Modern food habits and health issues

        People nowadays find specific food items like bread, cake, pizza, cold drinks etc., in their diets as an important aspect, without which they feel their food intake is incomplete. Parents feel their childrens’ birthday celebrations are incomplete without a cake. For individuals to lead a healthy and happy life, our scriptures have recommended certain dietary norms. Everyone should consume sattvik (Sattva-predominant) Bharatiya food items prepared at home. They are fresh, easy to digest and also help maintain good physical, mental and spiritual health. The modern day diet, however, ignores these norms and propagates the Tama component. The biggest drawback of consuming fast-food or junk-food is that, the individuals who regularly consume such items that are Tama-predominant and that attract black (distressing) energies, become victim of the distress due to negative energies. Let us read this article and find out about modern food habits and health issues.

1. Harm caused to mankind by

modern food habits and health issues in human life

A. The modern day diet propagates the Tama component. Sattva component has almost been eliminated from it. This diet has paved way for the rise of sense-gratifying culture in the land of Bharat, which hitherto was sattvik and prosperous.

B. That there is none in Kaliyug (Era of strife) who can understand the uniqueness of Hindu Dharma, which regulates the daily routine of man through diet, chanting, penance and Yoganidra, is tragic for Bharat.

C. To get carried away in satisfying undue demands of the tongue (eating and drinking) is typical of foreign culture. Such a culture brings about moral ruin. In other words, it constantly resists the development of Sattva component in the body.

D. Awakening desires through the contact of Tama-predominant taste of the food items, keeping the annamaya-kosh engrossed in taste gratifying activities day after day and allowing free movement of Tama component in the body is how the foreign diet operates.

1 E. If the diet is Tama-predominant, then due to the generation of Tama-predominant thoughts, the balance of the mind and the intellect is lost and the individual loses morality.

F. Foreign diet leads to accumulation of defects in the body and consequently, man gets thrown into the grip of vices. It is all darkness in this region and as a result, his life is completely corrupted. It is extremely difficult to overcome this state.

G. Tama-predominant diet has the ability to imbibe perverted thoughts from the atmosphere and accumulate them in the form of Tama-predominant energy; hence, by consuming such food, man can drift away from the path of Spirituality too.

H. The process of imbibing Sattva component has been exhausted in the foreign diet, and hence, along with the body, the mind and intellect too become corrupt and man’s life sinks into darkness.

2. The harm caused by the modern diet

        The harm caused to the body by repeatedly eating modern day diet is narrated ahead.

        Due to intake of food which does not need to be chewed, the jaws and intestines do not get enough exercise : Doctors at the Akhil Bharatiya Ayurvigyan Sansthan (AIIMS), New Delhi, studied the adverse effects of fast-foods on the health of children. Dr. Hariprakash, a dentist in the institution claims, “There is an excessive use of fast-foods, chocolates and artificially flavoured cold drinks in the children’s diet. This has an adverse effect on the children’s teeth. The exercise essential for their jaws and intestines in chewing the food is absent nowadays. The adverse effect of this lack of exercise is that the teeth do not remain in a straight level and become crooked and overlap each other. The jaws of children reduce in size as well”.

3. Subtle-effects on an individual upon eating bread

A. Bread is the staple diet of westerners. Since no ritualistic worship or religious rituals are performed in those countries, the grains there are devoid of sattvikta and hence, the bread prepared from such grains too is devoid of sattvikta.

B. Various shapes and chemical ingredients in the bread generate illusion creating energy in the bread that attracts people to it, who then feel like eating it. Bread does not satisfy hunger. It is difficult to digest and hence, impairs health.

C. Since bread is manufactured using a machine, it contains greater proportion of distressing energy.

D. Every country makes different types of bread so as to make them popular the world over : A variety of breads are available in each country. The manufacturers want them to become popular the world over and hence, they make it either sweet or salty and give them different shapes.

• Shapes of breads in some countries

USA : Rectangular

France : Oval (Baguette)

Serbia : Crescent-shaped or oval (Koljivo)

• It is because of the availability of varieties of bread that there is an increase in likes and dislikes of people and they have a desire to taste new varieties of bread.

4. Subtle-effects on an individual upon eating cake

A. Ingredients used in making the cake (For example, flour, cocoa powder, eggs, baking powder etc.) are Raja-predominant and Tama-predominant.

B. Since ingredients such as flour are difficult to digest, consumption of cake causes ailments of the digestive system.

C. The mind is attracted towards a cake because of its illusion creating attraction energy. Also, ingredients used in decorating the cake (Icing etc.) are alluring. Hence, an individual feels like eating cake.

D. The proportion of black energy in the cake cannot be identified because of the excessive amount of illusory vibrations in it. Someone may look outwardly beautiful and talented; but, he may deceitful by nature. This is exactly experienced here.

E. An individual is satisfied upon eating rice and pulses, modak, puranpoli or any such sattvik food item. However, whatever is the amount of Raja-Tama predominant food items consumed (like cakes), it does not satisfy an individual and he keeps asking for more.

5. Protect our families from modern food habits and health issues

        As per a survey carried out in Bharat, about 60-80% of school children and 94-98% of senior citizens suffer from dental ailments. Dr. Hariprakash opines that the diet of children should contain fruits and cereals that need to be chewed. Changing food habits, fads of fashionable living, careless attitude etc. is dangerous for health. Even our scriptures advise, ‘As is our food, so is our mind’. Hence, protect your family from fast-food that is prepared form impure ingredients and in an impure environment.

Reference : Sanatan Sanstha’s Holy text ‘Dietary norms and deficiencies in modern diet’.