Conscious Eating Part 8

Guidelines and Perspective for Pitta Food Intake for Pitta People.

A BLAND VEGETARIAN DIET THAT IS PREDOMINANTLY RAW is best for the pitta, pitta-vata, and pitta-kapha individuals. Flesh food, eggs, alcohol, salt, caffeine, coffee, tobacco, mustard, garlic, onions, ginger, and other stimulants aggravate the emotional and physical heat and natural aggressiveness of pitta. Fruits, vegetables, and sprouts with some grains comprise the bulk of the diet. Foods that are sour, such as citrus, yogurt, sour cream, vinegar, and dill pickles, also aggravate pitta. Lemon, although sour, can be tolerated in small amounts because of its overall alkalinizing and liver-purifying effect. It is best for a pitta to avoid pungent foods and herbs such as cayenne, mustard, catsup, barbecue sauce, and salsa. The cold tastes, which are bitter and astringent, such as the leafy green vegetables, are balancing. Foods that are sweet-tasting are also balancing, except honey and mola.s.ses, which are heating. High-protein foods increase the metabolic heat by 30% and should be kept to a moderate intake. Foods that stress the liver are usually aggravating, such as coffee and alcohol. Such foods as carrots and beets, which purify and cleanse the liver, are balancing or neutral to pitta, even though they are considered slightly heating. Balancing herbs for the pitta are coriander, cardamom, fennel, and turmeric. Fruits and vegetables are the most balancing for pitta. Pittas do best when they avoid salty, pungent, and sour tastes, as well as hot, light, and dry foods. Pitta people have a speedy metabolism so they generally need to eat three main meals a day, separated by at least four hours. If necessary, light snacking two to three hours after a meal is acceptable.

Vegetables are very good for pitta. The exceptions are tomatoes, which are heating and pungent, and vegetables like radishes, raw onions, hot peppers, and raw garlic. White or yellow onions will become sweet on cooking and may be eaten in moderation. Although beets, carrots, and daikons are slightly heating, they can be eaten unless pitta is already aggravated. The vegetables that are most balancing for pitta are the whole Bra.s.sica family, such as cabbage and Brussels sprouts; asparagus, cilantro, cuc.u.mbers, celery, cress, leafy greens, green beans, lettuce, mushrooms, okra, peas, parsley, potatoes, and sprouts; and the squash family.

Sweet fruits such as apples, figs, raisins, sweet grapes, sweet plums, prunes, sweet berries, and melons are most balancing for the pittas. Sour fruits such as citrus, sour cherries, and pomegranates should be minimized. Well-ripened, sweet, citrus fruits are acceptable because for pittas the sweet taste is balancing. Other fruits that are balancing are mangos, avocados, persimmons, and apricots.

Nuts and seeds are best used sparingly because they are hot and oily. If they are soaked or sprouted, they can be used in moderation. Coconut, which is cooling, is very balancing for pitta. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds can be eaten, especially if soaked.

Grains that are heating, such as corn, millet, buckwheat, and rye, are best avoided or minimized. Barley, which is cooling and drying, is the best grain. It also helps to reduce stomach acid, which is a pitta tendency. Rice and wheat, which are sweet and heavy, are also good. Sourdough breads and other yeasted breads create a sourness that aggravates pitta.

Legumes should be taken in moderation because of their high protein content and tendency to produce gas if consumed in excess. The least aggravating legumes are mung beans, garbanzo beans, tofu, and black lentils.

Oils are generally aggravating for pitta. Small amounts of coconut, almond, olive, soy, and sunflower oils are okay. Coconut, with its oil, is beneficial to pitta because it is cooling but should be used in moderation because of the high percentage of saturated fat it contains. Sunflower and pumpkin seed oil are fine for pitta people.

Dairy products have variable effects. Sweet dairy is acceptable. Sour dairy products and hard cheese aggravate. Ghee, which is a clarified, raw, unsalted b.u.t.ter, is very balancing and calming for pitta.

Sweets are cooling to pitta. Even white sugar, which I do not recommend, can help to cool pitta. Honey is moderately heating but can be used in minimal amounts. Mola.s.ses is heating and best avoided.

