In This Chapter

>- Three types of foods bring out three types of personal qualities

>- Moderate eating is best

>- The benefits of a lacto vegetarian diet

Now that you've got a handle on yoga's basic principles and are happily posturing away, let's consider another extremely important but often overlooked aspect of yoga: diet. It only makes sense that if your body, mind, and spirit are one, how you feed your body will influence the whole package. Western scientists have long recognized that a healthy diet is crucial to good health, although through the decades the definition of "healthy" has certainly changed.

A fundamental principle is the yoga diet's primary influence. Yogis have traditionally divided food (and everything else, but we'll just talk about food in this chapter) into three categories, called gunas. The three gunas are sattva, rajas, and tamas, and each represents a different type of energy. When applied to food, these energies go into our bodies and affect us in different ways, making us more balanced, or imbalanced, depending on our individual needs and the food we eat. Sattvic food promotes health, vitality, strength, and tranquillity; rajasic food promotes excessive energy, agitation, and discontentment; and tamasic food promotes lethargy, laziness, and inactivity.

Imagine a teeter-totter. The three gunas exist along the board of the teeter-totter, with rajas on one end, tamas on the other end, and sattva squarely in the middle. For example, if you tend to be a rajasic type of person, or you eat a lot of rajasic food (such as meat, hot peppers, double espressos, and other stimulating kinds of foods), and

Gunas Gracious!

then you eat tamasic food (such as processed or preserved food or alcohol), you could achieve an uneasy balance, like two kids standing on either side of the teeter-totter. The slightest shift, and both kids will topple.

But what if the two kids sit right over the teeter-totter's fulcrum? They'll be pretty stable, and that is what sattvic food—such as fresh, organic fruits, vegetables, and grains in or close to their natural state (and other sattvic influences like a regular schedule, plenty of sleep, and a steady routine)—does for your body. It balances you in a stable way. Your health will be much less likely to topple. You'll find the state of samyama much more accessible.

Samyama is what yogis strive for. It means holding your consciousness together through concentration, meditation, and contemplation in an attempt to understand everything about the object of your investigation, whether that is poetry, the study of medicine, or the study of yoga postures. Samyama is the final state that results from the active process of learning. In other words, it is total absorption in your activity, and in your life itself.

On the other hand, duhkha is what often leads us astray. Duhkha is a feeling of discomfort or pain, suffering, sickness, or simply mental limitation. It is that deep-down feeling that something is wrong or out of place. Duhkha keeps you from achieving samyama. It makes you feel like you don't have the ability or are somehow inadequate—not healthy enough or strong enough or smart enough. Duhkha can arise out of excessive desire for something—even for enlightenment! It can be likened to a mental "virus" that infects your attitude and progress. Duhkha is like balancing

on the end of the teeter-totter. You may be level at the moment, but it doesn't feel very good or secure. You are in fear of falling.

Know Your Sanskrit

Samyama (pronounced SAHM-YAH-mah) is a state that exists when concentration, meditation, and contemplation are all producing a perfectly balanced, concentrated meditational state. Sam means "together," and yama means "discipline." Duhkha (DOO-kah) is pain, suffering, trouble, and discomfort. From dur, which means "bad," and kha, which means "axle hole" or "space" (hence, being in a bad space), duhkha is a mental state during which limitations and a profound sense of "wrongness" are perceived. Duhkha holds us back from self-actualization.

So how are samyama and duhkha related to the three gunas? Too many rajasic and/or tamasic foods produce duhkha, that's how! Balance is maintained with sattvic foods, and in fact, yoga itself can be seen as a process of "sattvification." It helps keep you duhkha-free.

So we know we want to maintain a sattvic state of mind as often as possible. What better way than to eat a sattvic diet? Since feeding the body is akin to feeding the mind, sattvic food will encourage a sattvic mental state once we are balanced. However, sattvic foods won't necessarily be able to balance someone who is naturally very rajasic or tamasic. For instance, a very tamasic person, one who has very little energy and leads a sedentary life, may find that a little rajasic food like coffee or a nice hot salsa can help restore a balance. Then sattvic food makes a great "maintenance diet." A swinging pendulum isn't easy to stop. The way it best comes to rest is by a slow change in the intensity of its swing.

