Food That Brings No Disease

Your Health is in Your Hands - 3

Dr. Manthena Satyanarayana Raju

https://www.manthena.org

Rajarshi....!

Among the precious sons bestowed by Nature, he is the most blessed. A Rajarshi (A king elevated to the stature of a sage) who offers a daily oblation to the philosophy of Nature itself. Like a sage walking beside us, he is the fragrant jewel that spreads the perfume of human evolution, blossoming under Nature’s grace. He is the gardener who tends to the way of natural living, sowing its seeds and nurturing it with care.

Under his guidance, the “Natural Way of Life” is growing as Nature’s beloved child on the banks of the Krishna River. He is the chief architect of the Ashram, envisioned so that all people may follow Nature’s laws and live in good health under the watchful gaze of Goddess Kanaka Durga of Vijayawada.

With affection and reverence, I dedicate this garland of books, Your Health is in Your Hands, to the virtuous couple — our spiritual companions, pure-hearted and gracious — Sri Gokaraju Gangaraju and Smt. Laila Gangaraju.

Your loving well-wisher

Manthena Satyanarayana Raju

What You Will Learn in This Book

1. The Miserable Condition of Our Bodies Today

2. What Food Was This Body Born to Eat?

3. What Should We Eat to Feel Light and Comfortable?

4. What Happens When We Cook Food?

5. Is Uncooked Food Harmful to the Body?

6. What Is Our Complete Food?

7. The Method of Sprouting Seeds

8. Who Should Eat Which Seeds, and How Much?

9. What Kind of Coconut Should We Eat?

10. Which Fruits Should Be Eaten, and by Whom and When?

11. When and How Should Fruit Juices Be Consumed?

12. How Should Raw Vegetables Be Used?

13. What Should Be Given to Your Children?

14. Benefits of a Natural Diet

15. Shall We Eat Like This?

1. The Miserable Condition of Our Bodies Today

From the time human civilization began to advance, our bodies have steadily declined toward disease. Medical systems may appear to progress outwardly, but the health we all long for still remains distant and unreachable.

Looking at today’s health situation — regardless of age, profession, gender, education, wealth, or status… whether laborers, employees, educated or uneducated, doctors or actors — everyone is suffering from some illness or the other.

Even small children are losing eyesight. Regardless of age, joints are wearing out. Women have ovaries but proper ovulation is not happening. Men produce semen but the number of healthy sperm cells is falling. The thyroid gland cannot produce thyroid hormones. The pancreas fails to produce insulin, causing diabetes even at young ages. Just as hot summers arrive naturally every year, high BP is arriving naturally for everyone. Before marriage there is grey hair; before having children there is baldness. Added to that are muscle weakness and nerve-related problems.

With such bodies, people struggle to function normally and keep their bodies going.

For example: One pill to digest the food, another pill to make the digested food leave as bowel movement, another pill to release gas, and then more tablets for strength, for bones, for blood, for acidity, for pain, for sleep… endlessly swallowing medicines as if they were food.

How long can this go on? Think! Think deeply!

Do you want to spend your whole life with such a broken body?

Is living like this comfortable for you?

Is your condition giving comfort to anyone else?

If not, then what is the meaning of such a body?

What is the meaning of this life?

Every one of us wishes to live happily. That is why we ask each other, “Are you doing well?” Behind that question lies the real intent: Are you healthy and happy?

That is what everyone wants — health and happiness.

That is our common goal.

That is why we utter it even before greeting one another.

But whenever someone asks us, we simply say, “I’m fine!”. Even though we know within ourselves that we are not fine, our tongue has become used to lying.

How long will we continue to deceive ourselves?

If our car gets frequent repairs or causes trouble on the road, we either get it fully repaired or buy a new one. We cannot tolerate discomfort while travelling. We remove every obstacle to our comfort.

But when the vehicle that carries the soul — this body — breaks down, why don’t we try to remove the obstacles and bring it back into good condition? Will comfort not return if we try? Will this body not become good again?

If you truly decide, why not? This body is always ready to heal — it just needs you to give it a chance.

This body is born with the ability to rebuild itself, to become new again. It has its own automatic repair mechanism. If you listen to it and give it what it needs, that is enough.

All these years, the body listened to you and worked as you commanded. But now, because repairs are needed, you must listen to what the body says.

Do you understand this truth?

When a car is in good condition, it listens to us. But once it breaks down, we must listen to what the car demands.

It is the same with our body.

If we understood this earlier, all of us would have been healthy long ago. But it is not too late.

Let us admit our mistakes, seek forgiveness from our body, and promise never to repeat those mistakes again. Let us behave as the body wants, as it needs.

Is that acceptable?

If you fail to nourish a plant, its leaves wilt, branches dry up, and the plant becomes lifeless. But if you loosen the soil, remove weeds, add manure, and give it water, the same plant comes alive again — fresh leaves sprout, the plant stands tall and green, as if it has taken a new birth.

If even dried trees can bloom again with proper nourishment, why won’t the human body? Why won’t it heal? Why can it not be reborn into health again?

If you truly desire it, it absolutely can.

