Healthy and Unhealthy Foods in Ayurveda

Back in ancient history, Agnivesh asked Lord Aaterya – what is the best way to know which food is healthy and unhealthy? How quantity, land, time, body condition matters to make an ingredient healthy? Lord Aaterya said, “food that normalizes our body, helps to preserve metals in original form, destroys bad metals and ingredients present inside our body is healthy food and would be considered as pure.” He continued that people may not understand this description and they need to know healthy and unhealthy food ingredients and how to eat them.

Healthy Foods

• Red/Brown Rice 
• Mung bean (Vigna radiata)
• Untouched (pure) rainwater 
• Rock salt
• Jivanti or Jiwanti (Leptadenia Reticulata)
• Spinach leaf 
• Quail 
• Iguana meat
• Rohu fish (roho labeo or Labeo rohita)
• Sesame oil
• Cow’s milk
• Clarified butter (Ghee)
• Boar’s fat
• Chicken flesh, Goat fat
• Ginger 
• Raisins 
• Sugarcane Jaggery is the best available healthy foods in this world.

Unhealthy Foods

• Black gram (white lentils, Urad)
• River’s water during the rainy season
• Mustard spinach
• Cow’s meat 
• Pigeon
• Frog
• Milk and Clarified butter of a sheep,
• Kusum (Schleichera oleosa) oil
• Buffalo fat & grease
• Water Crow
• Elephant meat and fat
• Potato
• Thickened Sugarcane 

Potato is just a ball of sugar once it is processed inside our body and unbalances the system because of its glycaemic index. This can lead to obesity, diabetes and heart diseases.

Excerpts from ‘Charak Sanhita’ Book