What's Your Nature?

As we mentioned, the gunas don't just apply to food. They are qualities that can be applied to the universe in general. The mind is made up of these three states. Tamas is dullness, lassitude, and constancy. Rajas is activity and agitation. Sattva is clarity, tranquillity, and compassion. These three states also represent the three states of personal evolution: first the mind is dull, then it becomes active, and then, ideally, it finds true compassion.

The wild activity of rajas is considered on a higher plane than the inert tamas, because without activity, one cannot reach compassion (sattva). Most people swing around from quality to quality, experiencing each at different points in their lives, even throughout the day. However, one aspect is usually dominant in each person's personality.

Yes, one of these qualities is probably dominant in you. Knowing which is your type can help you to balance yourself. If you're a typical rajas-natured Westerner, for example, you can consciously minimize or eliminate rajasic food from your diet, replacing it with sattvic food. You'll probably notice a distinct difference in the way you feel—calmer, clearer, and less agitated.

Not sure which type you are? Take this mini-quiz to get a better picture of yourself:

1. If I'm feeling under a lot of stress, I'll be most likely to ...

a. Go take a nap. At least I'll be able to forget about it all for a while.

b. Pace back and forth, worrying and wasting time.

c. Analyze why I'm under stress and make a plan to deal with it.

2. I would describe my diet as ...

a. Centered around my food addictions: caffeine, sugar, or salt. Meals are really important to me because I have to have my food! It would be very difficult for me to give up any food I love.

b. Very irregular. I grab a bite of whatever is handiest when I have the time. Sometimes I forget to eat or am so stressed out that I eat way too much without realizing it.

c. Healthy, well-balanced, with lots of fruits and vegetables. Not a big fan of meat.

3. In my personal relationships, I tend to be ...

a. The passive one.

b. The dominant one.

c. Fairly equal with the others in my life.

If you answered mostly As, you're probably tamas-natured. You'd rather lie on the couch than go for a jog; you tend to get addicted to pleasurable things like sugar, cigarettes, or coffee; and you have a hard time getting things done. You may have difficulty getting yourself into a habit of practicing yoga postures, but yoga will be of great benefit to you, revving up your system, increasing your energy level, and giving you the get-up-and-go you need to get through the day.

If you answered mostly Bs, you're probably rajas-natured. You're typically overwrought, excited, anxious, or agitated. You get a lot done and fast, but you have a hard time relaxing and quieting your mind. For you, meditation is a real challenge,

but you could really use the skill of being able to calm that overactive mind of yours. If you suffer from insomnia, regular yoga practice can help you sleep. In fact, regular practice of anything is good for the impetuous and routine-resistant ra/'as-natured.

If you answered mostly Cs, you tend to be sattvic-natured. You adhere to the sensible notion of moderation in many aspects of your life, and the yogic lifestyle will probably be relatively easy for you to adopt. You find a sense of peace in yoga postures, you find meditation enjoyable, and you already follow the yogic diet without even intending to! In fact, you may wonder why you haven't discovered yoga before now.

Wise Yogi Tells Us

Feeling stressed out? Gently heat one cup of low-fat milk on the stove or in the microwave. Pour it into a mug and add one tablespoon of honey and a pinch of dried ginger. Stir, find a comfy seat, and relax. Sip slowly. Ahhhhh! Don't drink milk? Cut a two-inch slice of fresh gingerroot, peel it, and slice it into disks. Put it in the bottom of a mug or cup, and pour boiling water over it. Let it steep for about five minutes, then remove the ginger. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a tablespoon of honey. Mmmm!