To regain health, give your body what it needs. As long as you live, learn to live in the way your body asks. Learn to give and take — that is true respect. Until then, disease will not leave your side.

If you want your body to take a good path starting today, you must first understand what this body is designed to eat and begin feeding it accordingly from this very moment.

2. What Food Was This Body Born to Eat?

If someone asks, “Did milk come first, or did the baby who drinks the milk come first?”, everyone gives the same answer: Milk forms in the mother’s breasts first, and only then is the baby born to drink it.

In the same way, Mother Nature first created food, and only later created the living beings who would eat that food.

This means that the food meant for us was created even before we were born — waiting for us, ready to nourish us.

After we are born, our first duty is to understand what food nature has prepared for us, and to eat only that.

To understand this, you don’t need education, intelligence, or philosophy. Except human beings, all other creatures are “uneducated”. Yet every creature knows exactly what its food is and where to find it. It searches for that food and eats only that.

For example: A tiger is born to eat meat. No matter which country it lives in, it never touches anything other than meat.

A cow is born to eat grass. If grass is not available, it will die of hunger — but it will never ask for meat, nor will it eat meat even if offered.

Every species, anywhere in the world, eats the same prescribed natural food. That is why they are protected by “the law of their body”.

“Protect dharma, and dharma will protect you.”

Because animals eat strictly according to their body’s natural design, their bodies protect them in return. They enjoy good health throughout life. From the moment an animal begins to eat its natural food until its last breath, it eats only that food. Therefore, it receives: a healthy body, a comfortable life, and an easy, peaceful death.

Among humans, such harmony is seen only among sages.

But if we also begin to eat the natural food meant for our species, then even today, even in this Kali Yuga, we can attain perfect health and full lifespan.

Long ago, humans too ate only natural food and fully met the body’s requirements. Food is the bridge between this body and nature. If we eat food as it is found in nature, a beautiful bond forms between our body and nature.

The food created by nature is cooked every day in the presence of sunlight — ripened to the exact state in which our body can digest it. By the time it reaches us, it is already converted into the form that nature intended for our body.

Just as a farmer waters the field and the crops grow ready for harvest, nature too prepares everything our body needs in food before we even touch it.

We were born to eat this ready-made, energizing food with these blessed hands. But… these hands have missed that fortune.

From the day man discovered fire, from the day cooking began — trouble began.

From that day, the food the body needed stopped reaching it, and the food the tongue desired began entering the body.

If rice, curries, biryanis, pickles, and sweets grew directly on trees in this natural world, they would suit this body perfectly and we would have enjoyed radiant health.

But this is not nature’s food.

The body is made by the five elements. Therefore, only food made by the five elements — natural food — is proper fuel for it.

The food man has invented through his cleverness — processed, cooked, fried, baked, flavored — is distorted food, and it is this distortion that has brought suffering to the human body.

Such man-made food may suit other creations of man, like robots, but it will never be right for a human body created from the five elements of nature.

3. What Should We Eat to Feel Light and Comfortable?

Every person wishes to feel comfortable and at ease throughout the day. But only a few truly experience that comfort and make their life meaningful. Most people keep searching for that comfort somewhere outside, never realizing that the real comfort is within us.

To experience that inner ease, we must understand one simple truth: We and our body are not the same. We are merely travelers seated inside this vehicle called the body, journeying through life.

No matter how expensive or luxurious a car we buy, the comfort belongs to the passengers, not to the car itself. If the car develops a fault and needs repairs, the car feels no pain — the trouble is borne only by those traveling in it.

Likewise, as long as this bodily vehicle functions well, the one sitting inside — we — will always feel comfortable. But the moment the body experiences even a small discomfort, it cannot give us comfort; instead, it passes that discomfort directly to us.

The body only reflects back what we give it. If we give it the food it is designed for, it will never rob us of our sense of ease.

For example, when we eat fruits and raw vegetables, we continue to feel light and pleasant even after eating. The body feels relaxed and calm, because the stomach was created to digest exactly this type of food. Such food never disturbs the natural ease of the body.

When the stomach remains comfortable, the whole body stays comfortable. And when the body is comfortable, we feel comfortable.

But if any single part of the body suffers, the whole system becomes disturbed — just as a small injury to one family member disturbs the entire household, or even one loose nut in a vehicle disrupts the functioning of the whole car.

Every organ and every cell in the body was created exclusively to process natural, uncooked foods — fruits and raw vegetables.

When we give the body this natural food, it digests it completely within 1–2 hours and immediately sends the nourishment to all the cells.

When the cells receive what they need, they rejoice, absorbing it with delight — and soon they ask for it again. That is why after eating natural food we become hungry again within two hours.

That hunger is true comfort. It is the body’s way of saying, “Whatever you gave me is fully used. I want more.”

But when we fill the stomach with heavy, cooked foods like idli, dosa, puri and other such items, the stomach cannot grind them easily. It struggles like a machine overloaded with strain, silently suffering and managing the digestion somehow.

As soon as the stomach loses its comfort, our comfort disappears too.