Spices that are hot or pungent are aggravating to pitta. Cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, and fennel are balancing. Black pepper can be used occasionally, and c.u.min can be used in moderation, although it is somewhat heating.

Drinks that are cooling, sweet, bitter, and astringent are balancers. Pittas need a lot of water. Carbonated drinks and alcohol aggravate pitta. Salty drinks and an excess of hot teas are unbalancing to pitta. Sour drinks and citrus in excess, including orange juice, may also aggravate pitta.

Preview of Chapter 6.

IN THIS CHAPTER YOU WILL LEARN about some of the silent messages Mother Nature is continually giving to us about the food we eat. These communications come in terms of tastes, colors, and qualities. You will learn about the six tastes, six qualities, directions of action of foods, and the color code of foods as explained through the rainbow diet. The rainbow diet is like learning how to select a good wardrobe-it helps us to color-coordinate our foods with the energies of our own bodies. As we select our foods and eat them, are we ready to listen to and act on these silent messages? Are we ready to read these love notes from G.o.d?

I. Mother Nature's Clues II. Six Tastes A. Sweet B. Sour C. Salty D. Pungent E. Bitter F. Astringent III. Six Food Qualities A. Heavy B. Light C. Oily D. Dry E. Cold F. Hot.

IV. Direction of Action of Foods.

V. Rainbow Diet.

Subtle Food Messages from Nature.

IT IS APPARENT TO THE READER BY NOW that food is more than just carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. The spectrum of nutrition ranges from undifferentiated energy to various levels of differentiated energy, with these energies playing an important role in balancing, building, healing, activating, and cleansing the glands, organs, nervous system, tissues, and more subtle elements of the body, such as the dosha energies and subtle energy centers. Each food has a particular taste, quality, shape, and color that is part of Mother Nature's clues and efforts to communicate with us. Each food has its own "personality" that affects our psychophysiological and spiritual nature. For example, the golden-colored mango and papaya have the shape and color radiance that match the pineal gland and pituitary. I have developed the system of the rainbow diet, as explained in detail in Spiritual Nutrition and The Rainbow Diet, which correlates the colors of foods with the subtle energy centers, organs, glands, and nervous system. The Chinese system has cla.s.sified the yin and yang effect of the foods according to color. The more red a food is, the more yang it is; the more a food is toward the purple side of the rainbow, the more it is considered yin. In the Ayurvedic and Chinese systems, the tastes and food qualities are important clues to the energetic effect of the foods.

The Six Tastes.

THERE ARE six TASTES AND FOOD QUALITIES that help to inform us how a food will tend to affect and interact with our doshas. Each taste is nature's way of signalling us as to how the food will energetically act on our body and mind. The six tastes are: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent.

The sweet taste can be experienced by the varying degrees of sweetness that are in sweet fruit, sugar, milk, rice, and grains. Sweetness increases kapha and decreases pitta and vata. Sweetness has the qualities of being cooling, heavy, and oily. It relieves hunger and thirst and nourishes the body. Because it increases kapha, sweetness increases tissue ma.s.s. Sweet is the overwhelmingly predominant and favorite taste in America, creating a kapha imbalance that contributes to the obesity of millions of overweight people. Eating sweets gives satisfaction and a sense of fullness on the mental plane. For those who feel lacking in their lives, sweets can become addicting because they supply the short-term illusion of mental and physical satiation. Sweets have a cooling effect on the pitta anger and a temporary calming effect on the vata fear. Too many sweets may contribute to complacency and greed, especially for kaphas, who have a propensity for manifesting that tendency anyway.

The sour taste (lemon and yogurt) unbalances kapha and pitta. The sour qualities are heavy, heating, and oily and therefore balancing for vata. Sour-tasting foods usually improve digestion and appet.i.te. "Sour grapes" is a term that relates to a certain feeling of being deprived, or bitterness about lacking something in life. An overindulgence in sour foods may lead to envy or jealousy about what is lacking. This sourpuss tendency to envy and possess creates an imbalance in pittas. Not only does the sour taste amplify these tendencies, but these tendencies create anger. The greed tendency of kaphas may also be amplified by sour foods. Sour balances vatas by creating mental heat.

