PART 2 CHAPTERS 8 TO 11
DIET & LIFESTYLE FOR HEALTH AND HARMONY
CHAPER 8 GUIDELINES ON DIET & LIFESTYLE FOR HEALTH & HARMONY
8.8 PATHWAY TO HARMONY PART I - DIET
8.9 PATHWAY TO HARMONY PART II - LIFESTYLE
CHAPTER 9 FRUIT THE WONDER FOOD
CHAPTER 11 WHEAT GRASS & REJUVELC
CHAPTER 9
FRUITS - THE WONDER FOOD
And - How we harm ourselves by eating them wrongly
There are many arguments about whether man is herbivore (vegetarian), carnivore (meat-eater) or omnivore (one who can eat and digest both). In actual fact, there is mounting evidence to suggest that man was a fruitivore! It is possible to live only on a combination of fruits and nuts and never suffer any malnutrition - in fact we would probably live in the "pink" of health.
However, fruits as they are eaten at present by most of the world, can be positively harmful.
Most people eat fruits :
(a) after food,
(b) combined with milk for dessert,
(c) cooked or stewed or baked.
This is not right.
Fruit must be eaten on an empty stomach.
Fruit must never be combined with milk or grains.
Fruit must be had uncooked.
Why? This becomes clear when we understand how fruit is digested in the body.
After being chewed well in the mouth, fruit enters the stomach for a short period (15 to 20 minutes for most fruits, 1/2 hour for bananas,) and then proceeds to the intestines where it digests itself with its own enzymes. If it is eaten after a meal it sits on top of the food and ferments because it does not get a clear passage to go down to the intestines. Not only is the fruit rendered completely useless - it can become a cause of acidity, indigestion, gas, colic, constipation and other diseases.
For this same reason it must not be combined with any other foods. The other foods need to sit in the stomach for several hours for digestion.
Cooking the fruit destroys its self-digesting enzymes and it becomes a burden for the body.
In fact acidity, colic, indigestion, constipation can all be helped substantially by eating fruits atleast 1/2 hour before food. Chronic sufferers of these problems should abstain from having any cereal, bread, roti or paratha for breakfast - they must have only fresh fruits.
When "dying" of hunger, fruits are your best bet. They provide energy very quickly and efficiently without using up valuable energy reserves of the body (other foods use massive amounts of energy in the process of digestion).
"You sit in Meditation for ten minutes after the evening Bhajan session; so far so good. But, let me ask, when you rise after the ten minutes and move about, do you see everyone in a clearer light as endowed with Divinity? If not, Meditation is a waste of time. Do you love more, do you talk less, do you serve others more earnestly? These are the signs of success in Meditation. Your progress must be authenticated by your character and behaviour. Meditation must transmute your attitude towards beings and things, else it is a hoax. Even a boulder will, through the action of sun and rain, heat and cold, disintigrate into mud and become food for a tree. Even the hardest heart can be softened so that the Divine can sprout therein."
- Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
"Worship is not a uniform to be put on and off at stated hours of the day. Render every thought into a flower, worthy to be held in His Fingers; Render every deed into a fruit, full of the sweet juice of Love, fit to be placed in His Hand; render every tear holy and pure, fit to wash His Feet."
- Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
