Title : Natural route towards health.
Name : Dr. Rachana Raul.

You know that food is the primary cause of origin and life is impossible without food as food is the source of energy, growth and health.

Each and every person is worried about the diet he eats. Today, people are worried about the health factor but did you know that our great ancestors had already predicted as what a person should have depending upon the constitution. Apart from constitution even the seasons, appropriate time etc had to be taken into consideration for a healthy living.

In Ayurveda there is a note of three upstambhas means the three pillars of Ayurveda, one of which is ahaara or the diet. After the consumption of this wholesome diet it is transformed into prasada or the essence that plays an important role in providing nutrition to the body.

The unhealthy ahaara, plays an important role in the formation of the diseases. Thus nutrition or the science of ahaara is the knowledge of the nutrients and other substances, their action interaction and balance in relationship to health and disease.

Ayurvedic ahaara depends on the six different tastes and these tastes are adherent to the substance they are contained in. The substances in turn are adherent according to their specific tastes and virtues, potencies, chemical reaction on the body. By their properties they either tend to increase or decrease the doshas.

Generally the food is classified according to their sources like vegetable source and animal products. Depending upon their state, Ayurveda has classified food as drinks, eatables, chewables and lickables. The other classification is chusya (chewables like sugarcane), peya (drinks like milk etc), lehya (lickables like honey), bhojya (partially masticable like rice), and bhaksya as sweets, charvya (masticable as dried grams)

Again various food items have been classified according to classes like Suka Dhanya varga (Cereals), Shami Dhanya varga (Pulses), Mansa varga (meat group), Saka varga (vegetables), Phala-varga (fruits), Iksu varga (sugar cane and products), madhu (honey), gorasa varga (milk and its products), Dadhi varga (curds), Takra varga (butter milk) and many other groups.

Ayurveda also specifies on some principles that are called, as the principles of dietetics like how should one consume food and what are the factors to determine the utility of the ahaara. Some mutually contraindicated diets like fish and milk or fruits and milk have been said.

Some dietary rules that are to be followed whilst eating have been specified. For example to start eating the food by a substance of sweet taste and also specifying post parandial regulations.

Thus anna the great entity and the very fact of life have been given great importance in the Ayurvedic literature.