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Yogic Diet, when we talk about nutrition from a yogic perspective, there is a lot more at play than simply looking at the nutritional content of our food.
To eat meat, or not too eat meat, that is the question. It’s a pretty loaded question. Many practitioners – after practicing for long enough, at some point, they just don’t feel good about eating meat or animal products anymore.
According to the Yoga Sutras, one should practice the Yamas and Niyamas before beginning to practice Asana. Now, the very first Yama is Ahimsa – non-harming or non-violence. In this sense, eating meat, or anything that would cause harm to an animal would be contrary to ahimsa, and therefore “not yogic.”
Being of Sattvic or “pure” mind is the goal when we practice, but this quality is also present in the food that we eat. Ideally a yogic diet would be rich in sattvic foods. Sattvic foods are generally fresh vegetables, grains, and legumes, mild spices and mildly sweet foods. However, a sattvic diet does include some dairy products such as cows milk and ghee. According to Ayurveda, this is the best diet for a Yogi to adopt. It helps keep the mind clear, and Sattvic as opposed to rajasic or tamasic. A sattvic diet is also soothing for the digestive system.
Prana is the life force, it is present in all living things to some degree. As Yogi’s we are ideally always working on building prana during our practice. However, you may not know that prana can also be continually built through the food that we eat. So it’s important to understand that our food choices will either build our prana, or deplete it; plain and simple.
Prana building foods are similar to Sattvic foods. Fruits and vegetables contain the highest amounts of prana, and the prana is highest when picked from the plant. As soon as a vegetable is picked it begins to lose its prana. Many people suggest that eating raw foods will yield the highest amounts of Prana. However, many Ayurvedic sources suggest lightly steaming or sautéing the vegetables to “wake up” the Prana, and make the vegetables easier for digestion.
Meat does contain prana. So do animal products such as milk, ghee, and eggs, though it is much less than it’s vegetable counterpart. However, when opting for these foods it is critical that you consider the state of the animal. Animal meat may contain stress hormones, or antibiotics depending on how the animal was raised. The animal may have been brought up in a less than humane environment, and this will absolutely affect the Prana of the meat.
At the end of the day, being vegan is a great idea. It is absolutely the simplest way to practice ahimsa in your life, it’s filled with highly pranic, and sattvic foods. While eating a whole foods, plant-based diet is generally good for most people, there is some variance which needs to be accounted for.
The correct yogic diet is the one that does as little harm as possible, builds your prana and sattva, and makes you feel good physically and emotionally.