We can never feel as light and peaceful after eating such foods as we felt before eating them. That is why after these items we feel heavy, sleepy, lazy, and regretful — as if we wonder why we ate in the first place.

Those foods have only one purpose: to please the tongue — nothing more.

They take 4–5 hours just to digest, and the cells take even longer to extract any usable essence from them. That is why hunger disappears for many hours after these cooked foods.

Our elders knew that cooked food makes us lose our natural ease. That is why in olden days, on auspicious occasions and festival days, there were rules discouraging cooked meals — at least on those days, they wanted us to feel light and relaxed. They advised drinking coconut water, fruit juices, and eating fruits to keep the body peaceful on such special days.

Therefore, if we want our life to be meaningful, if we want to stay comfortable all 24 hours, there is only one rule: Eat only the food your body was born to eat.

When we do that, every cell and every organ performs its duty without resistance. When each part performs its duty, where can discomfort come from?

Everything becomes ease. Everything becomes peace. All 24 hours.

4. What Happens When We Cook Food?

Our physical body is made from the food we consume. The different nutrients in food build and maintain our organs. As we use our body every day, these nutrients are continually spent. If each day we replenish exactly what is lost, our organs remain strong and function effortlessly.

Just as we refill oil, water, air and engine oil in a car as they get used up, we must refill our body daily with the nutrients it has spent. If deficiencies arise in the body, it means the food we are providing is itself deficient.

And what is that daily food we keep providing? Cooked food.

In all of nature — except for humans — no living creature cooks its food, no creature alters the natural state of its food before eating it. Which is why the eyes, legs, muscles, nerves and organs of animals function perfectly throughout their lifespan.

The natural food they eat meets all their daily nutritional needs in perfect proportion and form. Natural food contains all nutrients in the exact state that the human body can easily absorb. It is designed with perfect balance, ripened naturally under sunlight, made ready for our consumption in its pure form.

But with increasing “civilization”, for convenience and to satisfy taste, humans began cooking food. That convenience, however, is only for the mouth and tongue. These two parts may enjoy the taste, but the rest of the body silently suffers the consequences.

Fire’s nature is to burn, destroy, reduce to ash. When we offer our nourishing food to fire, what remains in it for our body to benefit from?

What exactly gets destroyed during cooking?

- Enzymes are completely lost.

- Vitamins are reduced by nearly three-quarters.

- Life-force and natural vitality evaporate.

- Easily digestible forms of nutrients are ruined.

- Proteins and fats get denatured and become heavy burdens to digest.

- Disease-resisting power in the food is lost, turning the same food into something that increases disease.

Knowing all this, we still eat cooked food 3–4 times a day and hope to live a healthy, “positive” life. But cooked food is negative food. Uncooked, natural food is positive food. Our health rises or falls based entirely on the food we choose. To understand how much nutrition cooking destroys, consider this example:

If you sun-dry groceries for two days, they remain fresh for an entire year. But if, instead of drying them in the sun, you lightly roast them at just 60–70°C they spoil within 10–15 days.

Farmers sun-dry seeds before sowing. If those same seeds are heated to 60–70°C instead of sun-drying, not a single seed will sprout — because the heat destroys the life-force within.

If such mild heat can destroy the life within a seed, what will happen to the food we fry, roast, and cook at 100–300°C every day?

The fire leaves behind nothing that the body truly needs.

This is why doctors today prescribe vitamin tablets, calcium tablets, mineral supplements even for ordinary ailments — because the food people eat no longer contains what the body requires.

Instead of realizing “Poor food choices caused these deficiencies — let me correct my food”, we swallow more pills and continue the same mistakes.

When the body becomes ill, it is actually pleading with us: “I need something. Please give me what I’m missing”. If we still ignore it, the harm is ours alone.

If we return to eating the food nature intended for us — the food cooked daily by the sun itself — the body will once again begin to rebuild and renew.

If I say, “From tomorrow, stop cooking altogether,” most people will stop reading right here. So let us compromise:

From tomorrow, at least 50–60% of your daily food should be natural, uncooked food. Gradually increase it to 75%. Whenever possible, spend an entire day eating only sunlight-ripened natural foods.

Let us protect ourselves through this simple but powerful change.

5. Is Uncooked Food Harmful to the Body?

This is the question that arises in almost everyone’s mind today.

People wonder: “If we eat food without cooking it, won’t the microorganisms, worms, or eggs present in it enter our body directly and cause harm? Isn’t cooking necessary to kill all these dangers?”

With this fear, many hesitate to eat nature’s own food in its natural state.

But when we cook food, we don’t just destroy harmful things — we also destroy the very life-giving elements that protect us and keep us healthy. The harm caused by cooking is nearly three times greater than the possible harm from any microbes in raw food.

Think about this: Almost every creature on earth eats food exactly as it is found in nature — raw. Do these creatures suffer the same infections and diseases that humans do? Do they get viral fevers, malaria, typhoid, diarrhoea, vomiting like we do? Not at all.

We humans cook nearly everything we eat. Breakfast, lunch, dinner — all cooked. If cooking truly prevented infections, we humans should be the healthiest beings on earth. But the reality is the opposite — every disease known exists primarily in humans.

