Concept of Yogic Diet and Mental Health: A Literature Review on Scientific and Scriptural aspects

Abstract

Food is the essential thing indispensable for the subsistence of all living beings. Whether it’s human beings, animals, or vegetation, all need food for their overall growth. The primary purpose of food is to increase the duration of life, purify the mind, and avail bodily vigor. Food that promotes peace alters one’s mental state, allowing them to receive higher spiritual light and gives fullness of life, can be termed as ‘Yogic Diet.’ In Bhagwat Gita, Lord Krishna also explained to Arjuna that a vegan yogic diet is mandatory for nurturing the qualities of the mode of goodness conducive to spiritual life. Such people quickly attain spiritual upliftment and thereby get rid of their sin.

The modern lifestyle associated with a non-yogic diet brings suffering accompanied by physical and mental discomforts. A life controlled by the taste of the tongue is always full of pain and various fatal diseases. However, regular yoga practice and spirituality combined with the vegan yogic diet bring good health, mental peace, happiness, and bliss to life.

Various research shows that a healthy yogic diet is important not only for the physiology of the body but also for the significant positive effect on mental health.

There is a lot of debate about the benefits of various diets. This paper seeks to comprehend the concepts of yogic diet, mental health, and the relationship between the two. As a result, this paper provides a detailed logical discussion to justify the overall benefits of a yogic diet on mental health.