The food you eat can affect your mood and your mood can affect what you choose to eat. The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 17, Verses 8-10) shares how food influences our consciousness, moods, and mental health. The qualities (Gunas) of the food is categorized as Sattvic (pure/calm), Rajasic (agitated/passionate), and Tamasic (lethargic/dull). The core principle is “jaisa ann, waisa mann” (as is the food, so is the mind), emphasizing fresh, nutritious food to maintain a balanced, peaceful mind. 1. Sattvic Foods (Goodness & Peace): These foods promote longevity, strength, health, happiness, and satisfaction. They are juicy, smooth, substantial, and pleasing to the heart. - Examples: Fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, milk, and ghee. - Mood: Calm, clear, and peaceful. 2. Rajasic Foods (Passion & Agitation): These foods are excessively bitter, sour, salty, pungent, dry, and hot. They cause pain, grief, and disease. - Examples: Excessive spices, caffeine, strong tea, coffee, and highly processed or salty snacks. - Mood: Restless, agitated, and emotional. 3. Tamasic Foods (Ignorance & Lethargy): These foods are stale, tasteless, putrid, decomposed, or impure. They cause dullness and laziness. - Examples: Meat, fish, alcohol, leftovers, and heavily processed or fast food. - Mood: Lethargic, depressed, and confused. In addition to WHAT foods we eat, the HOW, WHERE, WHEN and WHY also affect our Food and Mind. - Mindful Eating: Eating with gratitude and without being in a rush, treating it as a spiritual act. - Offering Food (Prasadam): Offering gratitude and pray for the food, gifting it to the Divine first transforms it into prasadam, which purifies the consciousness. - Moderation: Neither overeating nor starving supports a balanced mind, which is essential for meditation and productivity. - Freshness: Eating freshly cooked food maintains prana (life force), while reheated, old food is considered to be dead or dumb.

In the January Ayurvedic Cooking class, I shared how our digestive energy (agni) is like a fire that needs tending with the goal of attaining Samagni (balanced fire). When our digestive energy is healthy, we digest, absorb and eliminate our food and nutrients with ease. We feel hungry naturally at meal time and satisfied in between. However, there can be times when our digestion feels off. Ayurveda has ways to identify this change in our Agni including 🐌 Mandagni - Low digestion | Food feels heavy in our belly, sluggish, nausea after eating, can have no or low appetite. 🔥 Tikshnagni - High digestion | Continuously feeling hungry even after a meal, hunger is strong and sharp, hangry feelings, acidity ↕️ Vishmagni - Variable digestion | Appetite comes and goes, often at wrong time of day. Again the goal is ⚖️ Samagni - balanced digestion | hunger comes naturally and at meal times, satisfied between meals, light and energized after meals. If you're looking for ways to find balance, watch the January 2026 Yoga and Ayurvedic Cooking classes in the Classroom. We share how Surya Namaskar activates the inner sun and how to prepare your Agni with herbs, teas and a pre-breakfast meal. Which Fire is in your belly most often?