Diet and Nutrition in Yoga

In all yoga teachings a vegetarian diet is strongly recommended.

The recommended nutrition from the yoga perspective is essentially to eat to eat small quantities of food which promote life force in the body without producing toxins, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts.

Individuals are particularly advised to refrain from the consumption of meat. According to yoga, meat, being animal flesh, has a low vibration rate and will lower the life force of the person eating it. This will cause a reduction in vitality and slow down the individual’s progress from yoga. In addition, meat also contains toxins, especially lactic acid, which is a waste product of muscle metabolism.

Consumption of fish is also not recommended. Although science has found that some fish contain Omega3 fatty acids (which are beneficial to the body), Omega3 fatty acids are found in greater quantities in linseeds, which can be easily sprinkled on a salad of breakfast cereals.

Yoga recommends that food is never eaten too cold or too hot as this may cause irritation in the body. People are also advised to eat slowly and chew the food thoroughly.     

Fresh and raw food

Yoga also stresses that food should be as fresh as possible. This means that people should rely more on fresh fruits and vegetables than on frozen or canned foods. Frozen food is not so bad, since the enzymes are preserved, but canned food has been preheated, which destroys a lot of the vitamins and minerals and the enzymes.

In addition, yogis also state that the greater proportion of our food should be eaten raw; for example, fruits, salad, raw nuts and sprouted grains. They consider that the cooking of food causes it to lose a lot of its life force, as well as its flavour. 

Alcohol

Yoga advises to refrain from alcohol consumption as it is believed that lowers the vibrations of the subtle body (astral body). This defeats the purpose of yoga, which is to increase the vibrational level so that the individual can gradually unfold their Higher Self.

Yoga also considers alcohol to have an adverse effect on the central nervous system, and in particular the brain. The integrity of the central nervous system is considered very important by the yogis, since one of the goals of yoga is to improve the health of this system, and much of the progress of yoga is achieved via this vital communication system.

Modern science agrees with yoga on this point, since alcohol is known to first stimulate and then shortly afterwards depress the central nervous system.