Guest guest Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Recently (last week), I have decided not to eat meet and eggs anymore. I will do that for some month, and then I will stop eat fish too. So gradually, step-by-step, I want to change my food habits until I can exist on pure sattvic food only. However, I wonder what are the rules for determinating which food belongs to which guna. For instance, garlic and onion belong to tamas guna. Why? And why do carrots and tomatoes are rajas? Because they are red? Can someone please help with information? Which is the source text for determination of gunas of food? Is it translated into English? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 > Message: 2 > Sat, 23 Aug 2003 08:18:48 -0700 (PDT) > akka_108 <akka_108 > food and gunas > > Recently (last week), I have decided not to eat meet and eggs anymore. > I will do that for some month, and then I will stop eat fish too. > So gradually, step-by-step, I want to change my food habits until I > can exist on pure sattvic food only. > However, I wonder what are the rules for determinating which food > belongs to which guna. > For instance, garlic and onion belong to tamas guna. Why? > And why do carrots and tomatoes are rajas? Because they are red? > Can someone please help with information? > Which is the source text for determination of gunas of food? Is it > translated into English? I guess my response seems somewhat obvious given my previously stated position on diet and Ayurveda, but if you are going to attempt to eat a sattvic diet then please seek the advice of somebody who actually follows these practices and has done so successfully for more than 10 years (becuase after 10 years the metabolic influences of the diet truly begin to manifest in overt physical ways, esp. that the truncal-abdominal obesity often displayed by long term vegies, and indicates an exponential risk in cancer, diabetes and CVD). If I have one hope its that folks will start taking a common-sense approach to diet, instead of relying upon highly speculative theories. I think you'll have a hard time finding somebody who knows the real answer to your question, but perhaps an advanced yoga teacher (but remember, their focus may not be the health of the body per se, and unless your focus is entirely focused on the Goal, you may be getting yourself into trouble if you follow such a diet long term). Why is garlic and onions tamasic - because legend states Garuda snatched a pot of nectar away from Indra, and in so doing, a drop of nectar split out and fell to earth and there grew a garlic plant - thus garlic is like nectar, but was born of greed and lust. The question you need to ask yourself is, is this legend sufficient to entirely inform my diet, or should I instead you cultivate an understanding of the benefits and disadvantages of garlic by an in-depth investigation. Garlic and onions are exceptionally useful and very healing foods - some say they disturb the mind, but I am not sure about that. I agree, its probably not the best food to eat at a meditation retreat, but so is eating after mid-day. Can you apply all the rules and practices of a meditation retreat to your daily work-a-day life? Probably not. Its pretty clear that that the ancient vaidyas thought Garlic to be an exceptional health food: read about it in Charaka, the Ashtanga Hrdaya, the Bhavaprakasha and others. And who says carrots and tomatoes are rajasic??? Because they are red??? They're not even traditional Indian foods so there would be little empirical evidence to suggest what their properties are. Its like saying that because this car is green all green cars have the same requirements in regard to fuel, lubricants, etc. My experience in this comes as a herbalist, trying to rationalize the use of Western herbs according to Ayurvedic understanding. The important thing to realize is that the knowledge of energetics in medicinal plants and foods evolved over thousands of years in India, based on a combination of the intuitive skills of certain exceptional individuals, and a long time of observing how these herbs and foods affected health. Ayurveda doesn't require faith - it requires comprehension, study, practice and experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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