The Creator of many living beings and their basic needs- Such as bread and water, without which life is impossible; for all that you have created to sustain the life of all living beings- namely, the foods which are not necessary for sustaining life, but rather were created solely for the purpose of giving pleasure to the one consuming them (such as apples)...
The best way to acquire Separation is for a man to reflect on the lowliness of the pleasures of this world, their intrinsic baseness, and the great evils that are near to result from them. For that which inclines one's nature towards these pleasures to the extent that one needs such great strength and so many strategies to separate from them is the enticement of the eyes which tend to be seduced by the superficial appearance of things which appear good and pleasing... But when it becomes clear to a person that this good is completely false, imaginary and ephemeral, while its evil is truly real or truly near to result from, certainly he will become repulsed by it and not desire it in the least. Therefore, this is all of what a person needs to teach his intellect - to recognize the weakness (insignificance) of these pleasures and their falsehood, until on his own, he will be disgusted by them and have no difficulty casting them away. The pleasure in [eating] food is the most tangible and most felt. Yet, is there anything more swiftly gone and passing than this? For its duration is as the measure of passing a person's throat. After the food passes this point and descends to the intestines, all remembrance of it disappears and is forgotten as if it had never existed. Thus he will be just as satiated if he ate fattened swans than if he had eatened coarse bread in sufficient quantity. All the more so, if he considers the many illnesses brought on through eating, and at least, the heaviness which one feels after a meal and the vapors which darken his intellect. When reflecting on all these things, certainly a person will not desire in this pleasure, since its good is not truly good while its evil is truly evil.
It is proper to only engage in the pleasures of this world in a way which will lead, even if only indirectly, to furthering the service of God... Therefore, the Torah teaches us that after we benefit from this world by means of food and drink, we should thank God and praise His name, and thereby turn the experience into one which furthers the ultimate goal of creation... Making the blessings facilitates focusing on the fact that the goodness comes from God himself, and the enjoyment derived is not solely physical; rather, it is something designed by God to bring about True goodness.
Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa said: Anyone who derives benefit from this world without a blessing, it is as if he stole from God and the community of Israel...
(א) בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם אֲשֶׁר יָצַר אֶת הָאָדָם בְּחָכְמָה וּבָרָא בו נְקָבִים נְקָבִים חֲלוּלִים חֲלוּלִים. גָּלוּי וְיָדוּעַ לִפְנֵי כִסֵּא כְבודֶךָ שֶׁאִם יִפָּתֵחַ אֶחָד מֵהֶם או יִסָּתֵם אֶחָד מֵהֶם אִי אֶפְשַׁר לְהִתְקַיֵּם וְלַעֲמוד לְפָנֶיךָ אֲפִילוּ שָׁעָה אֶחָת: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' רופֵא כָל בָּשר וּמַפְלִיא לַעֲשות:
(1) Praised are You, Lord our God King of the universe, who with wisdom fashioned the human body, creating openings and organs. It is known before your exalted Throne that should but one of them, by being blocked or opened, fail to function, it would be impossible to exist. Praised are you, Lord, healer of all flesh who performs wonders.
(א) ומפליא לעשות כדאיתא במדרש כי גדול אתה ועושה נפלאות האדם דומה לנאד מלא רוח ואם יעשה אדם בנאד נקב כחודה של מחט הרוח יוצא והאדם מלא נקבים ורוחו משתמרת בתוכו הרי עושה נפלאות :
(1) 6.And performs wonders- such as is (stated) in the midrash: ‘For you are great, creating wonders: A person is like a water skin full of air; should a person make a perforation in a water skin the size of a needle point, the air comes out. Yet a person is full of openings, yet his spirit is kept within him, which is ‘performing wonders.’
(א) ונ"ל שמפליא לעשות קאי על הנשמה שנתן באדם וזו היא פליאה גדולה שיתקיים דבר רוחני והוא מן העליונים בדבר גשמי בגוף האדם שהיא מן התחתונים ואי אפשר לנשמה לעשות פעולתו להשכיל במושכלות בעוד שאדם חולה ב"מ באחד מאיבריו כי כאב גופו מטרידו מלעשות פעולתו וע"כ אמר רופא חולי כל בשר ועל ידי זה מפליא לעשות שהנשמה נקשרת בגוף וע"כ תקנו לומר מיד אחר ברכה זו ברכה אלהי נשמה:
It seems that the phrase "and performs wonders" references the soul which is placed into a person. It is truly wondrous that something spiritual, from the highest realms, can exist in a physical body in this world. It is impossible for the soul to perform its duties so long as the body is ailing in one of its organs, seeing as the body's pain impedes the souls's mission. Therefore, the blessing first acknowledges that God is the Healer of all flesh, and then we acknowledge that by doing so, He is acting wondrously by allowing the soul to fuse with the body.