Health is lost due to excessive,wrong or absence of behaviour !

Health is the condition in which the natural healing ability of the body and the mind is maintained. Aging is progressive deterioration of the ability to heal. Faster deterioration occurs due to a disease. It is due to excessive, wrong or absence of inputs and outputs.

Inputs must be according to the time of the day and the season because the weather may be hot, cold or rainy. One tends to justify a wrong action (Mithyachar) due to excessive, false or lack of perception. According to Charaka Samhita, ‘Health is impaired due to excess (Ati), wrong (Mithya) or absence (Anachara) of inputs from the combination of time, mind and senses’. Disease follows. Excess, false or lack of light (colour), sound, smell, taste or touch is the most common cause of a disease. 

A person with sedentary lifestyle performs more mental activities which develop stress. Exercise can take out the stress but he performs little physical activities. Many other persons avoid thinking with an open mind because it exercises the mind. Using the brain frequently slows down aging. 

Improper Food Habit

Everyone has to eat a wide variety of food and yet not overeat. But by habit, many persons consume same type of food on almost all days. Only the form of food and the type of cooking vary.  This means excess of some food items and less of others over weeks or months. Deficiency of fibre, antioxidants, iron, folic acid, vitamin C, calcium, riboflavin, vitamin A and trace minerals is common. A stressed person tends to overeat for satisfaction. The less a person eats, but in four times a day, the longer he lives. 

Food should be nutritious and tasty. When a person is satisfied with the food, he does not overeat. Input of energy should equal the output including the working of internal organs. Even for persons with sedentary habits, at least 40 per cent of input energy should be used for doing external work. The aged, the obese and those with sedentary habits should consume nutritious but low energy foods. 

Food is the best medicine. Supplements like vitamins and minerals are of doubtful value. This is because the body’s requirements may not match the formulation. Further, the body requires many unknown vitamins and minerals known as phytochemicals. Seasonal fruits and vegetables provide the vitamins and minerals. The body absorbs these better than from concentrated forms of tablets or liquids. A person has to take at least 20 and preferably 30 biologically different types of food every week. It is preferable that almost all types are from plants. Fat should come from whole foods such as nuts, seeds and beans than from liquid oils. Food should be tasty. Enjoying the food ensures adequate secretion of juices and chewing of food for proper digestion. Seventy-five per cent of the taste comes from smell. This becomes evident when a person suffering from cold does not enjoy the taste due to the blocked nose. A happy mood helps digestion. Hence is the saying, ‘The family that eats together stays together.’ 

Food must include fibres, fruits, anti-oxidants, vitamins and micro-nutrition. Apart from these, elderly persons require more protein to compensate for decrease due to aging. Food supplements which delay aging and herbal medicines are required for the aged. 

Body mass index (BMI) indicates the obesity or otherwise of a person. It is equal to the weight of a person divided by square of his height in metres. For a healthy adult the limit is 18.5 to 25. The average is 21 to 23. The gain in weight during the lifetime after the teens should be limited to 5 kilograms. Limiting the consumption of high energy density foods, such as fast foods, keeps body mass index within limits. Fat and water content determine the energy density of a food. Eating low energy density foods and drinking enough water every day help. An adult has to drink liquid of 1500 ml plus 15 ml per kilogram of weight in excess of 50 Kilograms. Soft drinks are rich in free sugar, give high instant energy and reduce appetite soon after. The limit of circumference of waist is 102 centimetres for man and 88 centimetres for woman. 

Persons with Body Mass Index more than 25 are obese. The strain of a person with excess weight is similar to a person carrying always a weight equal to the excess weight. So the obese person gets tired. He is slow to act. He feels hungry and thirsty more often. It is essential that he should neither overeat nor starve. Tasty and nutritious diet with high fibre content but low energy is essential. Drinking of water should not be less than the norm. 

According to Bhagavad Gita,‘A person with right input, enjoyment, effort, perception and dream (sleep) achieves Yoga. It removes unhappiness’.