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Good nutrition is essential to any type of physical endeavour and this includes yoga asana practice. But in yoga the idea of nutrition is extended as yoga practice includes meditation and so we need a well balanced diet that is not only conducive to physical health but to mental health too.
The diet that we aspire to as yogis or yoga practitioners is known as the sattvic diet and is talked about a lot in the ancient Indian scripture known as the Bhagavad Gita. The sattvic diet can be interpreted as a pure diet.
An essential teaching in yoga philosophy is that of ahimsa or non-violence. The teachings of ahimsa relate to the fact that our thoughts and our actions create our karmas – so that if we think and act in a mindful, calm and non-violent way we create such a karma around us and influence the world around us in a good way. In accordance with this a vegetarian diet (as well as providing us with plenty of vitamins and minerals) fills us with a sense of being in harmony with nature and acting and living out a peaceful lifestyle.
One question a lot of meat eaters ask is ‘how can a vegetarian obtain protein in their diet?’ It is a valid question as most sources of meat protein contain a complete chain of amino acids to make up a complete human protein. Protein is important for yogis as during asana practice muscles are strengthened and protein in needed to help those muscles grow. Also the ancient yogis really valued protein as they used asana practice to strengthen their back and core muscles in order to help them sit for hours in meditation. The trick is that by mixing at least two natural vegetarian protein sources such as beans, eggs, tofu, organic soya chunks, lentils, nuts, seeds, brown rice or quinoa, we get all the amino acids required for a full protein chain required by humans.
Note that the recipes do not have to be boring. An example of a high protein vegetarian recipe is brown rice paella with vegetables and nuts. The brown rice acts a protein source as do the nuts. Another combination is lentils with brown rice.
The yogic diet is known as a sattvic diet and includes plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. These are needed to provide the body with vitamins and minerals. Certain vitamins such as vitamins B and C are known as water soluble vitamins. They cannot be stored in the body and are eliminated every time you pass water. Hence they are needed every 2-3 hours and so a regular intake of fresh fruit and vegetables is important for a healthy diet and a sattvic diet. Other vitamins such as vitamin E (found in almonds, tomatoes, avocados and sunflower seeds) are known as fat soluble vitamins and remain in the body for longer.
Sattvic food should ideally not be fried but should be boiled or dry-fried (where no oil is used) – frying, especially deep-frying tends to put pro-oxidants into the body which are linked with cancer and heart disease. Examples of using boiling would be to boil vegetables and then add your favourite Chinese sauce to the liquid. Also you can dry-fry Chinese vegetables and then add your favourite sauce once they are cooked. Ideally steaming vegetables is better than boiling as this way less vitamins are denatured by the heat and more nutrients remain in the vegetables.
Another important aspect of a yogic and healthy diet is to have wholemeal foods such as spelt which can be found in breads and even pastas. Wholemeal foods tend to have low glycaemic indices. This means that they send less of a ‘sugar rush’ to the body and to the brain, so lessening the risk of diabetes. Also high glycaemic index foods such as white/refined sugar are addictive and the brown/wholemeal foods are not. Hence in terms of sugars, white sugar is addictive to the body and encourages diabetes and heart disease. Using low glycaemic sugars such as molasses, muscovado, organic agave syrup and stevia decrease these risks.
Both science and the ancient scriptures tell us that a balanced, healthy yogic diet leads to health, happiness and calmness of the mind.
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