The salty taste is heavy and heating. These qualities help to balance vata and unbalance kapha and pitta. Salt increases digestive fire and helps to clean the body of wastes. Salt enhances all our appet.i.tes for life and physical indulgence in the senses. In excess, it can contribute to unbalancing the mental state of kapha. It reinforces the kapha tendency toward complacency and sense indulgence. The heat of pitta is also aggravated by salt, especially if the desires fired up by the salty food are not expressed. The vata mind, which is sometimes too ungrounded to indulge in the earthly senses, is brought more into balance by salt, in a way that draws awareness to the physical level.

Pungent foods (spicy foods such as ginger and cayenne) are heating, light, and dry. The heating and drying qualities of pungent foods help to balance kapha. Pungent foods aggravate pitta and vata. Pungent foods such as cayenne are good for reducing mucus and stimulating gastric fire in the kapha dosha. The anger and irritability of pitta are aggravated by pungent foods because fire brings out an extroverted energy and a desire for external stimulation. These qualities of pungent foods help kaphas come out of their complacency and inertia.

Foods of bitter taste (spinach and other leafy greens) are cooling, light, and dry. Foods of bitter taste balance kapha and pitta but may tend to aggravate vata. Bitter-tasting foods dry and purify secretions and increase appet.i.te, which is perfect for kapha. Bitter foods tend to amplify dissatisfaction, criticism, and grief. Mild dissatisfaction may be a stimulus to change and thus is good for balancing the complacency aspects of kapha. These same qualities of bitterness bring out insecurity and fear in vata because they enhance the tendency to change and also enhance the dry sadness of excessive dissatisfaction.

Astringent foods make the mouth pucker. Examples are unripe persimmons, turmeric, and okra. Astringent foods are cooling, light, and dry. Because of this, they tend to aggravate vata and balance pitta and kapha. These foods purify and reduce secretions, as well as dry out the body, which is excellent for kapha. Their drying and shrivelling energy creates introverted tendencies. If this withdrawal is excessive, it causes mental contraction that brings out fear and anxiety. This may unbalance the vata mind. This same contraction energy helps to balance the extroverted energies of the pitta personality.

In general, the bitter, pungent, and astringent tastes unbalance vata and decrease kapha. The tastes of bitter, pungent, and astringent have a "lightness" quality to them, helping to free kaphas from their tendency to be complacently attached to the body and the desires of the material world. Sweet, sour, and salty tastes increase the attachment to the body and worldly desires. Because of this, sweet, sour, and salty tastes decrease vata, as vatas need to increase these attachments because of their lack of groundedness. Perhaps the food industry is aware of this because there is so much emphasis on sweetness and saltiness in most fast foods. Eating these processed, empty, foodless foods feeds the life of the senses.

Pittas are balanced by sweet, bitter, and astringent foods. Pungent, salty, and sour foods unbalance pitta. Vatas are aggravated by excessive amounts of any taste. My experience eating in the homes of Ayurvedic physicians is that they serve meals with all the tastes to create a general balance. The wisdom of eating in a way that maintains one's own dosha balance requires artful intelligence, intuition, and trial and error concerning what tastes of foods are balancing and when to eat these foods.

Chinese medicine has also systematized the meaning of the tastes of foods. They recognize five flavors (tastes): pungent, sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. According to the Chinese system, each taste affects specific organ systems.

Pungent foods act on the lungs and large intestine. They also induce perspiration.

Sweet-flavored foods act upon the stomach, spleen, and pancreas and neutralize toxins.

Bitter foods act upon the heart and small intestine. Bitter foods are also said to reduce fever and induce diarrhea.

Sour foods act upon the liver and gallbladder. They also stop diarrhea and perspiration.

Salty foods act upon the kidneys and urinary bladder and also soften hard ma.s.ses and tissues.

Food Qualities.

THE six MAJOR FOOD QUALITIES in Ayurveda are heavy (cheese, yogurt, wheat); light (barley, corn, spinach, apples); oily (dairy, fatty foods, avocados); dry (barley, corn, potatoes, beans); hot food and drink (hot tea); and cold food and drink (iced tea). Generally, heavy, oily, and hot foods tend to balance vatas and unbalance kaphas. Hot, light, and dry foods tend to balance kaphas and unbalance pittas. Pittas are more balanced by heavy, oily, and cold foods.

