Combine Yoga and Diet for a Healthy Lifestyle

Yoga is a �healthy life style for spiritual upliftment�. If you plan to practice yoga as a science, you should take it all the way and adhere to its theories and methodology. Yoga supports a vegetarian diet, teaching that what you eat has a direct bearing on the mind,personality and behavior. The principles of Yoga come directly from Mother Nature. The closer you are to nature the healthier you will be and, conversely, if you live your life away from nature, you will be more sick and unhealthy.

A Vegetarian Diet and Non-Violence
One of the first mantras of Yoga is �Yama�, which means �restrain and �Ahinsa� for �non-violence�. Non-violence encompasses non-hurting, non-killing and non-injury. The quality of non-violence is to control the intellectual power that we, as man, hold over the other creatures on earth. The practice of Yoga is meant to control man so he cannot use his power on other creatures. It comes down to one clear message: that we are to rely on naturally grown products or products grown by man to supply our needs.

Proponents of Yoga even argue the cutting of vegetables, fruits or other plants is an act of violence. Staunch believers think that you only have the right to cut fruits, vegetables that you have planted and nurtured with your own hands. Since you gave it life, you have the right to pick from those plants.

Physical Positives of a Vegetarian Diet
Yoga practitioners do believe in the scientific benefits of eating vegetarian as well as the spiritual benefits. They know that the proteins in a vegetarian diet and dairy products are easier to digest than protein from animal sources. A true vegetarian diet takes about 4 hours to digest, while non-vegetarian diets can take over 6 hours to digest.

Comparing man to the Animals
By observing nature, the Yogis discussed and decided that milk is the first food eaten by every man and animal. It is the most natural form of food. It is produced by the body and used to nourish the body. Therefore, the Yogis concluded that all natural dairy foods are allowed in the Yoga diet. At first there was some question about using milk from animals, but these animals are domesticated and survive like a true Yoga practitioner, on grains and plant material.

Animals such as horses and donkeys, and even elephants are considered to be domestic animals in that their strength is useful they and provide a service to man. However, wild animals like lions and tigers are considered violent because they attack and kill for food.

The Yogis believe that this proves that among animals, those animals that eat natural vegetable food are calmer, more useful, and stronger. The wild animals always display anger, and are often restless and irritated. Though they are strong, it is squandered while trying to satisfy their needs.

What is a Good Yoga Diet?
If you practice Yoga, you should complement those ideals with the right kind of food to get the full benefit of all of the principles.Eat well-balanced foods and always eat small meals. The Yoga diet is not meant to be for weight loss, but it its conceivable that you will lose weight by eating healthy foods. The Yoga diet defines different types of foods by the spiritual qualities:

Gunas exist together in equilibrium.
Sattvic food is for purity
Rjastic food represents activity, passion, and change
Tamastic food symbolizes darkness and inertia. There are no good Tamastic foods.

While these terms make a Yoga diet seem complicated, it is not.Understanding the symbolism assigned to certain foods is not necessary for you to take on a good vegetarian diet. Completely changing to a vegetarian diet can�t be done overnight, either. Transition slowly to the diet and you will have more success.