Our digestive system and liver are naturally designed with powerful mechanisms to handle and neutralize whatever small microbes may enter through natural food. That is their job.

But when we constantly eat only heavily cooked food — food loaded with oils, fats, deep-fried and over-boiled — our intestines and liver become weak. When their strength is gone, how can they protect us from anything?

Another point to consider: Microorganisms and tiny creatures are part of nature. They are everywhere. They are not our enemies. When we eat natural food and live naturally, our body automatically neutralizes them.

Take pigs, for example. Their food is full of germs, parasites and insects. Yet those creatures cause the pig no harm. Why? Because pigs have incredible immunity. Nature created them to consume such food and also gave them the power to handle it.

Would nature tell a pig to eat “filthy food” but deny it the power to survive that food? Never.

If we stop eating the real “filth” — the processed, fried, greasy, and lifeless foods that weaken our organs — our original inner strength will return on its own.

Here's another irony worth thinking about:

Before preparing vegetables like okra, brinjal, or cauliflower, we carefully inspect each piece for worms — rejecting even tiny natural insects out of fear of harm.

Yet the very birds and hens that deliberately eat those same worms are happily eaten by humans as meat.

We reject a natural vegetable because it contains a tiny worm, but we proudly eat the flesh of the creature that made its entire body from eating those same worms.

Why this contradiction? What kind of thinking is this?

The human mind is strange. Its ways are puzzling. Perhaps only the one who created it truly understands why it behaves the way it does.

6. What Is Our Complete Food?

Our elders long ago said that the gross part of food builds the body, while the subtle part shapes the mind. When we eat complete food, both the body and the mind are formed completely.

If the clay is good, the pot will be strong.

If we wish to live with complete health and complete longevity, we must provide this body with complete food.

Whatever color ink we pour into a pen, that is the color that appears in writing. Life is no different.

Once this truth is understood, everything becomes simple. Otherwise, health will remain an unsolved mystery throughout life.

In nature, the food eaten by living beings on earth can broadly be divided into six categories:

- Leaf-based foods

- Vegetable-based foods

- Root-based foods

- Fruit-based foods

- Seed-based foods

- Meat-based foods

Generally, each species lives its entire lifetime eating only one category of food.

If we ask what goats eat, everyone answers, “leaves.”

A tiger’s food is meat.

A parrot eats fruits.

Pigeons eat grains.

All these creatures eat only the type of food created for them by nature, and they do not even touch food meant for other species.

For example, goats eat leaves from trees. Even if fruits, pods, or seeds are available, they leave them untouched. Once their needs are fulfilled through leaves, they clearly know they have no need for anything else.

Now let us come to humans.

If someone asks, “What is human food?” people laugh—but no one gives an answer.

For every other animal, the answer comes instantly. But when it comes to our own food, we ourselves do not know.

After thinking, the usual conclusion humans arrive at is: all six categories belong to us. Whatever we see is ours to eat.

Human beings lack the discrimination of one food type. Like a “mixed buffet,” we mix everything together and consume it.

That is why all varieties of diseases, mixed together, have chosen the human body alone as their home.

Human beings are considered the most intelligent species. So if we are truly intelligent, we should identify the best among all food categories and eat that alone.

Let us now understand which category that is.

Complete food means food that contains all essential nutrients.

Like a supermarket where everything is available in one place, if a single food provides everything the body needs, then eating that one food is enough.

There will be no confusion of “this is sufficient, that is lacking,” “this is present, that is missing.”

The human body requires seven essential nutrients every day:

- Carbohydrates

- Proteins

- Fats

- Vitamins

- Minerals

- Enzymes

- Fiber

Any food category that contains all seven is our complete food.

Let us examine the categories:

Vegetables lack sufficient proteins and fats

Fruits are similar — five nutrients are present, but not all

Roots and tubers mainly contain carbohydrates

Leafy greens contain everything except fats

Meat is the lowest category — not meant for humans at all (which is why our elders called it inferior)

But seeds contain all seven essential nutrients. They are especially rich in: Complete proteins, Healthy fats and Enzymes

Proteins build muscular strength. Healthy fats nourish intelligence and longevity.

Therefore, the seed category can be called the Complete Food Category.

This truth may be unknown to us today, but our ancestors understood it long ago.

That is why seeds were included in temple offerings — like soaked lentils and coconut — so that even in that form, people would benefit.

That is why:

Sprouted pulses are given during festivals

Sesame preparations are shared at ceremonies

Nine grains (Navadhanyam) are used in weddings and rituals

Even animals like bulls, roosters, and fighting animals are fed grains before competitions.

When it comes to intellectual strength, many observe that Brahmins traditionally displayed strong mental clarity. In earlier times, they regularly consumed navadhanyas (nine grains) and strengthened their mental power through food.

Even today, if we eat seeds just once a day, many of the body’s needs will be fulfilled.

So let us make the effort to include them.

But when we say “eat seeds,” do not start eating sapota seeds or custard apple seeds.

Let us now clearly understand which seeds to eat, and how to eat them — in detail.

