I've been trying for a while to focus my eating to help me learn, daven, and do mitzvot. For example, there's a difference of how I treat people on a full stomach versus a stuffed stomach. In analyzing my food intake recently, I wondered why I ate fruit, being that it's not essential to keeping my soul in my body. I discovered that the reason I eat it is because it tastes good. This bothered me a little and I decided to do a little research.
I came across something awesome in my investigations of the bracha (blessing) we recite after eating most fruits, Borei Nefashot (the laws of brachot are fascinating, especially if combined with chasidut, like Rav Nasan's Lekutei Halachot). The Tur, z'tzl, is a famous halachist who wrote the Arba'a Turim, which is an earlier version of the Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish law. He writes that there are things created in this world because we need them like bread and water (and brown rice!). Also, some things were created only for everyone to enjoy and get extra chiyut (life force/energy). The Beit Yosef comments there that fruit, and anything not required for the world's existence, was created solely to give chiyut to the soul and awaken the human heart to simcha (happiness).
When I read that I went out and bought a bag of cherries, mmmmmmm…
May we merit to eat fruit with simcha amongst all of our holy brothers and sisters in Yerushalayim, quickly and soon, amen. B'teavon!