Sattvic food is clean, fresh and wholesome food that promotes physical health and emotional well being. A sattvic diet keeps the mind clear and calm, improves the quality of meditation and helps us progress on our spiritual path.
Sattvic food is rich in prana, the life force in all living things. Sattvic food includes clean water, fresh, organic fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, grains, honey, milk and milk products – prepared in clean kitchens and good spirits, with love and awareness. Just like what we eat affects our bodies, our minds and our emotions, our thoughts and emotions in turn affect the food we cook and the food we eat.
Sattvic foods are easily digested and meals should be eaten slowly, in moderate portions, leaving us feeling calm and alert, not tired, lethargic or irate.
Foods that are not sattvic include meats, poultry, fish, eggs, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, stimulants like coffee and tea, fermented foods like vinegars, onions, garlic, mushrooms and green chillies. Also not sattvic are canned, frozen, processed and stale foods as well as fresh foods grown using pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, foods produced with hormones and irradiation and processed foods with chemical dyes and additives.
As Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda explains in his book “Open the door…let the breeze in”, sattvic food “creates the perfect conditions for the brain to start producing alpha waves, which help in meditation.”
But swami-ji also says “don’t force vegetarianism on yourself, even if you are going to take up meditation…When your body is ready, it will drop the habit on its own.”
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