7. The Method of Sprouting Seeds

When a tree completes its lifespan, its leaves, branches, pods, and fruits all perish. But its lineage — the seed — remains alive to preserve the species.

The entire history of the tree is hidden within the seed. When the seed sprouts, the same lineage begins anew.

Everyone has heard the saying: A mighty banyan tree lies hidden within a tiny seed.

For seeds to survive in nature for long periods and ensure continuity of the species, they require protection. That is why they possess a hard outer covering. This hardness protects them from climatic conditions.

When seeds are fresh, we can eat them. But once they dry, we cannot chew or bite them easily. Yet seeds must dry in order to be stored safely.

To make these dried seeds suitable for eating again, we simply need to sprout them — which returns them to a fresh, living state.

The seeds suitable for consumption include:

- Green gram (mung beans)

- Bengal gram (chickpeas)

- Black gram or cowpeas

- Finger millet (ragi)

- Wheat

- Sesame seeds

- Alfalfa (very small, like sesame)

- Groundnuts (peanuts)

- Pearl millet (bajra)

- Sorghum (jowar)

- Peas

As you read this list, you may feel that these are the very grains we usually feed to animals.

Indeed, humans trained animals to eat these grains for their health, but gradually forgot to eat them themselves. Animals, however, never stopped.

Now, let us begin eating them again.

Do not feel anxious thinking you must eat all these seeds in one day. Also, nowadays many hybrid varieties are available. As far as possible, avoid them.

Native (traditional) varieties are far superior.

Just as there is a clear difference between country chicken and farm chicken, between a native egg and a factory egg, there is the same difference between native seeds and hybrid seeds.

Whichever native seeds are available — eat those.

Every day, select three or four types of seeds. Take one handful of each variety.

Before going to bed at night, soak them separately in water using different bowls.

The next morning, take the soaked seeds and place them separately in clean cloths, then tie them tightly into bundles.

Alternatively: Use perforated containers Or a sprouting box (sprout maker), if available.

It generally takes two days for full sprouting. Some seeds produce inch-long sprouts even within one day.

In summer, it is good to sprinkle a little water over the bundles in the afternoon.

In all cases, ensure the sprouts grow to 1–2 inches in length. Only then do the seeds transform into a state that is easy to digest.

When sprouts are well developed:

Gas problems do not occur

Fats become easily digestible

Vital life energy increases

Nutritional value multiplies hundreds of times

Well-sprouted seeds reach a state where 40–50% is already digested. When you eat them, your stomach only needs to process the remaining 50–60%.

As the saying goes, “Liberation lies in the subtle,” such profound greatness is hidden within seeds.

Let us begin the practice of tying sprouting bundles from tomorrow itself.

Next, let us understand who should eat which seeds, and in what quantities.

8. Who Should Eat Which Seeds, and How Much?

These sprouted seeds can be eaten by everyone — from children aged four or five to the elderly.

Those who are unable to chew properly may grind the sprouts coarsely, like idli batter — not too smooth — chew gently, and swallow. Others should chew them thoroughly. If not chewed well, the pieces may pass undigested through the bowels.

Sprouted seeds should not be eaten in the evening, around 6 or 7 p.m. Many people buy and eat them at that time, but this is not ideal. The best time to eat sprouts is in the morning. If occasionally that is not possible, they may be eaten like a midday meal.

Groundnuts (peanuts) need only be soaked; they do not require sprouting. Fresh coconut may be eaten as it is.

Soaked groundnuts and fresh coconut (from tender flesh to mature kernel) are especially beneficial for:

- Growing children

- Those who work hard in the sun

- People who need to gain weight

- Those wishing to build muscle

- Individuals suffering from excessive fatigue

However, people with diabetes should completely avoid both groundnuts and coconut, even along with sprouts.

Those who wish to lose weight or reduce cholesterol should avoid groundnuts altogether and eat coconut only in small quantities.

People aiming for weight loss, as well as those with diabetes, should eat three or four varieties of sprouted seeds generously. Doing so will not increase sugar levels or body weight.

Those who eat groundnuts and coconut should also include two or three kinds of sprouts along with them.

Sprouts may be eaten daily in a quantity of one full handful (all varieties combined). Eat according to your stomach’s capacity.

Those who suffer from Severe gas trouble, Chronic constipation and Complete loss of appetite should avoid sprouted-seed breakfasts for 10–15 days and eat fruits as their morning meal instead. After that, sprouts may be introduced.

Dates may be soaked and eaten along with sprouts. Do not use jaggery. People with diabetes should avoid dates altogether.

Those who wish to lose weight may eat 7–8 dates, while thin individuals, those with excessive fatigue, or low blood levels may eat 10–15 dates daily in the morning — this is highly beneficial.

We are advising sprouts for the morning meal. Naturally, everyone wonders: What about the regular breakfast we eat every day? Our debt to that food has already been paid. If we continue eating idlis and dosas daily, our health will decline further. Therefore, eat such foods only three or four times a month, when necessary. On all other days, eat sprouts only.

While eating sprouts, do not eat any cooked food along with them. For the rest of the day, there is no need to consume seeds again — let us receive their full benefit in the morning itself.

