Food carries an emotional charge which affects its flavor in a subtle way. I found that out more than forty years ago I got involved in a dietary system known as macrobiotics, started by George Ohsawa. One of its tenets, derived from Japanese Zen monastery cooking, was that the intention of the cook changes the energy (prana, chi, or ki) of the food. We were enjoined to cook with care and attention. Who cooked was also important. The idea was that food creates the human who eats it, and therefore its quality and energy is of utmost importance. There may be something to that notion. Intentionality, or the effect of intention on matter or organisms, has been studied extensively. A number of studies have shown that prayer has a healing effect not only on people (even when the praying person does not know the one prayed for) but also on bacteria and rats (Benor 2001), which certainly dont know the meaning of our prayers to begin with