Yogi Food

So let's cut to the chase: What kind of food is sattvic food? Sattvic foods are pure foods. Most foods that are fresh, organically grown, additive- and preservative-free, unprocessed, and alkaline are considered sattvic. These include the following:

>- Fresh fruits and juices >- Most fresh vegetables >- Whole-grain cereals

>- Nuts and seeds, especially almonds and sesame seeds >- Pulses (dried peas, beans, and lentils) >- Milk and milk products (unfermented), including butter >- Honey

A Yoga Minute

Traditionally, milk has been an important part of the yogi's diet and has always been considered sattvic. However, milk today is not what it used to be. Factory farms with their hormone- and antibiotic-laden cows packed in tiny stalls in sunless enclosures, pasteurization, and shipment to supermarkets in plastic packaging have all compromised milk's sattvic nature. In addition, many people are lactose intolerant, meaning that they lack the enzyme necessary for the body to digest milk.

Sattvic foods help you think more clearly, because your body is unclouded and unhindered by impurities, chemicals, and stimulants. Sattvic foods promote contemplative thought, vitality, energy, tranquillity, happiness, and overall health. Most serious yoga practitioners exist primarily on sattvic foods, although because food in and of itself is not an obsession for the healthy yogi, occasional tastes of other foods when

these are offered aren't a problem. The wise yogi eats moderately, and moderation means not being obsessive about anything, even moderation!

If you're unable to drink milk or choose to avoid all dairy products (a truly nonviolent approach to eating), simply update our list of sattvic foods by eliminating milk. Stick with organic produce and whole grains, the foods that remain sattvic even in our complicated world.

Pungent, Spicy Westerners

As we've mentioned, most Westerners tend to be rajas-natured because Western life is so rajas-oriented. Our culture rewards high energy, overachievement, even anxiety and agitation if they help to get the job done! Rajasic foods are generally the stimulating kind: spicy, sour, pungent, and bitter. The following are examples of rajasic food:

> All meat

> All fish

> Eggs

>- Hot peppers

>- Most strong spices, especially black and red pepper

>- Coffee, tea, cola, and other stimulating, caffeine-laden beverages

Ancient cultures often fed their warriors meat before sending them off to battle, because it was known that meat increased aggression and agitation. After a good meat-fest, warriors could fight and kill better. Assuming you don't have the need to fight and kill anyone, however, why not try cutting down or even eliminating most rajasic foods from your diet? You may find a new sense of calm and a clearer head.

Of course, a little rajasic food now and then won't hurt anyone. It's what you do most of the time that counts. But if you exist on steak and eggs, or spicy beef burri-tos, or sausage-and-pepper sandwiches, or coffee and diet cola, even a nonyogi can tell you that you aren't going to be at your healthiest.

Stale Leftovers for Couch Potatoes

Tamasic food is considered impure and includes anything stale, old, aged, fermented, spoiled, overly processed, preservative-filled, or addictive. Here are some examples of tamasic food:

>- Coffee, tea, cola, and other sources of caffeine (on this list, too, because they are both stimulating and addictive).

>- Alcohol, including wine and beer.

>- Aged cheese, yogurt, other fermented dairy products.

>- Foods that are canned, pickled, highly salted.

>- Tobacco (we know, you smoke it, you don't eat it—but it still counts!).

>- Any food that's been sitting around too long, even if it still looks good (for example, produce that has been heavily sprayed and waxed so it can last through a journey across country and long periods of storage).

>- Anything processed, packaged, frozen, or preserved, from that "lite" microwav-able dinner to that box of snack cakes that would last in your pantry for five years.

Tamasic foods dull your mind. They make you feel tired and sap your ambition and strength (just what the preserving process—tamasa-fying!—does to fresh, or sattvic, food). Too much tamasic food will drain away your energy and your vitality, eventually bringing on a lack of joy in life, if not serious illness. No matter how much coloring and how many preservatives are added to make the food look good, when our bodies ingest it, the "makeup" comes right off and the food's true quality is revealed.

Maybe you're wondering how caffeine can be both rajasic and tamasic. The stimulating quality of caffeine—that "buzz" that shifts you into high gear—is, indeed, rajasic, but there's more to caffeine than its stimulating nature. Coffee, tea, and cola are also addictive, and addictive substances are tamasic. The habitual nature of caffeine woos the tamas-natured; plus, the stimulating effect gets hard-to-move tamas-natured folks up on their feet and out the door to work. Yes, yes, we understand. You love your cup of coffee! (We love ours, too.) Fear not. Remember, it's what you do most of the time that counts. If the rest of your diet is basically sattvic, an occasional cup of coffee isn't going to hurt.

