Man is born healthy, all illnesses come to him with food.Hippocrates
Often people begin to practice hatha yoga, after a while feels the need to change your diet. The reason for this may be profound changes in the b ody and mind, which inevitably occur with the start of regular practice, and just talks in the locker room after class. It also happens that the instructors in class drops the phrase about the benefits of vegetarianism, and thereby deprive a person peace of mind.
First of all, you must understand for themselves the simple thing: no diet is not worth your peace of mind. After all, Christ said that defiles us not what included in us, and that comes from us. You can eat burgers, if it makes you happy and cheerful good man, next to which all good and easy, and just continue to practice, and then — look it up yourself.
But there is another side to this coin: as the Chinese wisdom, a man becomes happy when winning their weaknesses. It will not hurt to think every time before you eat something "not yogic" for your ideas. Maybe you can change your mind.
Notions about what product or diet is "yogic" firstly is not necessary to erect an absolute, and secondly, to impose ypur body and mind prematurely. What timeliness is right for you and, accordingly, adequacy of an approach to diet can be judged by … [drumroll!] … your general condition. Surprise?
Eat to live…
So why arise the question about any special diet for yogis?
First of all, the classic texts on hatha yoga such as Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Gheranda Samhita prescribe yogi lacto-vegetarian diet. In particular, it is recommended to eat rice, barley, wheat, peeled peas, cucumber, honey, herbs, milk and ghee (clarified butter is small), ginger, cardamom and cloves. These texts, among other things, require to live away from crowded places, plastered with cow dung, and practice, practice, practice … People are socially active, who spend a lot of energy in a big city, and any women giving birth and rearing children such diet will not only bring little benefit, but can cause damage to health.
Here we come to the key point of any "yogic" diet: it must be directed to the restoration and maintenance of human health both in body and mind.
If a diet meets the plastic and the energy needs of the person you can consider it healthy. Simplifying, the person should have enough nutrients for healthy functioning of all systems of the organism, as well as energy for the lifestyle he leads.
You can rely on the prescription of texts only if you observe the lifestyle and practices, which they describe.
With regard to the diet this can be expressed as: nutrition should not become for us neither a panacea nor a sword of Damocles. What happenes if we subject all their lives exclusively to the cult of proper nutrition? And if we are "sacrificial" follow the rules of the text, regardless of the diseases of the body and the growing internal tension, fatigue, irritability? The question is rhetorical.
Back to Agni. If we find certain disorders of the digestive fire, it makes sense to think about the corrective procedures: Shatkarmas (cleansing techniques), change in diet, changes in methods of food preparation and consumption of spices.
Shatkarmas — is a separate and special theme, so we do not dwell on it.
However, do not be amiss to mention that some of them are able to make our taste preferences healthier.
As for diet, the best correction will be a meal at the peak of Agni, which will be discussed below. An important factor in the correction method of the digestive fire is cooking.
Warm food is always absorbed better — a feeling most people are not having any special knowledge. How it is better to "warm up"?
According to various sources, the priorities are arranged as follows: bake in the oven (preferably in the skin, if it fruits and vegetables), steamed, boiled, stewed, and finally — that is, it really is "the last thing" in every sense of the expression — fry. Microwave, according to some, destroys natural enzymes of the product, so it "cools" food, even touch tells us otherwise.
Also helps normalize Agni the correct sequence of the meal and the combination product. Soups knowingly recommended by doctors of all traditions as the beginning of dinner. Even vegetable broths contain many extractive substances that stimulate the production of gastric juice. Salty, sour and spicy as "Kindle" digestive fire, while the sweet, bitter and cold food it "extinguishes" that is simply slow down the digestion.
It is important that food is consistent with the level of Agni. Even if the product itself is very good, but the body is not able to digest and assimilate, he not only will not benefit, but also will cause adverse effects.
Accuracy — the politeness of kings.
