21 Satvic Food Laws

21 Satvic Food Laws

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21 Satvic Food Laws

21 Satvic Food Laws
Here are 21 food laws you must follow. All recipes given in this book have been carefully created to adhere to these laws. Please follow every single law religiously to receive the true benefit of the Satvic lifestyle.

Law 1

  • No Animal Based Foods: such as meat, fish, eggs, animal milk*, cheese, butter, ghee, paneer
  • Eat Plant Based Foods: such as fresh homemade coconut milk, almond milk

Law 2

  • No Dead Foods: Don’t eat anything that comes packaged, bottled, tinned or canned from a factory, such as chips, namkeens, snacks, vinegar, soya sauce, ready-made sauces or dressings
  • Eat Fresh Foods: Eat foods that come straight from the farm to the kitchen, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds.

Law 3

  • No Sugar: such as white sugar, brown sugar, sugar-syrups, khaand, maple syrup, agave
  • Use Natural Sweeteners: such as fresh fruits, dates, jaggery, figs, raisins

Law 4

  • No White Rice
  • Eat Brown Rice

Law 5

  • No oils: Olive oil, mustard oil, coconut oil, palm oil, refined oil, flaxseed oil, etc.
  • Use Whole Fats: Grated fresh coconut, soaked nuts and seeds

Law 6

  • No Refined Flours: such as white flour, maida, semolina (sooji), etc
  • Use Whole Flours: whole wheat flour (with chokar)

Law 7

  • No Red Chili or Red Chili Powder
  • Use Fresh Green Chili or Black Pepper in limited amounts

Law 8

  • No Strong Spices: such as garam masala, asafoetida (heeng), black salt (kala namak), too much ginger, too much salt
  • Use Fresh Herbs: such as tulsi, curry leaves, coriander, basil, lemongrass, oregano, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf.
    Some mild spices such as cardamom, cinnamon and cumin seeds can be used in moderation

Law 9

  • No Iodised Salt
  • Use Rock Salt (Sendha Namak) in limited amounts

Law 10

  • No Excessive Cooking: Nothing should be cooked too much or for too long, so as to destroy the natural composition of that food.
    Frying and over-cooking is strictly prohibited.
  • Minimal Cooking
    Eat most of your food raw. If needed, cook only minimally, for the shortest duration possible

    • Vegetables & grains can be cooked
    • Fruits should not be cooked (no cooking tomato, coconut or coconut milk)
    • Sprouts should not be cooked
    • Steaming is better than boiling. It preserves more nutrition

Law 11

  • No Metal Pots & Pans for cooking
  • Use only Clay Pots & Pans for cooking

Law 12

  • Don’t Eat Much Grain: Wheat, rice, lentils, quinoa, millets all come under the umbrella of grains. A satvic dish should not have too many grains, as they are difficult to digest.
  • Eat Less Grain, More Vegetables: Maintain a 70-30 ratio between vegetables & grains. If your dish has 30% grains, combine it with at least 70% vegetables.
    If eating one composite chapati (pg 73), eat with 2 bowls of Satvic sabzi. If eating 2 composite chapatis, eat with 4 bowls of Satvic sabzi. If eating 1 bowl of brown rice, eat with 3 bowls of vegetables.

Law 13

Do Not Mix Multiple Grains in the Same Dish
It is difficult enough for our body to digest one type of grain at a time. If we mix two or more grains together, it becomes even more difficult. So –

  • No rice with chapati
  • No daal with rice
  • No daal with chapati
  • No multi-grain flour

Eat Only One Type of Grain at a Time
If eating grains, eat with a sufficiency of vegetables, without mixing with another grain.

  • Brown Rice with sabzi
  • Composite chapati with sabzi
  • Quinoa with vegetables

Law 14

  • No Unseasonal or Exotic Foods: Do not use ingredients that are out of season or are not locally grown in your country, as they tend to contain more chemicals to extend their shelf life.
    Ingredients such as blueberries, kale, swiss chard, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts are not local to India, so don’t bother using them.
  • Eat Foods that are Seasonal & Local: Eat foods that are local to your country and are in season. Seasonal fruits and vegetables tend to be cheaper in price.

Law 15

  • Do Not Use Unsoaked Nuts: Don’t use or eat any nuts before soaking them in water.
  • Use Soaked Nuts: Always soak nuts for 6-8 hours before using. Before being soaked, nuts are in their dormant state Adding water brings them to life and makes them digestible.

Law 16

  • Do Not Eat Too Many Nuts & Seeds: Similar to grains, nuts & seeds and are difficult to digest and therefore, should be only consumed sparingly. If using nuts in a salad dressing, use only the minimum amount required, for the sake of texture.
  • Consume Nuts & Seeds Sparingly: If you are trying to cure a disease, it is best to avoid them altogether. Once you are cured, you may have them sparingly (about 5-7 a day). Bear in mind, we have already added them to our salads and salad dressing recipes. If you are eating those, no need to consume nuts/seeds separately.

Law 17

  • Coconut Milk is superior to almond milk, cashew milk & other nut milks, because coconut is easier to digest than other nuts. So, always prefer fresh homemade coconut milk over other nut milks.