In the Chinese system, foods are considered for their medicinal qualities by flavor, energetic quality, direction of action in the body, and specific affinity for different organs and glands. The energy of the different foods is broken into five categories: Cold energy (very yin), such as banana, grapefruit, kelp, lettuce, persimmon, sugar, water chestnut, and watermelon.

Cool energy (slightly yin), such as apples, barley, tofu, mushrooms, cuc.u.mbers, eggplant, oranges, mangos, spinach, strawberries, and tangerines.

Neutral energy (balanced), such as apricots, sesame seeds, soybeans, cabbage, carrots, celery, eggs, corn, apples, figs, honey, kidney beans, milk, olives, papaya, peanuts, pineapples, plums, potatoes, pumpkin, radishes, rice, sunflower seeds, and sweet potatoes.

Warm energy (slightly yang), such as asparagus and malt.

Hot energy (very yang), such as vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, cayenne, dates, garlic, ginger, green onion, nutmeg, raspberries, and black pepper.

Foods in the Chinese system are seen to have a directional influence on the flow of energy in the body. The foods with an upward movement are those that move energy from the lower parts of the body toward the chest and head. Their tastes may be neutral, pungent, sweet, and bitter. Some of these foods are apricots, sesame, soybeans, cabbage, carrots, celery, sunflower seeds, apples, figs, grapes, honey, kidney beans, milk, peanuts, rice, and sweet potatoes. By moving the direction of energetic flow upward, some of these foods are said to alleviate diarrhea and prolapsed organs.

Outward-moving foods move toward and affect the surface of the body. Their tastes may be pungent or sweet. Some of them are good for inducing perspiration and reducing fever. Examples of outward-moving foods are black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and red pepper.

Inward-moving foods tend to ease bowel movements and abdominal swelling. Examples of these foods are hops, lettuce, salt, kelp and other seaweed. These foods have cold, bitter, or salty tastes.

Downward-moving foods are said to relieve nausea, vomiting, hiccupping, and asthma. Their tastes may be sweet or sour. Examples of downward-moving foods are apples, bananas, barley, tofu, cuc.u.mbers, eggplant, lettuce, mango, persimmons, spinach, wheat, and watermelon.

Foods may also be cla.s.sified as to how they move nutrients. Honey is a "delivery system" that enhances the movement of nutrients. Olive oil is considered an obstructive food because it slows down the movement of nutrients.

It is significant that both these ancient medical systems of India and China, which have been used for thousands of years with impressive results, equally go to great lengths to delineate the energetic properties of foods and how these energies influence the flow and balance of the body's energies. Based on this understanding, the Chinese as well as the Ayurvedic systems prescribed specific foods to rebalance the energy of a person. For example, if a person was suffering from a deep, inner cold, both systems would probably prescribe the heat-producing herbs cayenne, black pepper, and ginger. Though these two great healing systems might use different terms and concepts to describe the action of these foods, they would share a basic understanding of what tastes and qualities of foods are needed to remedy the situation.

The Secrets of the Rainbow of Foods.

THE NEXT STEP IN THIS CONNECTION back to Mother Nature and health is the understanding of vegetarian foods and their multiple colors as condensations of sunlight. The color of foods is a silent communication of Nature about the characteristics of Her gifts to us. This is discussed in great depth in Spiritual Nutrition and The Rainbow Diet.

Dr. Bircher-Benner and Rudolf Steiner, two great minds from the earlier part of the twentieth century, have said that raw foods contain the sunlight energies that are stored in their living tissues through the process of photosynthesis. I feel these sunlight energies are stored in photosynthesis-activated carbon-hydrogen bonds just waiting to be released into receptive, happy humans who appreciate the secret gifts of Mother Nature. Although it isn't completely understood how these energies are stored, particular energetic vibrations are indicated by their colors. This forms the basis of what I call the Rainbow Diet. The Rainbow Diet says that the outer covering of the plant is the key to understanding and recognizing the particular light and micronutrient energies stored in that vegetable, fruit, grain, or gra.s.s as it occurs in nature. It is a way to tune in to the color-coded secrets of nature.