It is important to bear in mind that food is not only a source of energy and building materials for the renovation of the organism (energy and plastic function of food in Western terminology), but also the "fuel" that supports the necessary intensity of Agni (the fact that in Western terminology is called the exchange function of the food). Why so often we hear the recommendation to eat regularly at intervals and not to eat at night.
So, to be the "king" of your body, you must eat at the so-called peak Agni. These are the following intervals: 7.30−9.30; 12.30−14.30 (the best time for the largest meal); 16.00−17.00; 18.00−19.30. It is assumed that a person gets up to 7 o’clock in the morning and even have time to get hungry to 7.30.
Hear yourself listening to others.
The hardest part for most people is the ability to understand what their real needs at a given moment and in any given circumstance. In search of algorithms for solving this problem, yogis often turn to Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine.
Indeed, Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine are able to give a person such algorithms. But, alas, it really requires a deep knowledge in this area, and, most importantly, understanding of the terms used in these systems of knowledge, and also ability to feel your current state, to apply all this knowledge.
In particular, we should not fall into the misconception that the constitution of the person determined by the test in popular Ayurveda book, is a static category and defines his life. It is also of little use in practice the doctrine of tastes: not everyone can understand, such as garlic coexist five tastes, and why milk is sweet. For information on how to understand the terms of the ancient Indian and Tibetan medicine to the acquired knowledge was applied in modern reality, you can write a book and not one. This, of course, beyond the scope of this article.
Now we turn to only one concept, which operates Ayurveda in relation to issues of good nutrition — is the concept of Agni, or digestive fire.
In modern parlance, the level of Agni determines the efficiency of person digestion, i.e. the splitting of fats to glycerol and fatty acids, carbohydrates — to monosaccharaides, proteins — up of amino acids and their subsequent transformation into plastic and energy resources of the body. And it’s not just about the digestion of food and absorption of nutrients, and also about waste disposal.
Good digestive fire means that a person has a moderate and regular appetite, everything a person eats well digested, and the waste is well removed. If appetite unstable or absent, or a person eats without stopping, if after or before meals felt discomfort (e.g. pain severity) in any part of the gastrointestinal tract, and the body is either too long delayed excretion of waste (constipation) or vice versa displays all often, so do not really mastered, it alleges a violation of the functioning of Agni.
You see, it is not so difficult to understand the condition of your digestive fire. It should be easy to watch carefully for a couple of days, is not making any adjustments in diet and nutrition.
Take yourself before you eat.
Take yourself — finally, means to love yourself. This means taking care of yourself and works on yourself, but not "quitting", by imposing themselves innovations that is obviously run counter to your current state. Take, not to give up and decide what to work on is not necessary, and so I’m good. No. Take — so give yourself a chance and find a way to work harmoniously on them. Harmonically — so with a sense of proportion and understanding why we take certain steps, analyzing whether those benefits they provide.
Who is in the owner of the body?
Violence against himself, preach us, not to be confused with connivance. Certainly, there are attachments, which must be combated. For example, overeating, excessive consumption of sweet, semi-fast food, rife with flavor enhancers, canned food and so on. We struggle with it because it deprives us of life, to the detriment of health and creating laziness of spirit. Admit it, every time you concede their weaknesses, conscious of them, you do not feel better.
Food — the most direct link between the quality of the environment and the body. Food — medicine, but with lower potency. It is important not only what we eat, but how and when we eat. If we eat regularly and thoroughly chew food, likely, we will not want to overeating. If we eat delicious every time, do not want to taste other frills. If we bypass the tenth road fast food and other junk food, we just throw it out of the our attention sphere, and so from our life. Out of sight, out of mind.
Healthy spirit /// healthy body. Mens sana in corpore sano
Summarizing all the above, it should be emphasized that the "mental and social well-being", indicator of which is your ability to smile at people, to listen criticism, complacent even after serious twists and turns, and not take it out on neighbors are, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), a full-fledged component of health.