Unfortunately, many Westerners are addicted to tamasic food, especially sources of caffeine and alcohol. Also, we've been tricked into believing we don't have time for anything but preservative-laden "convenience" food. Our supermarkets are brimming with tamasic fare, but that doesn't mean you have to put it in your grocery cart. A stock of tomato soup or commercial spaghetti sauce will keep longer than a stock of fresh tomatoes, but it certainly isn't better, or worth the price!

Moderation in All Things (As If You Didn't Know!)

But wait! Just because you now know which foods are best for you doesn't mean you should throw down this book, run to the kitchen, and start indulging. Calm down, you ra/'as-natured ones. Don't plan your indulgent feast just yet, you tamas-natured folk. Cultivating sattva means more than shoveling in massive quantities of the "right" foods. It also involves a few principles of eating:

>- Eat slowly. Chew each bite 50 times (or, if that's just too much to ask, start with 10 times and work your way up). Taste your food. Don't think about what you're going to eat next or what you need to do next. Give your meal some time. Give each bite some time.

>- Eat with full attention to eating. That means no TV, no newspaper, and no trance-like gazing at the back of the cereal box, fascinating as it may be.

A Yoga Minute

>- Enjoy your food and savor the eating experience. Live in the moment of your meal!

>- Don't eat too much. Try to leave the table with a little room left in your stomach.

>- Don't eat too often. That means avoiding between-meal snacking, late-night binges, and 3:00 a.m. Dagwood sandwiches.

If food is too important to you, it will control you. If you have a food addiction, you already know what it's like to be controlled. Food is meant to keep you alive and to enhance your existence; food isn't meant to fill emotional voids.

Overindulgence taxes your body, and it's been suggested that regular and consistent undereating (not undernourishment—an important distinction) increases longevity. That means more time on this earth for practicing yoga, and more time to enjoy the improved you. Remember the old and familiar adage (did your parents ever tell you this?), "Moderation in All Things." This is a seriously important concept. Live moderately and you'll live well.

Sometimes the best way to let food work for you is to give your body a rest from food. Moderate eating is great, but sometimes even the moderate eater can benefit from a short juice fast. Occasional one-day juice fasts (nothing but fresh fruit and vegetable juice) are excellent system cleansers. However, fasting should not be overdone. Remember, moderation!

Another great and easy way to fast is to eat a healthy breakfast, a hearty lunch, and an early, light supper, then not to eat anything but juice and water after 5:00 p.m. (Some people prefer to fast after 3:00 p.m.—an effective weight-loss and system-cleansing tool if you don't mind skipping dinner.)

If you fast too often or for too long, or fast while only drinking water, you're committing violence on your own body (and that isn't following the yama of ahimsa, or nonviolence!). Before altering your diet or performing a fast, consult your physician or a licensed dietitian to come up with the best nutritional plan for your individual health and fitness needs.

If you do suffer from food addictions, breaking them can be extremely difficult. Maybe you can't even imagine shelving your life-sustaining coffee mug. Maybe you binge on cookies every weekend or are seemingly incapable of passing a fast-food restaurant without driving through for a double cheeseburger and fries.

We have a nice little secret for you: You don't have to feel guilty. You don't have to deprive yourself (just yet!). All you have to do is practice all the other aspects of yoga: the postures, the breathing, the meditation. Here's where yoga works its magic. Yoga is transformative. It changes you. If you diligently practice it, within a few weeks or months, you'll be able to enjoy a cup of coffee without needing more or feeling addicted. Or maybe you won't want it at all. You won't feel the need for the caffeine. Fresh fruit will seem far more luscious than a bag of processed, store-bought cookies. And fast food will seem downright ... barbaric?

The point is, you don't really need to try to change your habits. You don't need to suffer and strive. If you're disciplined in the other areas of yoga, yoga will help you with the rest.

C'mon, Vegetarian?

Okay, we'll say it again: Here's where yoga works its magic. Yoga is transformative. It changes you.