See how beneficial this is for women in particular. From tomorrow onwards, there is no need to rush in the morning making tiffins and chutneys. Simply tie four bundles for four people, hand each person their bundle, and the task is done.

One must learn how to live comfortably.

Even when guests arrive, serve them these foods with respect — and teach them this good habit as well.

9. What Kind of Coconut Should We Eat?

The word coconut has created fear in everyone’s minds today — fear of cholesterol — and as a result, many people have stopped eating it altogether.

In truth, coconut is a superior food, even compared to other seeds. Our elders understood long ago that everything required to develop human intelligence and mental strength is present in coconut, and therefore they offered it as prasadam.

Even during weddings, the final ritual is performed by placing a coconut in the hands. In all auspicious ceremonies, a coconut is broken first.

It is well known that, compared to people of other states, the people of Kerala — who consume coconut generously — possess greater intellectual sharpness.

Today, we do not regularly break and use coconuts in our homes. We use them only occasionally, when offered to God.

Our elders established rules even for which coconut should be offered to God, because only a properly matured coconut is beneficial to eat. They identified three types of coconuts that are not suitable for offering — or for eating:

1. A coconut full of water (one that does not make a sound when shaken). This is unsuitable because the kernel inside is very tender and consists mostly of starch, without having developed other essential nutrients.

2. An over-mature coconut that does not sound when shaken even though water is present. In this case, the kernel has become excessively hard and converted largely into oil and fat. Eating such a coconut causes harm, so it was rejected.

3. A coconut without a husk (stem attachment). A coconut whose husk has fallen off has also over-matured and is therefore unsuitable.

So which coconut was recommended?

The one that produces a clear sound when shaken, indicating that about three-fourths of the water remains — properly mature coconut.

In such a coconut:

- The kernel is in an easily digestible state

- Harmful fat has not yet developed

- Coconut milk can still be extracted

- All nutrients are present without causing harm

Recognizing this ideal balance, our elders adopted this practice with great foresight. Today, people listen eagerly to scientists and doctors, while ignoring the wisdom passed down by elders.

Coconut does not contain harmful cholesterol. The belief that coconut causes heart disease is a misconception. If that were true, the people of Kerala — who consume the most coconut in India — should have the highest incidence of heart disease. But the surprising fact is this: Kerala has the lowest number of heart patients in India, according to recorded data.

Kerala scientists themselves are proving that coconut consumption is the reason heart disease is so rare there.

Coconut has many such beneficial qualities.

Instead of eating a dry, fibrous coconut that produces excessive residue when chewed, it is far better to eat a milk-yielding coconut. If every person eats one such coconut per day, it provides unmatched strength.

Raw coconut is a treasure house of nutrients.

Those who cannot eat it separately every day may grate it and sprinkle it over cooked vegetables just before removing them from the stove.

Let us put aside the habit of breaking eggs in every household and begin the habit of breaking coconuts instead.

10. Which Fruits Should Be Eaten, and by Whom and When?

After seeds, fruits are the next best food for the body.

Although fruits may not provide sustained energy for long periods, they contain easily digestible carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. Because of this, they are extremely useful for supplying quick energy to the body.

It is advisable to consume at least 20–25 percent of one’s daily food intake as fruits. They are tasty, require no cooking, and can be eaten without the use of salt or oil.

Fruits that are naturally available in a particular season should be eaten during that season. It is best to avoid fruits such as grapes and apples, which are heavily sprayed with pesticides. Seedless pomegranates have comparatively less nutritional value.

Eating items like fritters and samosas in the evening suppresses hunger unnaturally. Instead, it is far better to eat fruits every day between 4 and 5 in the evening, as they digest easily and provide quick energy.

People with diabetes may safely eat fruits such as:

1. Guava

2. Pomegranate

3. Sweet lime

4. Orange

5. Sour jujube (ber fruit)

6. Jamun (black plum)

These fruits do not increase blood sugar levels.

Those who wish to lose weight should avoid bananas.

Those who wish to eat fruits like mango, sapota (chikoo), custard apple or jackfruit bulbs in larger quantities should do so between 5 and 6 in the evening, and then skip dinner for that day. Nothing should be eaten after nightfall.

Others may eat any fruit they like, in the quantity they desire, between 4 and 5 in the evening.

Those who cannot afford expensive fruits will receive the same benefits by eating two or three guavas daily — just do not add salt or spices.

Along with fruits, five to ten dates may also be eaten.

If anyone feels that their stomach is not sufficiently full after eating sprouts in the morning, fruits such as banana, papaya, or guava may be eaten along with the sprouts.

It is not advisable to eat fruits along with meals. Fruits should be eaten separately, on an empty stomach. When eaten this way, they enter the bloodstream quickly and provide immediate benefit to the body.

11. When and How Should Fruit Juices Be Consumed?

Compared to eating fruits whole, drinking them as juice allows the nutrients to enter the bloodstream more quickly, while the stomach and intestines remain relatively empty and get some rest.

Sweet fruits are better eaten as whole fruits. Sour fruits are better consumed in the form of juice. If sour fruits are eaten whole, they can cause tooth sensitivity and discomfort.