Consequently, in an effort to lead a healthy life, and even more so, to grow spiritually, it can not be put at the heart of some strict diet. Moreover, doing yoga. After all, we, among other things, develops flexibility, and most importantly — awareness, is not it? Informed and flexible approach — that is to develop not only on issues of power, but also, perhaps, the vast majority of the questions posed by life.
First of all, you must understand for themselves the simple thing: no diet is not worth your peace of mind. After all, Christ said that defiles us not what included in us, and that comes from us. You can eat burgers, if it makes you happy and cheerful good man, next to which all good and easy, and just continue to practice, and then — look it up yourself.
But there is another side to this coin: as the Chinese wisdom, a man becomes happy when winning their weaknesses. It will not hurt to think every time before you eat something "not yogic" for your ideas. Maybe you can change your mind.
Notions about what product or diet is "yogic" firstly is not necessary to erect an absolute, and secondly, to impose ypur body and mind prematurely. What timeliness is right for you and, accordingly, adequacy of an approach to diet can be judged by … [drumroll!] … your general condition. Surprise?
Eat to live…
So why arise the question about any special diet for yogis?
First of all, the classic texts on hatha yoga such as Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Gheranda Samhita prescribe yogi lacto-vegetarian diet. In particular, it is recommended to eat rice, barley, wheat, peeled peas, cucumber, honey, herbs, milk and ghee (clarified butter is small), ginger, cardamom and cloves. These texts, among other things, require to live away from crowded places, plastered with cow dung, and practice, practice, practice … People are socially active, who spend a lot of energy in a big city, and any women giving birth and rearing children such diet will not only bring little benefit, but can cause damage to health.
Here we come to the key point of any "yogic" diet: it must be directed to the restoration and maintenance of human health both in body and mind.
If a diet meets the plastic and the energy needs of the person you can consider it healthy. Simplifying, the person should have enough nutrients for healthy functioning of all systems of the organism, as well as energy for the lifestyle he leads.
You can rely on the prescription of texts only if you observe the lifestyle and practices, which they describe.
With regard to the diet this can be expressed as: nutrition should not become for us neither a panacea nor a sword of Damocles. What happenes if we subject all their lives exclusively to the cult of proper nutrition? And if we are "sacrificial" follow the rules of the text, regardless of the diseases of the body and the growing internal tension, fatigue, irritability? The question is rhetorical.
Back to Agni. If we find certain disorders of the digestive fire, it makes sense to think about the corrective procedures: Shatkarmas (cleansing techniques), change in diet, changes in methods of food preparation and consumption of spices.
Shatkarmas — is a separate and special theme, so we do not dwell on it.
However, do not be amiss to mention that some of them are able to make our taste preferences healthier.
As for diet, the best correction will be a meal at the peak of Agni, which will be discussed below. An important factor in the correction method of the digestive fire is cooking.
Warm food is always absorbed better — a feeling most people are not having any special knowledge. How it is better to "warm up"?
According to various sources, the priorities are arranged as follows: bake in the oven (preferably in the skin, if it fruits and vegetables), steamed, boiled, stewed, and finally — that is, it really is "the last thing" in every sense of the expression — fry. Microwave, according to some, destroys natural enzymes of the product, so it "cools" food, even touch tells us otherwise.
Also helps normalize Agni the correct sequence of the meal and the combination product. Soups knowingly recommended by doctors of all traditions as the beginning of dinner. Even vegetable broths contain many extractive substances that stimulate the production of gastric juice. Salty, sour and spicy as "Kindle" digestive fire, while the sweet, bitter and cold food it "extinguishes" that is simply slow down the digestion.
It is important that food is consistent with the level of Agni. Even if the product itself is very good, but the body is not able to digest and assimilate, he not only will not benefit, but also will cause adverse effects.
Accuracy — the politeness of kings.
It is important to bear in mind that food is not only a source of energy and building materials for the renovation of the organism (energy and plastic function of food in Western terminology), but also the "fuel" that supports the necessary intensity of Agni (the fact that in Western terminology is called the exchange function of the food). Why so often we hear the recommendation to eat regularly at intervals and not to eat at night.
