Celebrating The First International Day of Yoga

DIET AND NUTRITION
The Solution
There is an ancient doctrine, time tested for 2,500 years, that
your food shall be your medicine and your medicine shall be
your food (Hippocrates, 460 – 372 BC, the forefather of modern,
scientific medicine). In order to lose weight we must eat the
right food ie: proper carbohydrates, proper fats, and proper
protein. Carbohydrates to provide proper energy, fat to give
proper reserves and proteins for an optimal hormonal balance.
“Only a proper diet can reduce obesity
and prevent the threat of a global catas -
t rophe in countries with a western diet”
Conclusion
Only a proper diet can reduce obesity and prevent the threat
of a global catastrophe in countries with a western diet. Most
importantly we need to provide people with correct information
on the relationship between health and disease. We are bom -
barded by the media with completely irrelevant and even
sometimes grotesquely inaccurate information on this issue.
Furthermore polls show that obese college students, for
example, do inform themselves about healthy eating, but
prolong its implementation due to lack of practicality. And
although they may already be late in addressing their problem,
it’s never too late to start. n
The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres express their gratitude
to Dr Gerhard Brand for sharing his medical insight on the
topic of nutrition.
Dr. Gerhard Brand MD. email: brand@magicghost.de
Here are a few lines on the yogic
approach to diet:
“Let the yogi eat moderately and abstemiously; otherwise,
however clever, he cannot gain success.” Siva Samhita
Yogis are aware of and try to live by this ancient wisdom:
there is a relationship between physical and mental wellbeing
and diet. Yogis eat to live and do not live to eat. The
goal is a pure and natural diet, wholesome, well-balanced,
easy to digest, supplying the body with a maximum of
nutrients and energy.
In Swami Sivananda’s words: “Eat moderately what
you know by experience is agreeable to you and what
is digestible. Simple diet is the best“.
YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015
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