The verse in kashyapsamhita points that ahara means food is the best medicine. If one follows the dietary rules and regulations, then there won’t be any need to consume medicine and those who doesn’t follow proper aharavidhi even, medicine will not work for them properly.
As we enter in winter season of the year with ongoing pandemic which made people exhausted mentally and physically as well as in terms of finance hence it is one’s own responsibility to take care of their own health by our diet habits. As it has been told as, what you consume will effect on your body as well as your mind.
Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta and Manu smriti classified food on the basis of their effect on mind I.e. Satwika, Rajasika and Tamasika, among them satvik food is considered as the ideal food while tamsik considered as the inferior one.
UNWHOLESOME FOOD HABITS IN WINTER
As per Ayurveda, in winter there will be good digestive fire but still, intake of unwholesome foods should be avoided. Due to good digestive fire One must take care of their diet in proper quantity and should not do fasting in this season. By doing fasting, or consuming less quantity of food or no food in winter season, digestive fire will burn the body composition and lead to vata prakopa and will result in serious diseases as well.
In winter, person must avoid spicy foods as they induce vaata dosha in the body and also in winter season, rukshta (dryness) of body will be another main problem which inturn can trigger up vata dosha.
Current era of new generation, youngsters are more been attached with junk foods especially pizza, burgers, sandwich and other bakery stuff.
Study by Loma Linda University has found that poor mental health is linked with poor diet quality regardless of personal characteristics such as gender age, education etc.
Persons who does increased sugar consumption has been found to be associated with bipolar disorder and those who consume fried foods or those having high amounts of sugar and processed grains have been linked with depression.
Despite of good agni, eating junk food on a regular basis can lead to an increased risk of obesity and chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and even can results in cancers like conditions. So one should control their dietary regulations. Ayurveda says that persons who don’t have control on their mind or habits are similar to animals and they must meet with serious diseases relating with their eating habits. If proper habit is not been adapted this must harm agni and in Ayurveda it said that all the diseases occurs due to weak digestive fire.
If there is any associated diseased condition or according to Prakriti (constitution) of persons there may be variation in the state of agni in winter season; for example, in persons with COVID-19 mild digestive fire will be there and hence diseases as well as immunity will be less in them. Many modern hospitals provide their patient diets with heavy and fermented food like dhokla, dosa, khaman etc which is hard to digest as the patients are having mild digestive fire and thereby leading to morbid stage of the particular disease.
Apart from this, some people have the habit to eat late at night this may make problem to their digestive fire and they must suffer from problems like acidity, indigestion and constipation. If digestion will not happen properly then there will not be proper dhatu formation in the body and person will not get enough immunity and strength for his day to day life and must meet some serious ailments in future as well. In the yogic culture it is said that if you have constipation means you are going to mad soon, hence by maintaining your GIT in good condition you can stay healthy in this challenging time of pandemic.
Major Food items that can be avoided during winter include:
• Cold drinks
• Junk and spicy food like pizza , burger , pasta etc which is made from maida
• Cold water
• Fermented foods like dhokla, khaman, idli, dosa
• Dahi (Curd) must be avoided
• Without digestion of previous food another food substance shouldn’t be consumed
• After eating sudden sleeping should be avoided
CONCLUSION
It is our prime responsibility to maintain our health in good state. We are here to live a good life and food is one of the essential things, in Ayurveda it is one among three upastmbha of life. We should eat food for healthy life without giving importance to taste. Hence this is a serious concern that proper and nutritious food should be consumed by proper method and that has already been published in this magazine’s previous edition.