So, to be the "king" of your body, you must eat at the so-called peak Agni. These are the following intervals: 7.30−9.30; 12.30−14.30 (the best time for the largest meal); 16.00−17.00; 18.00−19.30. It is assumed that a person gets up to 7 o’clock in the morning and even have time to get hungry to 7.30.
Hear yourself listening to others.
The hardest part for most people is the ability to understand what their real needs at a given moment and in any given circumstance. In search of algorithms for solving this problem, yogis often turn to Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine.
Indeed, Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine are able to give a person such algorithms. But, alas, it really requires a deep knowledge in this area, and, most importantly, understanding of the terms used in these systems of knowledge, and also ability to feel your current state, to apply all this knowledge.
In particular, we should not fall into the misconception that the constitution of the person determined by the test in popular Ayurveda book, is a static category and defines his life. It is also of little use in practice the doctrine of tastes: not everyone can understand, such as garlic coexist five tastes, and why milk is sweet. For information on how to understand the terms of the ancient Indian and Tibetan medicine to the acquired knowledge was applied in modern reality, you can write a book and not one. This, of course, beyond the scope of this article.
Now we turn to only one concept, which operates Ayurveda in relation to issues of good nutrition — is the concept of Agni, or digestive fire.
In modern parlance, the level of Agni determines the efficiency of person digestion, i.e. the splitting of fats to glycerol and fatty acids, carbohydrates — to monosaccharaides, proteins — up of amino acids and their subsequent transformation into plastic and energy resources of the body. And it’s not just about the digestion of food and absorption of nutrients, and also about waste disposal.
Good digestive fire means that a person has a moderate and regular appetite, everything a person eats well digested, and the waste is well removed. If appetite unstable or absent, or a person eats without stopping, if after or before meals felt discomfort (e.g. pain severity) in any part of the gastrointestinal tract, and the body is either too long delayed excretion of waste (constipation) or vice versa displays all often, so do not really mastered, it alleges a violation of the functioning of Agni.
You see, it is not so difficult to understand the condition of your digestive fire. It should be easy to watch carefully for a couple of days, is not making any adjustments in diet and nutrition.
Take yourself before you eat.
Take yourself — finally, means to love yourself. This means taking care of yourself and works on yourself, but not "quitting", by imposing themselves innovations that is obviously run counter to your current state. Take, not to give up and decide what to work on is not necessary, and so I’m good. No. Take — so give yourself a chance and find a way to work harmoniously on them. Harmonically — so with a sense of proportion and understanding why we take certain steps, analyzing whether those benefits they provide.
Who is in the owner of the body?
Violence against himself, preach us, not to be confused with connivance. Certainly, there are attachments, which must be combated. For example, overeating, excessive consumption of sweet, semi-fast food, rife with flavor enhancers, canned food and so on. We struggle with it because it deprives us of life, to the detriment of health and creating laziness of spirit. Admit it, every time you concede their weaknesses, conscious of them, you do not feel better.
Food — the most direct link between the quality of the environment and the body. Food — medicine, but with lower potency. It is important not only what we eat, but how and when we eat. If we eat regularly and thoroughly chew food, likely, we will not want to overeating. If we eat delicious every time, do not want to taste other frills. If we bypass the tenth road fast food and other junk food, we just throw it out of the our attention sphere, and so from our life. Out of sight, out of mind.
Healthy spirit /// healthy body. Mens sana in corpore sano
Summarizing all the above, it should be emphasized that the "mental and social well-being", indicator of which is your ability to smile at people, to listen criticism, complacent even after serious twists and turns, and not take it out on neighbors are, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), a full-fledged component of health.
Consequently, in an effort to lead a healthy life, and even more so, to grow spiritually, it can not be put at the heart of some strict diet. Moreover, doing yoga. After all, we, among other things, develops flexibility, and most importantly — awareness, is not it? Informed and flexible approach — that is to develop not only on issues of power, but also, perhaps, the vast majority of the questions posed by life.