The Ashtanga Yoga Diet
What is a YOGA diet?
Two kids were out playing in the woods and didn’t know that they had been rolling around in poison ivy. Both kids go home crying and itching with red and inflamed skin. Child A goes home, and their mom puts hydrocortisone cream on the skin. Child B goes home and their mother applies a TCM formula.
What does poison ivy have to do with a Yoga diet? In most circles, especially the Ashtanga Yoga community when asked about the yoga diet the topic of ahimsa is heralded as the ultimate practice regarding diet and lifestyle.
Ahimsa, the artful practice of non-violence.
Teachers and students will declare this is ‘the way’, standing on a soapbox in their best Morrissey impression stating that, “vegans are superior beings.”
I’m not a Vedic scholar. And there can be arguments made on both sides of the cow, even in Vedic texts. But what I do have is an advanced degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine, where animal products and meat are regarded as medicine, and I’ve spent the better part of 20 years studying nutrition as a practical and organic component of health.
And here is a question for Ahimsa.
Child A has hydrocortisone cream all over their skin, a substance prescribed to treat itching and redness, but it also weakens the immune system, thins the skin, and can effect childhood growth.
Child B has a TCM formula that contains the moulting of a Cicada, the shedded skin of an animal. BUT it don’t cause any harm to the child.
Where is ahimsa?
Now I respect the art of non-violence, but when our little guy had a fun day in the woods with his buddy, I didn’t think twice about the treatment he received. Morrissey can go hang the DJ for all I care.
‘They’ say yoga is 99% practice 1% theory, and so everything that we eat, how we eat, when, where, and who we eat with falls into that 99 or is this the 1? I can’t figure it out. ‘They’ say, Do this, Don’t do this, Stand on your head when eating this on a Tuesday at 14:00 after the third day of your cycle.
The last thing you, or anyone needs is for someone who doesn’t know you, doesn’t know your medical history, your background, your ethos, your practice, or your personal relationship to food, to come around and tell you what to eat.
As an acupuncturist, in one day I can see 5 different patients and prescribe 5 different food recommendations. Just because one food is healthy, organic, non-GMO, and in season, it doesn’t mean that everyone should eat it. Citrus for example, irritates muscle development and those who have muscle injuries should decrease their intake, but someone who has muscle knots and tightness, may need to up their intake.
If being raw, vegan, and gluten free speaks to your ethos and you can make it work, then as a provider I will make dietary recommendations based upon those restrictions, but I will not say everyone needs to be this way or that.
The idea that everyone should fit into the same package is not a Yama or Niyama, it’s not in any of the limbs of Ashtanga Yoga. Fitting into the same package is a concept of industrialization, and pits us into an us vs them mentality, when the point should be inclusion, not exclusivity. So the next time someone is standing on a a social platform expressing their dietary principals, congratulate them for finding something that works for them, and continue exploring what works for you. If you want to work, one-on-one, and develop a dietary plan that works for you then reach out.