Fruits such as sweet lime, orange, mandarin and pineapple should be taken as juice. If the juice is too sour, a little water may be added. Instead of adding sugar or jaggery, it is better to add two or three teaspoons of honey.

Those who cannot afford honey may peel and soak dates, and add the pulp to the juice. This is less expensive and gives greater benefit.

Fruit juices should not be prepared in advance and stored in a refrigerator. Ice should never be added to fruit juices.

Many people drink juices only for taste, believing that adding ice and sugar makes them enjoyable. For such people, juices bring disease instead of health.

Ice and sugar are the main causes of:

- Tonsillitis

- Cold and congestion

- Sinus issues

- Cough

- Throat irritation

Without realizing this, many people blame sour fruits and say they “do not suit them,” when in fact the problem lies with ice and sugar.

Among all fruits, oranges are the cheapest, and drinking orange juice daily is especially beneficial.

Most people drink roadside fruit juices purely for taste. In sweet fruit juices such as sapota, mango and apple, people add ice, sugar, milk and various powders. This gives no benefit and only harms the body.

Fruit juices should never be mixed with milk. Fruit juices digest within an hour and are meant to enter the bloodstream quickly. When mixed with milk, they remain in the intestines until the milk is digested, which takes two to two and a half hours.

This is like harnessing a strong bull and a lame bull to the same cart. Such combinations cause gas problems and burning sensations in the stomach.

Children returning from school should be given freshly prepared fruit juice between 4 and 5 in the evening. Adults may also drink juice at the same time.

After drinking fruit juice, one may eat whole fruits after 40–45 minutes, or choose only one — either juice or fruits — depending on convenience.

Fruit juices may also be consumed daily on an empty stomach, about 45–50 minutes before eating sprouted seeds in the morning.

When vegetable juice is not available, or when there is no electricity to prepare it, sour fruit juices are a good alternative.

Fruits used for making juice should not be refrigerated. They may be kept outside, covered with a damp cloth.

People with diabetes should avoid fruit juices. Those who are overweight may drink fruit juices without fear of gaining weight. People with low hemoglobin should definitely drink fruit juices daily with honey added.

Sugarcane juice works in the same way as fruit juices and may be consumed daily whenever available.

Fruit juices should never be consumed after meals.

Those who cannot afford fruit juices need not worry; it is not compulsory. Juices exist in fruits so they can mix directly with our blood — and we are fortunate enough to have the ability to drink them.

12. How Should Raw Vegetables Be Used?

These days, many people have started eating raw vegetables after realizing that they are good for health. However, not knowing when to eat them and how to combine them, people consume them at random times and mix them with unsuitable foods.

Many people eat assorted raw vegetable pieces along with some sprouted seeds in the morning, and then — since food has been cooked at home — also eat idlis or dosas together with them. This should not be done.

Some people eat raw vegetables along with rice to lose weight. Others eat fruits and raw vegetables together. All these practices prevent one from getting the full benefit of raw vegetables.

The digestion of raw vegetables works differently. In the morning, instead of chewing raw vegetables, drinking them as juice is easier and more effective. It also saves time.

Since sprouts need to be chewed thoroughly when taken as breakfast, drinking vegetable juice helps manage time better.

Vegetables with minimal pesticide residue such as snake gourd, ridge gourd, bottle gourd, carrot, beetroot, native tomatoes, cucumber, ash gourd, etc., may be used either for eating raw or for juicing.

Leafy vegetables may be used for juicing only if you grow them yourself.

Choose any three or four vegetables from the above list, cut them into pieces, and put them in a grinder. Grind them until they become smooth and pulpy. Strain the pulp to remove the coarse residue. Use the strained juice. Straining removes fiber that may cause discomfort, while enough useful fiber remains in the juice for the body.

To this juice, add juice of one lime, and two or three teaspoons of honey, and drink it. This juice may be consumed in the morning, half an hour after completing water intake and bowel movement routines.

People with diabetes may use carrot, beetroot, and honey only in small quantities, while using more of the other vegetables.

As far as possible, drink one full large glass (about 300 ml) of this juice as the first food of the day.

If this is not possible — due to lack of time, high vegetable prices or power cuts — fruit juice may be taken instead.

Those who drink this vegetable juice do not need to separately drink honey–lemon water, since both are already included in this juice, making it even better.

Those who prefer eating raw vegetables instead of drinking them as juice may consume them in the evening instead of the morning.

Grate the vegetables mentioned above using a coconut grater. To the grated vegetables, add:

- Chopped onions

- Green chilies

- Curry leaves

- Coriander leaves

- Lemon juice

This becomes a raw vegetable salad.

For the evening meal, prepare three or four wheat rotis and eat them with this raw vegetable salad instead of rice. This helps significantly in weight reduction. Apart from this, no other cooked foods should be eaten at that meal. Rotis are cooked using minimal heat, so eating them along with raw vegetables does not cause harm.

For most people, drinking raw vegetable juice is easier than eating raw vegetables.

It is better to set aside tea, coffee, milk and porridges in the morning, and instead drink raw vegetable juice.

