Food plays a very important role in exciting the senses and passions. An aspirant should be very careful in the selection of articles of diet of Sattvic nature in the beginning of his Sadhana period. Later on drastic dietetic restrictions can be removed. Havis Annam, which is a mixture of boiled white rice and ghee, is very conducive to Yogic practices. When white rice is boiled with ghee, white sugar and milk, it is called Cheru. This is a wholesome combination suitable for Sadhakas (yoga practitioner).
Milk
Milk is a perfect food by itself, containing the different nutritive constituents, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, etc., in well-balanced proportions. It leaves very little residue in the bowels. This is an ideal food for Yogins during Pranayama practice. Fresh milk from a healthy cow, free from bovine tuberculosis, is preferable to scalded milk. Milk should be scalded or pasteurised but not boiled. The process of scalding is that the milk should be immediately removed from the fire, as soon as the boiling point is reached. Too much boiling destroys the vitamins, the mysterious nutritive principles and renders milk quite useless as an article of diet.
Fruit Diet
A fruit diet exercises a benign, soothing influence on the constitution and is very desirable diet for Yogins. This is a natural form of diet. Bananas, grapes, sweet oranges, apples, pomegranates are wholesome fruits. Bananas are very nutritious. Lemons possess anti-scorbutic properties and act as restoratives to blood. Fruit juice contains a form of nutritive principle, Vitamin C.
Mitahara
Take wholesome, Sattvic food half-stomachful; fill the quarter-stomachful with pure water; and allow the remaining quarter free for expansion of gas. This is Mitahara, the ideal food for Yogins. This is the ideal for all who want to preserve health. This is quite hygienic and is in harmony with the dietetic principles of modern medical science. This is Mitahara prescribed for Yogis.
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