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Ayurveda and Yoga

Offering a path to physical, mental and emotional health

The Sattvic Diet

3/9/2017

1 Comment

 
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Sattva, the cosmic force of equilibrium, along with Rajas, the principle of movement, and Tamas, the principle of stillness, interweave to create the five elements - space, air, fire, water and earth and consequently, all of creation, according to the Vedic Sciences.

These three principles are present in the food we eat. Rajas is activity, Tamas is inertia and Sattva is the balance of these two.  Ayurveda considers eating a sacred act; a miracle and mystery we experience every day.
Sattvic foods are pure, light, easily digested, well-cooked and lead to a calm mind. Most fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, honey and legumes (particularly mung beans) are all considered sattvic. Food has the most prana, or life force, when it is freshly and lovingly prepared.  Sattvic foods lead us to what is most pure and most good.

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Alcohol, animal flesh, eggs, caffeine, tobacco, onions, garlic, soy sauce and other condiments, chili peppers and other hot spices are considered rajasic, or stimulating.  Rajasic foods can bring about passion, agitation, irritation, cravings for power and domination.

Old, stale foods are tamasic. Fast food, canned food, prepackaged goods can cause dullness, lethargy, depression, confusion, darkness and sleep.

A rule of thumb is to have 70 - 80% of foods sattvic. People with many responsibilities and/or demanding careers may need more rajasic foods to balance their lives.

Our health, like Nature itself, is a dynamic condition. A sattvic diet aids greatly in attaining harmony within and without and to work toward our self perfection. Self perfection requires inner peace, understanding, forgiveness, acceptance and compassion.  It can permit us to break free from all the things we have bitten off, chewed up and swallowed that we cannot digest.

“The prayer below can be your covenant with the universe. You offer your self as an instrument to make the world a better place through whatever efforts, however meager.  When you say it sincerely, Nature will offer you in return all Her powers to heal you and your environment.

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May everyone be happy
May everyone be healthy
May everything be holy
May there never be disharmony of any kind anywhere!
               This is the message of Ayurveda.”*
                         *from Prakriti by Robert Svoboda

1 Comment
Narayana Barbour
7/13/2022 01:51:28 pm

Hare Krishna! The point of eating sattvic foods is that we cac offer it to god, otherwise we still receive material contamination from the consumption of these things. Our diet should be based mainly on milk stuffs, vegetables, and fruits. Eating anything comes with a karmic reaction, but offering our food to god properly eliminates this process. Also if anyone reading this has had Prasadam before, you will know that it automatically tastes 10x better than any material food.

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    Mary Bradford is an Ayurvedic Practitioner
    and a professional member of NAMA
    (National Ayurvedic Medical Association)


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