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Sutras by Maharishi Vagbhata:
Food and Cooking

Continued from The Role and Importance of Water

Cooking Utensils

Avoid Pressure Cookers: While cooking if the food doesn’t get contact of air and sunlight then this food will work like slow poison in the system. This means that using pressure cooker is very bad for health. The pressure used to cook food softens the grains by breaking them. They are not cooked, simply broken. So the food thus prepared is useless for the body - the molecules are damaged and the food becomes useless for the body.Diabetes, Bronchitis, TB, Asthma etc. 48 ailments have been directly traced to pressure cooker by modern scientists at CDRI/CSIR labs.

Use Clay Utensils: The best utensils for cooking are clay, kaansa and peetal or bronze in that order.
Researchers at the CDRI Lab in Lucknow (a central govt. body) have found that after cooking say Arhar daal in Clay pots 100% of the micro nutrients originally present in the daal are still there, 93% are left after cooking in kaansa utensils and 87% after cooking in peetal or bronze utensils.

However, if the same daal is cooked in a pressure cooker only 13% of these micro nutrients are left. Essentially what is left is worthless and unusable by the body.

The ashes that remain after a dead body is burned, contain these same 18 micro nutrients – the same as soil. No other natural thing contains all 18. We could have produced aluminium thousands of yrs ago. Our shastras have the techniques. But we used clay pots since it is the best from every angle.The longer an item takes to ripen in the field, the longer it will take to cook at home. Pressure cooking it will make the food useless for the body.

Nature has designed everything with enormous attention to detail. E.g. the top of the plants are eaten by humans and birds, middle part is for animals and roots are for the earth herself.

When chronic diabetics who started doing all their cooking in clay pots – sugar levels came down from 480 odd to 180 odd in less than a year. The TVS group family cooks all its food in clay pots. So does the Ambani family (clay tava).

Consumption of Food

For best results, food should always be consumed within 48 minutes of cooking. The body is best able to utilize the nutrition from food when it is consumed in this time frame. This 48 minute calculation is also present in Jain Darshan. Stale food should not even be given to animals. In a year there is only 1 day when the body needs stale food. In our culture we have a festival called “Basoda” on this same day when we were supposed to eat stale food.

The concept of warm/hot food does not exist in western countries. They don’t know how to make rotis. The average age of bread is around 90days in Europe and USA.

Follow it up with Paan

Paan is traditionally eaten at the end of meals, to aid digestion. However, it is to be had without kattha (brown paste smeared on pan leaf) so that you don’t spit out the juice/laar. Paan leaf should be kasaila i.e. kadva. The bitter it is the better. Desi paan is darker and more bitter. As a general rule the darker the colour of a natural thing the more effective it is as medicine. Jamun, tomato etc should be eaten a lot as they are dark in colour and hence helpful.

Choona in paan reduces Vata while Paan leaf reduces Pitta. The maximum amount of choona that can be used is 1gm. Saunf (aniseed), cloves, rose mix (gulkand) should be added to paan. Supari (betelnut) and kattha should not be added. Anything with fat will help the jatharagni and digestion will speed up.

Grinding of Flours

Wheat flour should be eaten in a max of 15 days of being ground. Makki, chana, jowar etc should be consumed in 7 days. A survey done in a few villages studied 90 ladies who were using Chakki (hand-mill) and not a single one had a caesarian delivery, no pains in body, diabetes, BP etc were absent.

Women who buy atta from market, are affected with all these ailments, and so are their family members. The main quality of the Uterus is its elasticity. Chakki ensures this elasticity and hence no tumors and caesarians will happen. Chakki can be used till 7^th month of pregnancy. The very quality of health of caesarian children is much poorer compared to children born naturally. Physical health, mental health and intelligence, imaginative ability are of a different level for children born naturally.

Women start facing many complications (depression, tension, sadness, pains, hot flashes) due to menopause around the age of 45. The best way to keep these under control is Chakki usage. Regular usage of Chakki and Sil-Batta are the best preventives for menopausal complications. HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) is a curse. It causes uncontrolled weight gain.

Chakki is also the best option to reduce paunch. Gym does not help with this in the long run. This is also due to the fact that any fast exercises/movements will worsen Vaata hence paunch will only increase in the long run. India being a Vaata pradhaan land, we need slow movements in order to keep Vaata under control.

Mixer grinders also destroy most nutrients due to high speed and friction. The main reason for our health problems are the changes in our kitchens.

An experiement conducted in Bhilwar showed a reduction in acidity, pains, sleep, BP etc on incorporating chakki atta in their lives. There were no gas problems even on overeating.

Avoid Pairing Opposites

Never eat opposite products together as they create ama (diseased energies) in the body.

Milk and curds, and any item made of these two should not be taken together. Milk and curds and milk and jaggery don’t go together. Onion and milk are poison together. – most skin problems are created through regular consumption of this combination. All sour fruits are a bad combination with milk except amla/ gooseberry. Even mango should be taken with milk only when it is completely ripe and sweet. Never combine jackfruit with milk.

Avoid Dwidal (mung bean, urad dal, bengal gram, peas, etc, pulses with two halves) and curds together, with the exception of tempered curds (dahi baghaar ke - ajwain, heeng ka chhaunk). The exception is urad dal, with which even tempered curds must not be eaten. In experimenting with this Rajiv Dixit’s BP went up by upto 25%!!!! If this is done regularly it will obviously lead to heart and BP problems. Dahi-vada is hence taboo. If you wish to eat dahi-vada, make the vadas with mung dal.

Honey and ghee are poison if taken together. This can be taken together only when cow urine is used to counter negative effect.

Jaggery and ghee go well together.

Continue to "Habits Related to Eating".

We thank Dr. Rajiv Dixit for making this information accessible. Search Rajiv Dixit on Google and Youtube to find wealth of Info.

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