Each of the seven primary colors of food a.s.sociated with the seven primary colors of the rainbow relates to a specific subtle energy center in the body and its a.s.sociated glands, organs, and nervous system plexuses. For example, the green-colored vegetables are high in magnesium and calcium, which is beneficial for heart function. The heart center is also a.s.sociated with the green color. The basic survival center in the body is a.s.sociated with red. Red fruits and vegetables, such as red peppers and rose hips, are very high in vitamin C. The adrenals, which are one of our primary survival glands-often nicknamed the "flight or fright gland"-have the highest concentration of vitamin C. The vitamin C in the red fruits and vegetables also is important for the function and strength of connective and muscle tissue, another part of our survival system. As we become more sensitive to the colors of fruits and vegetables, we are drawn to the color we need to a.s.similate to balance, build, heal, and cleanse our system on any particular day.

The general principle of the Rainbow Diet in practice is to eat a full spectrum of colored foods throughout the day to cover the full spectrum of our physical and subtle biological systems. Generally the red, orange, and yellow colors are taken at breakfast. This includes a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains. At lunch the green color predominates, but yellows (which includes grains, nuts, and seeds) and blues are also included. Green salads, grains, nuts, seeds, and blue-green sea vegetables are the mainstay. The evening meal is the top end of the rainbow with blue, indigo, and purple or gold. This is easier in the summer when the blue and purple fruits are in season. The gold includes grains, as well as golden fruits like papayas and mangos. Reddish-purple beets and red and purple sea vegetables are also included. These foods are emphasized but you don't need to limit yourself to those foods for dinner. They make separate meals, such as a fruit meal or a vegetable meal.

The gradual incorporation of a rainbow awareness is a way to organize and be sensitive to our patterns of taking in food during the day. By bringing in this full spectrum of light to our systems, we are energized by the full spectrum of light from the sun. As we become more sensitive to these subtle clues of Mother Nature as to what is in the different foods, we find that we are spontaneously drawn to the different colors of the foods depending on our particular needs. Yes, Mother Nature feeds us with her benevolent light energy as well as her physical nutrients.

Preview of Chapter 7.

THIS CHAPTER INTRODUCES YOU to the powerful effects our food choices can have not only on the body, but on the emotional moods, mind, and spirit. The effect of diet on spiritual receptivity, strength of moral character, clarity of mind, and the enhancement of the spiritualizing energies in the body is something well known in the Judaic-Christian tradition as well as other traditions around the world. Food choices may have either a dulling or enhancing effect on our ability to receive G.o.d's grace. Are you ready to consider how what you are eating may be affecting your mind and spiritual sensitivity?

I. Historical observations II. Creating three states of mind and lifestyle from diet A. Sattvic B. Rajasic C. Tamasic III. Fast foods and effect on American culture IV. Chinese approach to food and mind-body A. Yin B. Yang C. How to balance for a spiritual life V. Enhancing spiritual energy and sensitivity with diet VI. Hypoglycemia and the mind.

VII. Effects of overeating or excess acid.

VIII. Timing of eating and the mind.

Food Effects on Body, Mind, and Spirit.

"Let Food Be Thy Medicine"

HIPPOCRATES TAUGHT THIS MESSAGE IN 431 B.C., yet in the late twentieth century its meaning is just beginning to influence modern public and medical opinion in the West. Food can be looked upon as possessing several levels of energy. Particular energies exist within each food that affect our physical functioning, the nature of our thoughts, and even the expansion of our consciousness. The color of the outer coating of a food, the five (Chinese) or six tastes (Ayurvedic), their aromas (which I haven't yet worked out), and the six qualities comprise several systems with which one can tune into these more specific food energies. Foods can also be cla.s.sified by their shapes, yin or yang energy (Chinese), and the three gunas (mental state characteristics in Ayurveda).

