Seaweed is the best source of iodine. Traces of iodine are found in cereals, leafy
vegetables and milk.
Oats are extremely nutritious. Barley is rich in mineral matter. It is very Sattvic.
Barley bread is whole meal and beneficial.
Almonds, bran, endive, figs, dry hazel-nuts, dandelion greens, lentils, molasses,
mustard green, olives, spinach, turnip tops, soya been, Amaranth, fenugreek
leaves, garden cress, gingerly seeds, tamarind, are rich in both calcium and iron.
Milk
Milk is as nearly a complete food as exists in nature. Milk should be fresh. It can
be taken raw if it is drawn from a healthy animal. Milk can be taken with mango
fruit with great advantage. All-important nutrients are well represented in milk,
except iron, nicotinic acid and ascorbic acid.
Children should have sufficient quantity of milk and butter in their diet. Milk
contains the very important calcium salts, which are necessary for bone building.
Butter contains vitamin D, which is necessary for the assimilation of calcium.
Butter and ghee are composed of milk fat and have high vitamin A content.
Vitamin A of ghee is largely destroyed when it is used as a frying medium.
Curd is a very good article of diet. Whey or buttermilk (lassi) is a cooling and
nutritious drink. Milk is generally the outstanding source in a diet of calcium and
Riboflavin. Pasteurized milk is useless.
DIFFEENT QUALITIES OF FOOD
Food is of great importance to Hindus and Hinduism classifies food into certain
categories, ranging from foods which can help to purify oneself to foods which
cause disease and suffering. Heres a brief analysis of the different types of
foods that exist: There are three types of food: Tamasic (in the mode of
ignorance), Rajasic (in the mode of passion) and Sattvic (in the mode of
goodness).
IfThe Bhagavad Gita describes the sattvic diet as promoting life, virtue, strength,
health, happiness and satisfaction. Sattvic foods are savory, smooth, firm and
pleasant to the stomach. By contrast, the Gita describes the rajasic diet as
excessively pungent, sour, salty, hot, harsh, astringent and burnt, leading to
pain, misery and sickness. The tamasic foods are described as stale,
tasteless, smelly, left-over, rotten and foul (BG 17:8-10).