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Gunas of Food

Writer's picture: Jeff PerlmanJeff Perlman

Sattva, Rajas and Tamas


The Gunas of Food (qualities) are defined as Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. In yogic philosophy, the word "Guna" means thread, merit, quality, or attribute and relates to all matter and energy found in nature and states of consciousness and is defined as:

 


Sattva: lightness, balance, harmony, purity, well-being, goodness, and peace.

Rajas: heat, activity, passion, restlessness, turbulence, stress, and anger or confusion.

Tamas: heaviness, lethargy, dullness, ignorance, delusion, darkness, or destructiveness.

 

Our inherent constitutions have a proportion of each Guna. For instance, without Tamas, we would not sleep; without Rajas, we would lack dynamism and focus; without Sattva, life would be uninspired and without higher consciousness. 

 

Ayurveda also utilizes these attributes to understand the individual energetics of foods, spices, herbs, and beverages. When balanced, these foods benefit all digestion, absorption, and elimination processes, ensuring we do not create Ama (a byproduct), which can lead to disease.


Sattvic food purifies the body, calms the mind, and brings presence and higher consciousness. These foods include fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, grains, milk, dairy products, and spices like fresh ginger, fresh or dried turmeric, coriander, cardamom, and fennel. A sattvic diet includes preparing foods with love and full awareness and eating food within 6 hours of preparation before they lose their energy.

 

Rajasic food stimulates the body and mind into action, but in excess, it can cause restlessness, anger, irritability, and sleeplessness. These foods included overly spiced foods, onions, garlic, tea, coffee, fried foods, excessively sugary foods, chocolate, alcohol, and soft drinks. A Rajasic person might eat on the run, have poor digestion and health, and usually be aggressive and overflowing with energy.

 

Tamasic foods are dead foods, such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, stale food, frozen, reheated foods, overly sugary foods, oily and heavy foods, and foods that are processed or have preservatives. All of these substances do nothing to lift our energy and consciousness; in fact, they pull us down into a state of laziness, dullness, and carelessness. Living tamasically can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart and liver disease.

 

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