A healthy vegetarian diet for Yoga
A healthy vegetarian diet for Yoga
THE body needs food for two purposes, as fuel to supply our energy, and to repair body tissues. Four elements are needed for the building of the body and for its repair, namely (1) protein or nitrogenous food, (2) carbohydrates, (3) fats or hydrocarbons, and (4) minerals, these four elements being found in greater proportions in vegetables than in flesh foods. The most valuable vegetable sources of protein are cheese, soy beans, nuts, peas and milk, and the most wholesome sources of starches and sugars are honey, wholewheat, oats, unpolished rice, and potatoes. Fruits and vegetables, as well as supplying organic minerals and hydrocarbons, also aid in keeping an alkaline reserve in the blood, essential for carrying waste carbon dioxide to the lungs for elimination. I am not going to try to convert any of my meat-eating readers to vegetarianism (as the practice of Yoga will do this for me in time), but I would say this. That although the meat eater may look strong and healthy he has not the endurance, the staying power, and the resistance to disease of the vegetarian. That a natural diet of fruits, greens, milk and dairy products, citrus fruits, and whole grains is man’s ideal and vitamin-packed health-giving diet.
It is interesting to note that all food is originally produced in a vegetable form and is in effect stored up sunshine. Think of an orange. The next time you pick one up to peel and eat it and throw the vitamin-rich skin into the dustbin, think of it as it really is, a parcel of distilled sunshine. And why throw the peel away? Eat a bit of it with the rest of the orange and what you do not eat try grating it into various other foods to add a rich and tangy flavour. It is full of vitamins and added to a jar of honey it adds that extra something.
So to eat vegetables is to eat distilled sunshine. To eat flesh is to take vegetable food secondhand from another animal, and here it is interesting to note that man eats mainly the flesh of vegetarian animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, and poultry, deer, and rabbits. He does not eat the flesh of carnivorous animals.
Why kill helpless and friendly animals? Why subject them to the pain and terror of the slaughterhouse when there is so much goodness to eat from the clean earth? Why take a life away when we can eat fruit off the trees, and all the bounty of the harvest? Why all this violence in the name of good eating? Why not have mercy? The pure in mind do not kill, and the pure in body do not need to kill. Think, do think, about it first the next time you cut a piece of steak and carry it on your fork to your mouth; think of the animal who died in pain to provide you with this supper of yours. Are you sure it is worth it? And are fruit and vegetables and nuts not more pleasant to handle than wet and bleeding pieces of a dead animal?
It is interesting to note that once a person becomes a vegetarian and knows the health and purity which results from eating good and pure food, he seldom if ever reverts back to the lower type of food. As he grows spiritually, man ceases to desire flesh foods. Thus man’s choice of foods is directly influenced by his degree of mental purity.
And so the Yoga diet is simply to keep as closely as possible to natural foods. This means plenty of nuts, whole cereals, and fresh fruits and juices. From these man can get all the vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates and minerals he needs. From these also he has the means whereby to nourish the cells of the body without overburdening the system with unnatural and alien foods and drinks. It should be noted that even the most perfect system cannot work to the maximum of its efficiency when it is fed with unnatural foods.
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admin | November 7, 2007