For thousands of years different cultures have been aware that the types of food we eat have subtle effects on the mind. Herodotus, the Greek historian, reported that grain-eating vegetarian cultures surpa.s.sed meat-eating cultures in art, science, and spiritual development. It was his view that meat-eating nations tended to be more warlike and more focused on expression of anger and sensual pa.s.sions. It is said that the ancient Egyptian priesthood ate specific foods to increase their spiritual sensitivity and awareness. In India today, the Brahmin priests still prepare their own food and eat separately from people of other social cla.s.ses. They also keep themselves on a vegetarian diet that is aimed at enhancing the subtle spiritual qualities of the mind. The implication of this practice is that the dietary patterns of a social group affect the spiritual consciousness of that group. The logical extension of this is that the type of diet a whole nation follows may affect the mental state of that nation. Rudolf Steiner, the founder of biogenic gardening, the Waldorf School, and Anthroposophical medicine, felt that the spiritual progress of humanity as a whole would be enhanced by a progressive increase in a vegetarian eating pattern. Conversely, he felt that overemphasis on a flesh-eating diet would exert a negative influence regarding an interest in spiritual life.

Ayurvedic physicians and yogis have been aware for thousands of years that a dietary pattern specifically affects the state of a person's mind. They divided the types of foods and the states of mind into three categories (gunas): sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic. A sattvic state of mind is clear, peaceful, harmonious, and interested in spiritual life. Sattvic foods help to create this state. This is typified by the mental states of monks and nuns of many religious traditions. A rajasic state of mind is active, restless, worldly, and aggressive. Rajasic food creates this mental state. It is the diet for warriors and the stereotypical corporate executive. A tamasic mental state is lethargic, impulsive, cruel, violent, and morally and physically degenerate. It is the state of the stereotypical drug addict or criminal. Tamasic foods help to create this state of mind.

Consciously or unconsciously, people tend to choose the diet that reinforces and reflects their own mental and spiritual state of awareness. Spiritual aspirants have a tendency to gravitate to sattvic-centered diets. A sattvic diet is made of pure foods that keep the body-mind complex clear, balanced, harmonious, peaceful, and strong. Sattvic foods are easy to digest and result in a minimal acc.u.mulation of toxins in the system. In the Ayurvedic system of medicine these sattvic foods include all fruits, vegetables, edible greens, gra.s.ses, beans, raw milk, honey, and small quant.i.ties of rice or bread preparations. It is basically a vegetarian diet. From the Western Essene tradition and the spiritual nutrition perspective, a sattvic diet would be essentially a vegetarian diet with approximately 80% raw and 20% cooked foods. It is a diet with an abundance of different sprouts of legumes, grains, seeds, baby greens, and gra.s.ses; fresh fruits and vegetables; soaked nuts and seeds; grains, legumes, and honey.

Rajasic foods are more stimulating to the nervous system. They include coffee, green or black teas, tobacco, fresh meats, and large amounts of stimulating spices, such as garlic and peppers. These foods are sought as stimulants by people who consciously or unconsciously use them to help carry out worldly activities. The unbalanced stimulating effects on activity level may propel the eater of primarily rajasic foods into a state of agitation, restlessness, and eventual burnout as these foods push the mind and body beyond their natural limits. Coffee addiction and hypoglycemia are typical imbalances that may result from a rajasic diet. Rajasic foods include flesh foods and spicy cooked foods with rich oily sauces. It is a diet that includes b.u.t.ter, cheese, eggs, sugar, and oily, fried foods. The taste-stimulating effects of these foods tend to distract one from inner, somatic messages and propel one outward into stimulating physical, emotional, and mental activities, but often in an unbalanced way.

