Dear Friends,
Namaste!
What constitutes a balanced diet? The diet that has ALL the following characteristics:
1. Diet comprising six types of tastes
Mother Nature has given us taste buds so that we can enjoy eating! We must make full use of our taste buds to savour food and enjoy every morsel because we have seen that eating is a psychosomatic (nay, spiritual) experience.
Ayurveda - our ancient medical science – strongly recommends inclusion of “Shad-ras” (Six-tastes) in every meal we partake of. These are – sweet, sour, chilly, salty, pungent and bitter. These six types use all our taste buds and this leads to the feeling of satiation at the end of the meal which is very important. Of what use is the meal that does not give us the experience of total bliss during and at the end? This total satiation is possible only if we eat a well-rounded meal.
2. Diet having four types of food
The science of Yoga categorizes food into four types (“Chatur-vidha” – Four-types). These four types are – “Khadya” (food that we chew), “Peya” (food that we drink), “Choshya” (food consumed through sucking) and “Lehya” (food consumed through licking). It is essential that we include all four types of food in our diet.
One may ask here, “How can we drink our food?” To answer this question, we must understand the meaning of the word ‘food’. Anything that is not water or a ‘foreign’ substance is treated by our digestive system as “food”. For example, a cup of milk is treated as ‘food’ by our body.
This gives rise to another question. “What does our body treat as a ‘foreign substance’?” All substances that do not have any nutritional value and that our body is not used to digesting and assimilating into our system are treated as foreign and our body tries its best to throw them out of our system. For example, a block of wood. If we were to eat it somehow (shiver!), the body would go all out to throw it out. This would certainly interfere with the normal process of digestion and hence we must avoid eating foreign substances at all costs.
Another example of a foreign substance is alcohol! (In addition to interfering with digestion, alcohol, due to high calorie content – 7 calories per gram, is exceedingly fattening, dehydrating and increases estrogen – substance that makes us overly emotional – in our body). The foregoing paragraphs clearly reflect the place of alcohol in our diet – no more needs to be said on the topic!!
3. Diet as per the Food Pyramid
We know the food pyramid that says 40% of our food should consist of carbohydrates, 30% fibre, 20% proteins and 10% fat.
The question that arises here is – “If fat is bad and protein gives us muscle, why not eliminate fat (and possible carbohydrates and fibre) completely from our diet and eat only proteins?”
The answer lies in the fact that some fat is actually good for the body. (We have doubtless heard there is “Good cholesterol” and “Bad cholesterol”). Carbohydrates help break down proteins and get them assimilated in our system without which proteins would simply be thrown out of our body (putting extra and unreasonable pressure on our excretory system in the process!). And nothing like fibre to cleanse our digestive system! Even carnivorous animals such as tigers are known to eat leaves of certain trees once in a while to overhaul their digestive system!
Last but not the least, we must never forget the universal Yogic guideline of ‘avoiding any extremes and taking the middle path’ even in balancing our diet and we will know why it is essential to follow the food pyramid in recommended form.
4. Diet full of variety
We know it is strongly recommended that we eat local and homemade food majority of the time. However, we must try and bring as much variety in our food as possible. This may sometimes mean enjoying multi-cultural cuisine that may strictly not be local (but whose preparation would be customized or localized anyway).
Variety helps break the monotony in our eating which otherwise would make eating a mechanical process. It makes our diet fuller and richer. It increases the capacity of our digestive and immune system. It enhances the joy of eating and enriches our palate.
It may not be practically possible for all of us to balance our diet as stated above in each and every meal. In that case, we should look at balancing it out over two meals or at least over the day. Half a loaf is better than no bread. So, if we cannot have a balanced diet every time, it is still advisable to cover all aspects over as short a timeframe as possible.
See you again next week...
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