've never done yoga in my whole life, in fact, the idea or contorting my body in this way makes me think unholy thoughts are like those with the type of product moves from a company after a long night of drinking.

But my attitude has changed, perhaps that chocolate is an incentive to get people into the doors of the workshop, or maybe chocolate is really a wonderful power, supplemented by the rigors of a yoga exercise . A study by Swiss scientists (you can be your own judge as to the validity of the study was conducted in Switzerland Nestled Research) argued that eating 40g of dark chocolate every day can reduce your level of stress.

So Yoga + Chocolate = ultimate relaxation and a healthy life, right? I know that red wine has a million health benefits (or at least Carlo Rossi might want you think), so why not chocolate? More Vegans, the majority of yoga enthusiasts, can be eaten. So look out for special "foodie-yoga" classes at your local studio, and perhaps it is time to crack and go to a yoga class (if you have not already) and join the new trend in one year thousands of old practices. But for me, I'm going to be those that offer free peanut butter M & M's.