Food Items

QUESTION: Hello
You seem to suggest in your earlier mails that only consuming wheat is conducive for celibacy or general health.
Is this true, and also is consuming rice or other grains (instead of wheat) less favourable for general health and a life of celibacy in general?

ANSWER: Wheat is a good food source that is adequate with desirable amounts of protein, complex carbohydrates, small amount of fats and other vitamins and minerals necessary for health. Within the cereal group, wheat contains more protein than rice or corn. Wheat has fibre, which is lacking in rice. The mineral content is higher in wheat.

Unpolished rice is health giving and nutritive. Rice which is very less polished has a high content of beneficial vitamins and nutrients. But rice loses some nutrients due to milling as compared to hand pounding. The rice available commercially is highly milled and polished to give a bright color and taste. This makes total dependence on commercially available rice less beneficial to the pure Vegetarian Yogi who does not take recourse to meat. In modern, urban populations subsisting purely on rice for food, health complications arising from nutritional deficiencies are higher in number, especially as one gets close to mid life.

Keeping these facts, wheat and its products have been advocated by Yogi's as the ideal Sathwic food from time immemorial. Wheat can be eaten in combination with rice by mixing broken wheat flakes with rice and making a kind of a porridge. But merely depending on rice as a staple food has its drawbacks for the pure vegetarian. A pure vegetarian needs to supplement his food with legumes, lentils, pulses, fresh fruits and vegetables along with dairy products if he wants complete nutritional benefit without any deficiency. A combination of wheat and rice is beneficial. With populations not eating rice, wheat or corn is generally preferred.

The consumption of rice is not an impediment to Brahmacharya, but mere consumption of polished rice that is commercially available in the markets will lead to food deficiency and ill-health in the long run for sure. This cannot be made into a staple food. For this reason, a Yogi who has given up non-vegetarian food would do well to include a diet based on wheat products.

If unpolished red rice is eaten, it gives similar benefits as wheat. But this form of rice is not available in the market further to its lack of taste as compared to polished rice. On a person merely subsisting on rice, large quantities of polished rice have to be eaten to fill the stomach and sustain hunger and this causes bloating and carbohydrate retention within the system that turns into fat. One becomes prone to deficiency through mere consumption of polished rice as the staple diet. With wheat, this problem is checked to a better extent. A man can subsist on 3-4 rotis/chapathis for lunch and yet not feel very hungry the rest of the day.

The consumption of any grain such as corn, ragi, wheat or rice does not come in the way of Brahmacharya. One can eat that which one is used to. The consumption of wheat has been recommended as it is more universal, nutritive and hunger sating than rice for the pure vegetarian. Hence a rice eater would benefit better by including a few rotis/chapathis into his diet and proportionally reducing on rice.

ॐ तत् सत्
(That Supreme being is the absolute truth)

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QUESTION: Thanks for the reply, which explains the topic very well.
So you say that for some one who is used to consume rice since his child hood, if we consumes redrice/hand pounded rice or unpolished rice that is also ok.
The other question is even with wheat based breads and flours now a days, commercial profit based processing has crept in, which is creating similar problems, even for wheat consumers. The impact may be less on wheat but still it is there upto some extent.
The other impact of fertilizer based and genetically engineered foods is also to be taken into consideration as a whole now a days.
Do you have any suggestion to counter this problems?