13. What Should Be Given to Your Children?

Why should growing children be given raw vegetables and sprouts from now itself?

Parents often think in different ways:

“Why should children restrict their mouths at this age?

Should they eat nothing now and eat everything only when they grow old?

Whatever is meant to be eaten at a particular age should be eaten at that age.”

Thinking this way is wrong.

Children do not know what is good for them and what is bad. As adults, we must know. If children are falling sick, the mistake lies with the elders.

Today, children are losing eyesight at a young age, teeth are decaying, hair is turning grey even before the age of twenty. They frequently suffer from fever, cold and throat infections. If children are facing so many problems these days, the sole reason is nutritional deficiency.

Watching advertisements on television and believing them to give strength, parents spend a lot of money and give all kinds of things. In doing so, we ourselves are ruining our children’s lives.

The day has come when children are suffering from more illnesses than adults, right before our eyes. A child’s future — and the future of the nation — depends on the child’s health.

Therefore, every parent must start from today giving their children, every day, a high percentage of disease-free, life-giving natural food. Persuade them gently to eat it.

Every morning, give your child one glass of raw vegetable juice, using more carrot in it. This prevents loss of eyesight.

For breakfast, instead of regular cooked tiffins, give:

- Sprouted seeds

- Soaked groundnuts

- Ten dates

- Raw coconut

If the child cannot eat coconut, add some water to it, grind it, strain it, and give one cup of coconut milk mixed with honey. Coconut milk is far superior to regular milk.

If you give this breakfast to your children, they will gain strength, growth, and good health. Muscle development improves.

In the evening, when children return from school, instead of giving what television advertisements suggest, give fruits, or if fruits are not available, one glass of fruit juice.

On Sundays, give whatever the tongue desires. But from Monday to Saturday, give only what the body asks for and what promotes health.

14. Benefits of a Natural Diet

From the moment we wake up until we go to sleep, most people eat only cooked food — pleasing the tongue while troubling the body. Since all of us now wish to recover our health, let us resolve to eat at least 50–60 percent disease-free natural food every day.

The benefits we gain by doing so are as follows:

1. Blood levels never fall. In those who already suffer from low blood, fresh and healthy blood is produced within 15 to 20 days.

2. Mouth ulcers disappear completely.

3. Bones become strong. (There is no need to take calcium tablets.)

4. In those whose joints have worn down and whose lubrication has reduced, natural lubrication is restored, cracking sounds reduce, and further wear is corrected to some extent.

5. In women, hormonal deficiencies are corrected, and menstrual cycles become regular.

6. Ovulation improves, and the development of sperm cells increases.

7. Muscles become strong, enabling long hours of work — 15 to 18 hours — without fatigue.

8. Calf pain and leg cramps reduce significantly.

9. Hair fall decreases, and new hair growth begins.

10. Eyesight improves.

11. Immunity increases beyond imagination.

12. In overweight individuals, weight reduces while strength increases, resulting in better health.

13. Nutritional deficiencies are completely eliminated. As a result, there is no need for B-complex syrups or iron tablets.

14. When 50–60 percent natural food is included in the diet, cravings for harmful foods naturally diminish.

15. Eating natural food may be considered as taking out an insurance policy against disease — by one’s own hands.

15. Shall We Eat Like This?

Until now, we have filled our bodies with food that causes disease—and therefore diseases appeared. From now on, since we have decided to change completely, let us eat disease-free food and ensure that disease does not enter the body.

This is our body. As long as we live, we alone are responsible for taking care of its well-being. Why would others worry about our body? Whatever happens to this body, we are responsible for it. Let us therefore eat responsibly, every single day.

Observe how much natural food you are able to eat in a day. Only if you eat at least 50 percent natural food can you be said to have passed — those are the pass marks.

Gradually, within a few days, stop eating fully cooked food in the evening. Instead, satisfy your hunger by eating fruits until your stomach feels full. If you do this, it is as though you have scored 75 marks.

After a few more days, try to eat only disease-free food for an entire day, at least once a week. That one day can be considered as scoring 100 marks.

Once you become well accustomed to eating natural food, you may even stop eating cooked food at lunch and instead eat coconut and bananas.

The closer we live to nature, the more naturally health will come to us. If we eat completely natural food, we attain a state where disease does not arise at all.

If we do not want diseases, we must eat disease-free food.

Let us all make an effort to eat this way. Let us live healthily. Let us build a society free from disease.

Table of Contents

The Miserable Condition of Our Bodies Today

What Food Was This Body Born to Eat?

What Should We Eat to Feel Light and Comfortable?

What Happens When We Cook Food?

Is Uncooked Food Harmful to the Body?

What Is Our Complete Food?

The Method of Sprouting Seeds

Who Should Eat Which Seeds, and How Much?

What Kind of Coconut Should We Eat?

Which Fruits Should Be Eaten, and by Whom and When?

When and How Should Fruit Juices Be Consumed?

How Should Raw Vegetables Be Used?

What Should Be Given to Your Children?

Benefits of a Natural Diet

Shall We Eat Like This?