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'Let food by Thy Medicine'
Hippocrates taught this message in 431BC. For thousands of years cultures have been aware that the food we eat can have a profound effect on our mind.
The Greek Historian Herodotus found that cultures with a mainly vegetarian diet were more advanced in art and spiritual development than those who ate a mainly meat based diet.The latter tended to be more war like. It could be said that the diet a whole nation follows will have a profound effect on that country's mental well being.
Ayurvedic yogis have know this for thousands of years have divided food into three categories sattvic,rajasic and tamasic. A sattvic state of mine is one of peace and tranquility and is one typical of monks and nuns.
A rajasic state of mind tends to be active restless and aggressive.This would be typical of a warrior or the high flying corporate executive.
A tamasic state of mind belongs to one who is cruel and morally degenerate.People who resort to criminal activity fall into this category.
For a western person the sattivc diet would be one that is vegetarian and would consist of 80% raw food and 20% cooked. Examples of such food would be greens, grasses, honey and some rice. Rajasic foods stimulate the nervous system and include meat, coffee garlic and peppers butter eggs cheese and sugar.It will leave people with a sense of restlessness and eventual burnout.
Such people tend to be adrenalin junkies seeking pleasure in sky diving or white water rafting or other risky sports. Tamasic foods tend to be the worst of the lot, what we would call fast foods, heavily processed and full of preservatives additives and colors.
Foods eaten in this category would include flesh that has not been recently killed ie all the meat you see in the supermarket.
We often hear how are ancestors ate meat and this is used as a justification for a meat based diet.However the meat they ate had only recently been killed so had some life force left in it.
Also our ancestors ate all the animal not just the muscle which is high in protein,hence a more balanced diet. Living on such a diet will make meditation and other calming activities almost impossible. Research has shown that people who have a history of violence display a marked drop in such activity when switching to a diet based on fruit and vegetables.
The bottom line is a switch to raw food eating will boost your well being both mental and physical.
