The Vedas, Medical scriptures and the Bhagavad Gita repeatedly tells us it is essential to understand the science behind proper and healthy eating. Science of food has been deeply and scientifically mentioned in these scriptures, which has been base for healthy living for thousands of years now.
Our body develops a sattvic inclination that comes into the mode of goodness and if we eat garbage then our body also transforms accordingly. What we are eating, is what our body is made off, more importantly, our mind also made of that.
Vedic scriptures affirms and suggest not to eat meat products but throughout the world in all religious traditions, we find that many noble souls, saints, thinkers, although born in meat-eating families. They naturally gravitated toward vegetarianism, Whether they came from America or England, or any other country.
“Do not make your stomach the graveyard for animals”
:-George Bernard Shaw
If we eat a lot of chilies in our diet then it causes anger. because it enhances the Tamo guna, the mode of ignorance. there is a direct link between food and the mind, Chandogya Upanishad stated.
Six hundred years ago when Supreme Soul Kabir Saheb incarnated on earth and made a spectacle of ‘Dhanak’ (weaver). He wrote in his sacred speech about Prakriti (Maya), Kaal-Satan, and the three Gunas (Rajogun, Satogun, Tamogun) which hold all living beings captive in the materialistic world.
In each of us, there is a proportion of every quality. Without tamas, we would not sleep and without rajas, we would lack mobility, and life without sattva would be deplete inspirational energy and without high human qualities. A yogi aims to enhance sattva to raise consciousness through a healthy body and calm mind.
The food we eat has a huge impact on us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. A serious student of yoga aims to increase the Sattva component through all aspects of life and diet plays a major role in progress on the spiritual path. Having a special focus on calorie intake with special emphasize on quality rather than quantity boosts health to a great extent.
Foods are classified into three types in scriptures:
- SATTVIC – Means purity, health, harmony and well-being.
- RAJASIC– Means stress, anger, activity and restlessness.
- TAMASIC- Means dullness, laziness and lethargy.
SATTVIC DIET
A sattvic diet is pure vegetarian nutrition and includes fresh fruits and vegetables, fruit and vegetable juices, wholemeal bread, pulses, cereals and sprouts, nuts, seeds, honey, herbs, milk, and dairy products derived from animal rennet. These foods will raise our consciousness, prompting us to take positive action, intense focus, and unleash our hidden potential and creativity. Sattvic food is made with love and eaten with full awareness and gratitude.
Yogis are vegetarians for many reasons. Apart from the health aspect, the main reason is the principle that “all living beings are my soul” hence the need to treat all beings with respect and love.
TAMSIC DIET
A Tamsic diet includes dead food such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, rancid food, processed food full of chemical additives, fast food, reheated food, alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Sattvic food can become tamasic if it is processed, aged, or fried.
These category of foods drag us down into the state of laziness and inertia, in fact further devastates our energy. Living on tamasic food and substances will lead to complaints like obesity, diabetes, heart and liver diseases. We will not be motivated, careless, unaware of ourselves and others.
RAJASIC DIET
A Rajasic diet is one that is overly spicy or hot, which includes foods with onions and garlic, coffee, fizzy soft drinks, tea, sugary foods, and lots of chocolate. These foods can give us a boost in energy but eventually, we experience less or increased stress. Rajasic diet destroys the coordination between mind and body, that signs the feeding of the body at the expense of mind.
A Rajasic person will eat in a rush, eat in a hurry, and experience poor digestion and health as a harsh consequence for the same. It is suggested that if anybody is practicing these type of foods, they may need to change their diet quickly.
Why did God observe the eating style of man as different from the animals?
Human body is meant for vegetarianism. See the carnivorous animals, they have very short intestines because the meat is putrified rapidly.
So if it remains for long, it will putrify and then it will cause disease, So it has to be expelled quickly. That is why the intestines of non-vegetarian animals are very small, three times the body length.
And the human intestines are ten to twelve times the body length, the small intestines. So the food is going to remain in far so long that meat will be putrified.
Medical statistics reveal that meat-eaters have twice the risk of cancer compared to non-meat eaters. because that is against the bodily design. If we will going against the design of god then it will happen.
Apart from that God has made different types of teeth for animals and humans. In Carnivores animals have a higher level of acid in the stomach to digest the meat, not we humans.
Animals regulate body temperature not by sweating but through the tongue. And we humans, don’t regulate body temperature through the tongue but through the pores. So all this is indicative that God designed this human body for vegetarianism.
”Arjun, those who offer their food to god and partake of the remnants, are released from sin. While those who merely eat in the enjoying consciousness are actually eating sin”.
:-Shri Krishna