Law 18

  • No Soy Milk, No Tofu: Soya is very difficult to digest. It is an inferior quality of grain.

Law 19

  • Coconut & Tomato Should Not Be Cooked Directly on Flame: If adding fresh coconut, coconut milk or tomato in a recipe, add it towards the end, AFTER switching off the stove. You can let the coconut and tomato warm from the steam inside the pot, but never cook them directly on flame.

This also means that after adding coconut, coconut milk or tomato to a dish, it should not be re-heated.

Law 20

  • In cooked recipes, add salt and lemon towards the end, not beginning. Salt and lemon should not be cooked on flame.

Law 21

  • Do not add grains (such as wheat, rice, millet, lentil) to a salad or soup. Salads and soups should be grain-free, unless they are being eaten as a grain meal.

Understanding Digestion

Essential to the maintenance of physical, mental and emotional health is the timely elimination of toxins that either enter the body or are created by it. Everything in nature follows a specific order & timing. For example, the moon and the sun have regular cycles twelve months of the year; the four seasons are constant & prompt; seeds must sprout before they become plants; fruit trees must blossom before they bear the immature and then the ripened fruit. Our body is a part of nature. Just like nature, our bodies too follow a specific order & timing. The correctness of this order & timing determines our health.

YOU, YOUR WASHING MACHINE & CYCLES
Imagine you are a washing machine. And this washing machine has three mini-cycles, within each complete cycle:

  • Fill and wash
  • Rinse
  • Spin

Similarly, the following mini-cycles are a part of your body’s functioning:

  • Digestion
  • Assimilation
  • Elimination

Let’s take a look at what happens in a washing machine in regards to these mini-cycles:

  • If you allow the washing machine to complete three mini-cycles, your clothes will be bright, clean and fresh.
  • If you stop the washing machine just before the spin, the clothes remain soaking wet. When they dry, they remain somewhat dirty from the retained water.
  • If you stop the washing machine after it finishes the wash cycle, the clothes remain full of detergent and dirt.

Therefore:

  • If you skip one or more of the mini-cycles, your clothes will be less clean than you expect. You can blame this deficiency on your washing machine, but of course you are responsible.

What does this have to do with the cycles of digestion, absorption and elimination? Every time you eat a meal, a significant portion of your body’s energy shifts from whatever it was doing, to digesting the food that has entered your stomach. When your body finishes digesting the food, it shifts its energy to absorption. Having completed that, the body’s energy proceeds to eliminate waste. All of this works wonderfully unless you eat before the body has finished absorbing or eliminating your most recent meal. When you eat before the most recent meal has been “processed” completely, the body shifts its energy to address the new food. The residue of the most recent meal is then left at the mercy of bacteria, yeast, mold, etc., and the result is the unnecessary production of waste, or, toxins in the body.

Most of us constantly consume before it is time to nourish. Following are the most frequent responses to the question, “When do you decide to eat?”

  • “The clock indicates that it is time to eat.”
  • “I’m bored and have nothing else to do.”
  • “Every time I see or smell food.”

None of these rationalizations justify the eating of excessive food. One should eat when he/she feels true hunger, after the last meal has been digested, absorbed and eliminated.

When you eat a new meal while your body is still assimilating or eliminating the previous meal, you stress and compromise your body unduly, because it is aware that it has not finished its task from the last meal yet has another job requiring immediate commencement. So, the body deals with both meals incompletely, thus generating both excess stress and unnecessary waste.

Most people (in so-called “advanced societies”) have pounds of undigested waste stored in their bodies. If you would simply stop eating, the body would be able to finish the work that it began.

Fortunately, the body is very efficient and resilient. It has a powerful will to live. It has an incredible reserve of vital force to maintain relatively good health even when you impede it from fulfilling its natural functions. It usually takes years of abuse to render the human t body incapable of rectifying the unhealthy habits that have been imposed upon it.

USING THIS MODEL IN YOUR LIFE
You can apply the cited model to the emotional, mental and spiritual challenges you face. Many gifted people have recognized that healing occurs in a void (the absence of everything). You must leave enough space between events to prevent the second event from running into, over, around or through the first event. Finish processing the first before you commence the next – don’t leave unfinished responsibilities to commence new ones. This is a critical lesson that we must learn from life, and when we heed it, we reap bountiful rewards.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED
What can you do to help your body follow the right eating pattern?

Follow Intermittent Fasting (also called 16 hour fasting) when you eat within a span of 8 hours, and fast for 16 hours every night. This would give your digestive system not only adequate time to finish the cycles, but also adequate time to heal thereafter.

For example, if you eat your dinner at 8pm, eat no solid food till 12 noon the next day. At 12 noon, have your first solid meal of food. If you eat dinner at 6pm, eat no solid food till 10 am the next morning. Water and juices (such as coconut water, ash gourd juice) is allowed in your fasting cycle.

When you do intermittent fasting, your body will digest & absorb food within 5-6 hours (depending on the quality of your food). Once digestion is complete, what does it start doing? It starts healing. In the healing state, it rebuilds old tissue, burns fat cells, fades away old scars and cures your disease.

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