Excerpts from article - Food, sleep etc. are the natural needs of all beings and if these are satisfied without over-ruling the law of nature, then seldom they generate any health hazard.  If we minutely observe the daily life of all other beings-excepting of course the human being – we will find that they never violate the law of nature and this perhaps is the secret of their health and contrary to this human being always requires health upkeep. Man, being the best creation because of his thinking faculty, misuses this faculty rather than using it properly, violates the law of nature and thereby becomes victim of several psycho-somatic disorders and therefore, human being often requires medical assistance for overcoming health problems. Modern society is the worst example in this regard – which has really misguided itself on the name of modern culture. All human values have lost their meaning and every person is striving to follow the unnatural modern lifestyle blindly and is unknowingly acquiring highly disastrous habits. One of such damaging habits is related to ‘ahara’ or ‘Food’. It is said that the personality of a man is created also out of the food he consumes-besides, many other factors. As we eat, so we develop our mind.

In this article an effort has been made to understand, analyze and simplify the concept of ahara according to Indian thought by identifying some of the fundamental questions with regard to ahara, so that even a common man could grasp this important concept easily. These questions are as under:-

1. What we understand by the term ahara?
2. Whether food is at the base of our existence, how?
3. When to eat?
4. How to eat?
5. How much to eat?
6. ‘What’ and ‘what not’ to eat?
7. Effect of food on our mind and thought process
8. Conclusion.

Indian Yogis have given a good scientific base for deciding when to eat? And even a common man can easily follow that. Whenever the body requires energy or also during the expenditure of energy, we can experience the dominance of our right nostril e.g., when we are angry, the right nostril becomes dominant and contrary to this, when we are calm and quiet, the left nostril becomes dominant. This works an indicator as to the requirement of energy. Thus, when our body really requires energy, automatically our right nostril becomes dominant. Therefore, it is said that ‘eat while right nostril is dominant’.

To read article in PDF format.