The mind consists of food; the breath consists of water; the voice consists of
heat.
Food is like fuel to the fire or heat in the body. When food is not eaten the mind
loses its strength and the fire in the body is extinguished. When water is not
drunk, Prana, which is the essence of water, passes out of the body.
About the mind that is influenced by the food being eaten is mentioned in another
place in the Chhandogya Upanishad: "In purity of food there is purity of mind; in
purity of mind there is established memory; in established memory there results
the release from all the knots of the heart." (VII. 26). "If one does not eat for ten
days, even though he might live, he becomes a non-seer, a non-hearer, a non-
thinker, a non-doer, a non-understander. Adore food!" (Chh. Up. VII.). This shows
to what extent the mind is influenced by the food, which is eaten. A person thinks
through the mental nature, which he consists of, and this nature is fed by food.
Hence, the food that is eaten should always be Sattvic, for "verily, this person
consists of the essence of food" (Taitt. Up. II. 1).
About foods:
Some of the essential foods are discussed below:
Protective Foods
These are foods, which supply both vitamins and mineral matter and so protect
the body from certain diseases.
The protective foods are milk, butter, cream, cheese, green vegetables eaten
raw, and yellow vegetables and fruits.
One pint of milk, one orange or tomato, one ounce of butter and raw salad will
provide enough protective foods for a person per day.
Cereals
Cereals form the staple food in nearly every human diet. In India rice, wheat or
millets form the bulk of the dietary. Cereals are not sources of carbohydrates.
They are moderate sources of vitamins. A predominantly cereal diet should have
addition of pluses. Cereals contain no vitamin C and no carotene.
Whole unrefined cereals are good sources of vitamin B complex. Whereas
refined cereals such as white flour and highly milled rice have lost much of
their vitamin content. This is because the vitamins are concentrated in the
outer layers of the whole grains, which are removed by machine milling. The only
cereal, which does not suffer appreciably when machine milled, is parboiled rice.
Parboiled rice is superior to other rices. Beriberi is closely associated with the