Eat Whole Foods

Published: Thu, 06/09/22


A few days ago, Tim and I received an email from Yoga Alliance in which they were advocating the importance of mental health 365 days a year. 

You can probably fill in the blanks in terms of Tim's 2-word response to the email.  And if you can't, his response was "no sh*t".

Well, in YA's defense, the point they were trying to make was that mental health should be relevant during the whole year as opposed to only during the month of May, the "official national mental health awareness month".

What however was highly disturbing about this email was the list of the top 10 tips that "could help boost your mental health".  We could go through the whole list and identify each one of them as useless at best, or detrimental at worst.  But that would take way too long and it would get way too technical.

For the sake of simplicity, Tim and I decided to only discuss the most scary of the tips, tip #7.  The tip was "eat whole foods".  That was literally the tip - eat whole foods.  No explanation, no examples, nothing else. 

The reason Tim and I believe that this tip is right down scary is because of how misleading it can be.  What most people think when they hear "eat whole foods", is that they should be eating foods like carrots, broccoli, nuts, seeds, leafy greens, raw salads, fruits, juices, smoothies, oats, lentils, and the list goes on.  In other words, wholesome foods, good for you and good for the environment.

Even though that list may sound wonderful to some of you, you may be surprised to hear that this is not what Ayurveda recommends for a healthy mind, or mental rejuvenation (medhya rasayana in Sanskrit).

In fact Ayurveda says that the sicker a person is the more cooked their food needs to be and the more animal fat and animal protein based it should be. 

And yes, mental health issues are a disease according to Ayurveda.  Ayurveda says it is not okay to not have a healthy balanced mind (mano vaha srotas in Sanskrit). 

Charaka (the original Ayurvedic physician) says that "mind affects body and vice versa. Hence any partial view can not lead to proper understanding and successful management of the problems".  He refers to it as deha-manasa.  Deha in Sanskrit means body and manasa means mind. 

This is why he focuses so much on proper nutrition.  Charaka's staple meal to fight disease is "meat soup".  Yes, think bone broth and meat stews.  Charaka says animal fat and protein are good for you and good for the environment!

But what about the highly promoted plant proteins, such as pea protein?  So many philanthropists, celebrity environmentalists and fake gurus (aka machiavellian narcissistic psychopaths) say how good for you and for the environment they are.  After all, you are not killing any animals.

When something sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.  Did you know that pea protein has high levels of heavy metal residue, especially the organic kind? 

The peas may be grown organically in North America but in order to make pea protein, you need to break apart the really tight molecule bonds between the protein and the carbohydrates. The only way to do this is through the use of a harsh chemical.  That chemical is so toxic that the wastewater it produces is illegal in Canada and the US.  So the producers have to send the peas to China.  China has no such environmental regulations so they are allowed to use these harsh chemicals in processing.  So after the contamination takes place in China the "organic ingredients" are sent back to North America for consumption in the form of healthy food.

Can you imagine the impact of this process to our world? Interestingly enough, in Spring of 2020 Beyond Meat signed a deal with Shuangta Foods in China.  Shuangta Foods would provide 85% of the pea protein for Beyond Burger products .

The moral of the story?

Continue to educate yourself.  Always do your homework, as in do your own research.  And most importantly, don't just blindly trust someone no matter how "yogic" they sound.  In fact, the more "yogic" someone sounds the further from the truth they probably are.

Speaking of education (and to bring some balance, in a world where prices seem to only go up_ Tim and I are offering one of our most popular courses at 50% discount.  This sale is only good until next week Wednesday (June 15).  So, if you or anyone you know wants to learn Ayurveda in its original form and in a non woo-woo way, take advantage of this!

Until next time...   Much much love from all of us!
Na’maste Kala! (Which in Greek means, may we all be well!)

-Tim and Vie | Ayurveda Outlaws
- Freyja | The Ayurvedic Puppy