Westerners are funny about vegetarianism. They seem to fall into two camps. There's the "Of course I'm a vegetarian. Aren't you?" camp, and the "You aren't actually one of those vegetarians, are you?" camp. Even if you're a vegetarian and don't judge meat-eaters, or a meat-eater who doesn't judge vegetarians, many who don't share your views about meat will assume you're in the "opposite camp" and will be on the defensive.

We aren't sure why this antagonistic scenario has developed in the West, but it has. If you're a vegetarian or have tried without success to quit eating meat, you have surely encountered "the attitude." Also, if you eat meat but know a lot of vegetarians, you may have felt similarly maligned.

So let's all try, just for a minute, to let go of all that. Let's be objective, as far as that's possible. Do you like meat? Could you do without it? Aside from what anyone else in the world might think, does the idea of a vegetarian diet appeal to you? Although some yogis are vegans and some are fruitarians, the most common yogi diet is a lacto vegetarian diet. What exactly is a vegetarian, then, you ask? Vegetarian is a blanket term, and there are indeed several kinds of vegetarians. Check out this vegetarian primer, and you'll be an expert on the variety and range of vegetarian diets!

>■ Lacto vegetarians don't eat any meat, poultry, fish, or eggs. Their diets consist primarily of fruits, vegetables, whole grains (like rice, oats, and wheat), pasta, nuts, seeds, pulses (dried beans, peas, and lentils), milk, and milk products.

>- Lacto ovo vegetarians are the same as lacto vegetarians but also eat eggs.

>- Vegans eat no animal substance of any kind, including all dairy products. Diligent vegans even avoid eating things like gelatin and other products made with preservatives or other ingredients made from animal parts (like rennet), and wearing leather or other clothing made from animals.

>- Fruitarians eat primarily fruit, but also some vegetables. The primary rule for fruitarians is that all food must be consumed raw. Yes, that means avoiding all cooked foods!

There are a lot of great reasons to practice a vegetarian diet:

>- A vegetarian diet is in harmony with ahimsa, the niyama of nonviolence.

>- A vegetarian diet is healthier for your heart, because it tends to be low in cholesterol and saturated fat.

>- According to many wise yogis, when an animal is slaughtered, it is filled with intense fear and anxiety. Eating that meat transfers the terrible fear to you.

>- A vegetarian diet makes many people feel lighter, more energetic, and healthier. Physical activity becomes less of an effort, and food becomes less of an obsession.

But what if your answer to the question of whether you could eat from the lacto vegetarian menu is a resounding "No way!"? As we said before, don't force yourself to do anything you aren't yet ready to do. You can certainly be committed to yoga without being committed to vegetarianism. In fact, many yoga teachers don't encourage vegetarianism or any dietary modification, especially to their Western students. These teachers know that yoga will do that job on its own, when the time is right.

Many yogis start out without any intention of becoming vegetarians, but the more yoga transforms them, the less interested they are in meat, until finally, one day ... poof! ... another vegetarian is born. Simply deciding to become a vegetarian will not magically grant you a kind heart. Plenty of mean-spirited vegetarians are walking around out there in the world! Vegetarianism doesn't make you a yogi; yoga leads you to nonviolence, which may eventually lead you to vegetarianism. Maybe this day is in your near future, and maybe it's a long, long way off. It's your journey. What's right for you is unique, and only you can truly

determine your own course. So consider vegetarianism, be open to the idea, but if it just isn't "you" (or at least, the "you" you are today), let it go. Maybe it will come back to surprise you when you're ready for it.

Vegetarian or not, do try to eat a healthy, fresh, primarily sattvic diet. Everyone can agree that fresh, whole, unprocessed food is a delight to eat. A diet of sattvic food makes living so much nicer, yoga practice so much easier, and may even make this wonderful life of yours a little bit longer and a little bit more wonderful.

The Least You Need to Know

>- Different types of foods—sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic—have different effects on you.

>- Fresh, whole, unprocessed food helps you think more clearly. Stimulating food can agitate you, and stale or preservative-filled food can sap your energy.

>- Moderation in all things is best!

>- A lacto vegetarian diet has many health-related and spiritual benefits.