The more I dwell on the causes of diseases as enunciated by our Vaidyars, the more clearly I see the importance of diet. Almost everything from cancers to auto-immune diseases could be thought of as emanating from faulty eating. Most people are confused by the plethora of contradictory advice they receive. One expert tells them to avoid fats, another tells them that ghee needs to be included. Yet another tells them to eat greens and salads; another tells them to avoid uncooked foods.Ayurdevic Vaidyars and Siddhars expounded their theories when life was simple and there were no pizzas and burgers. So what I eat to remain healthy and how I eat this food is a question that must agitate the mind.
Simply put, water, rice, wheat, milk, ghee, pomegranate, honey, triphala, and jungli mansa (meat from animals in the wild) is enough to keep us healthy. Vegetables and greens were not given a top priority by our Vaidyars as being of great nutritive value. Of the dals, moong was considered the best. So if you wished to remain healthy, a simple rice or wheat dish with a little ghee and some spices such as jeera and coriander was sufficient. Milk was also considered essential. A little sugar was also acceptable.
Now, how does one take these foods? This is very important as keeping the agni or the digestive fire burning steadily is critical for good health and to prevent diseases. Logical, one would think, but apparently not really understood by many. If the digestive fire is not strong, the half-digested food remains in the systems, becomes toxic and the disease process begins. The body can put up with one or two or maybe even a few transgressions but abusing the stomach consistently will lead to various diseases.
Modern Western medicine does not recognise the critical role that food and digestion play in the gendesis of disease. The diet I have indicated is for normal healthy people. Those who have diabetes etc need to modify their diets to include more millets and eat light foods, which are not kapha in nature. So, if autoimmune disorders are becoming more common, it is because of the food and the manner in which we consume it.
A wedding feast or a birthday party is hazardous to our health. We eat all sorts of foods—from dosas to chapatis to Chinese rolls to bisibela bhath followed by the payasam, ice cream, fruits and chaats. Our digestive juices have a challenging task ahead. Our digestive system is stressed out. We overeat. At office, we eat a heavy lunch and then go for a meeting where snacks and tea are served before our previous meal has been digested. This results in half-digested food being present in the digestive system. In Ayurveda, this is called ama. Vaidyars are focused on avoiding the formation of ama and for them, all treatments start with setting digestion right.
The key to good health is simple: eat simply of the items enumerated in the beginning of the article. Eat organic. Eat solids only to fill half your stomach and liquids to a quarter or less. Never eat before your previous meal has been digested—this one cardinal principle can help you keep healthy. If you attended a party where you succumbed to temptation and ate more than you should, skip the next meal so that what you have eaten gets digested.
And in Ayurveda, vegetables are not considered a great source of nutrition and so you can eat as little of it as you like. And considering that most vegetables are drenched in pesticides, you can safely eschew them from your diet without it affecting your health. Good organic milk from grass-fed cows is something that we should try to get as it is a source of great nutrition.
The writer is retired Additional Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu. She can be reached at sheelarani.
arogyamantra@gmail. com/arogyamantra.blogspot.com