Tamasic foods are stale, decayed, decomposed, spoiled, overcooked, leftover, heavily processed, and fast foods. They basically include what one might call synthetic foods. These foods are chemically treated with preservatives, pesticides, fungicides, artificial and processed sweeteners, artificial colors, sulfites, and nitrites, etc. Alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs of today's addicted society fall into the category of tamasic foods. Cocaine and amphetamines are initially rajasic in their stimulating effect, but the end result of long-term use is often an exhausted tamasic mental and physical state. The addicted mindset that accompanies cocaine or amphetamine abuse, even during the stimulation phase, falls more into the degenerate tamasic category. Any flesh foods that have not been freshly killed are tamasic foods because within a short time they begin putrefying. This includes almost all meats found in the supermarket. These foods have almost no positive energetic life force left in them. These foods do, however, supply us with the toxic chemical breakdown products that adversely affect the functioning of our mind and irritate our nervous system. These foods accelerate premature aging and chronic degenerative disease. They tend to bring out the worst psychological characteristics because of the irritable, negative, lethargic state they create in us. The tamasic state that I am referring to can be described as that "raunchy, yuck" state that some people experience when they overeat, particularly of tamasic foods. While in this unbalanced energy condition it is difficult to meditate or be in harmony with one's self or the environment.

In a.s.sessing the American fast-food diet, which is eaten by hundreds of millions in this country, it becomes obvious that this is a strong tamasic diet that also has stimulating rajasic overtones. This type of diet, along with its accompanying drug use, contributes to the fact that Americans rank 21st in life expectancy and number one in murders among the industrialized nations. According to federal statistics, the US has more than 20,000 murders per year, which is more deaths per year in peacetime than averaged in Vietnam during the war. Our society has become very violent.

The link between a tamasic-type diet and social violence has been supported by consistent research findings on teenage offenders. When teenagers' diets were changed from their typical high white sugar, fast food, tamasic-type diet, a marked decrease in the teens' acting-out, violent behavior occurred. For example, Mrs. Barbara Reed, a probation officer in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, found that when she switched offenders from what was essentially a tamasic diet of fast foods, et cetera, to a diet higher in fruits and vegetables, every one of the 252 teenagers in her case load stayed out of court as long as they maintained themselves on the healthy diet. A two-year, scientifically precise study with 267 subjects by Steven Schoenthaler, Ph.D., published in the Journal of Biosocial Research, showed that while the average American eats approximately 125 pounds of white sugar per year, juvenile delinquents in custody averaged about 300 pounds per year. When this sugar intake was significantly reduced, junk food was reduced, and fruits and vegetables were increased, there was a 48% decrease in antisocial behavior of all types, including violent crimes, crimes against property, and runaways. This was true for all ages and races. This amazing result was achieved simply by changing the diet with no cost to the taxpayer.

A tamasic diet of fast and junk convenience foods can cause vitamin deficiencies, which can disrupt the proper working of the brain, not to mention create a disharmonious lifestyle. Our bodies may s.h.i.+ft into an unbalanced state, in large part due to vitamin deficiencies, especially of vitamins B1, B3, B6 and B12. A deficiency of these vitamins has been shown to create a number of mental and nervous system imbalances.

Allergies are often a key symptom suggesting a general breakdown of the body's functioning. As a physician, I find that as a person gets healthier in general, their allergies often disappear. Today there is a tendency for people living a high-stress life to compensate for imbalances by megadoses of B vitamins. Used in this way, vitamins become like accepted drug stimulants, helping us cover up the essential rajasic disharmony that is creating the imbalance. These stimulants aid us in the destructive process of self-exploitation. Some people lead lifestyles and eat diets that increase exposure to toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Toxins and heavy metals have been a.s.sociated with hyperactivity, mental r.e.t.a.r.dation, and other forms of nervous system degeneration. Eating organic foods can significantly improve this situation.

Chinese System of Yin/Yang Foods.

THE INTERRELATING AND COMPLEMENTARY PRINCIPLES of yin and yang are key concepts in traditional Chinese philosophy that are used to describe the dynamic nature of the universe. The principles of yin and yang, though polar opposites, do not exist without each other. According to traditional Chinese thought, everything, even the personality, can be viewed from the perspective of yin and yang elements.

Yang attributes are contractive, hot, fiery, dense, heavy, flat, and low to the ground. A yang personality is powerful, strong-willed, extroverted, grounded, outgoing, focused, concrete, active, and p.r.o.ne to getting angry easily. An unbalanced yang personality can be overly aggressive, tense, coa.r.s.e, and irritable and angry. Excessive intake of yang foods can intensify and amplify these yang mental characteristics. For example, although in ancient India they did not call it yin or yang, they fed their warriors flesh foods as a way to increase their warlike characteristics.