Why Should a Yogi Eat Right?

Well isn’t it obvious; for our wellbeing! First we need to discuss the importance of diet and nutrition. Swami Sivananda, a great guru from India, has said many times that “what we eat so we become.” This means that whatever enters our body is sure to become our body. And isn’t this obvious? If we eat a Big-Mac for McDonalds than our body will defiantly absorb the content of that Big-Mac during the digestive process, so that whatever went into the food has now gone into us. Now there is a lot of exchanges and relationships that occur when we eat a food, but I will just name a few to give you a better idea of how it works.

1. The density of the food will determine how much energy is required to break down the food structure and turn it into nutrients for our bodies;

2. The content of the food will determine how much benefit we can receive from the food;

3. The chemicals used to add flavor or preservation to the food will determine our bodies reaction to the food while our digestive system absorbs those same chemicals and releases them into our bodies;

4. The medicinal value of the food as it affects the organs and the biological structure of our entire bodies (and minds too). Specific food can be consumed to help improve our health, and this is part of the system known as Ayureveda (but we will not get into this right now).

So each of these points are quiet important to our understanding of how food directly impacts the state of our bodies. It is clear that we need to eat right and always keep the idea in the back of our minds that whatever food enters our bodies will eventually be used to support and maintain our bodies.