When you’re searching for food advice, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It seems like there’s an infinite amount of popular diets to choose from and an impossible number of rules to follow. Most advice focuses on eating only certain foods and avoiding others – but exactly which foods are “good” and which are “bad” is not always obvious, and can even conflict depending upon whom you ask.
搜索飲食建議的時候，很容易暈頭轉向。似乎總有數不清的流行飲食選擇，有無盡的飲食規則要遵循。大多數建議只關注吃某些食物和避免吃另外一些食物——但事實上哪些食物“好”，哪些食物“壞”，從來不是公認的，你去問不同的人，這些建議甚至互相矛盾。
Fortunately, you can clear up your confusion by following these 5 simple guidelines which will help you get the most from your food, no matter what you’re eating.
幸運的是，跟隨下面5條簡單的指導，就能消除你的疑惑，你不管吃什么都能幫助最大程度地從食物中獲得好處。
一、越新鮮越好（The Fresher， The Better ）
Your food gives you the energy you need to live, and fresh, raw foods retain the most life energy or prana. Whenever possible, eat more raw foods, and don’t overcook your cooked items. In addition, avoid cutting and prepare fresh foods like fruits well in advance, as they will quickly begin to lose their positive benefits once cut.
食物給予你生存所需的能量，新鮮未經加工的食物保存著最多的生命能量（prana）。只要可以，就多吃生食，不要過分烹煮。此外，避免太提前切分和準備新鮮食物，如水果，因為一旦被切開，食物就會快速流失其正面益處。
Sadhguru explains, “When you cook food, a large volume of prana is destroyed. That is one of the reasons why a certain amount of lethargy settles into the body. If you just eat a certain amount of live food, apart from many other benefits, one thing that will immediately happen is your sleep quota will go down dramatically.”
薩古魯解釋說，“食物一旦做熟，大量的生命能量會遭到破壞。這就是昏昏睡意入駐你的身體的原因之一。如果你攝入一定量的生食，先不說其它的好處，一個立竿見影的效果就是你的睡眠需求會急劇下降。”
二、 不要忘記咀嚼（ Don’t Forget to Chew ）
When you were a kid, your parents probably reminded you often to chew your food properly! Studies show that for starchy foods, 30% of digestion happens with saliva. Once your food is pre-digested in your mouth before reaching the rest of the body, it will cause less dullness. Digestion raises your metabolic activity, so it’s also good to wait at least 2 hours after dinner before going to bed, otherwise you will not sleep well or digest well!
你還是個孩子的時候，父母也許經常提醒你要好好地咀嚼！研究顯示，含淀粉食物30%的消化發生在唾液中。一旦食物在達到身體其他部位之前在口腔中得到預消化，它造成的遲鈍就更少。消化會增進新陳代謝活動，所以吃完晚餐后至少要等2個小時再上床睡覺，不然你會睡也睡不好，消化也消化不好！
Sadhguru also gives us a yogic perspective on chewing your food: “In yoga we say, ‘If you take a morsel of food, you must chew it twenty-four times.’ There is a lot of science behind this, but essentially, one thing is your food gets pre-digested in your mouth and will not cause dullness in your system. Another thing is, if you chew twenty-four times, the information of that food gets established in your system and every cell in your body will be able to start judging as to what is right and not right for you – not in terms of the tongue but about what is appropriate for the whole system. If you do this for some time, every cell in the body will have the education as to what it likes and does not like.”
薩古魯從瑜伽的角度探討了咀嚼食物：“在瑜伽中我們說‘吃一口食物，你必須咀嚼24下。’這背后有很多的科學，但是本質上其中一個原因是食物在口腔中得到預消化，它在你系統中造成的遲鈍就更少。另一原因是，如果你咀嚼24下，食物攜帶的信息就會在你系統中建立起來，你身體中每個細胞都會開始判斷什么對你好，什么對你不好——不是從舌頭的角度說，而是從對你的整個系統 。這樣做一段時間，身體中每個細胞都會知道自己喜歡什么不喜歡什么。”
三、 少餐 （ Eat Fewer Meals ）
The older you get, the fewer meals per day you need to eat. It may take some time to adjust, but when your body isn’t constantly working on digesting food, you’ll find you have a lot more energy for other activities.
年紀越大，你每天需要的進餐次數就越少。也許需要一些時間來適應，但是當你的身體不是在持續地運轉在消化食物上，你會發現你有更多能量進行其他活動。
Studies have found that the human brain works best when the stomach is empty. Researchers found that an empty stomach produces ghrelin, a hormone that carries the message to the brain that the stomach is hungry. Interestingly, this hormone seems to perform other functions as well. Ghrelin stimulates and heightens the performance of the hippocampus, the region in the brain that handles learning, memory and spatial analysis, keeping us alert, active and focused. This, of course, doesn’t imply that we should never eat, but it is an important reminder to be conscious of how much we eat.
研究發現，人的大腦在空腹時運轉最高效。研究人員發現，空腹的時候人體會產生饑餓素（ghrelin），饑餓素是一種荷爾蒙，它把胃部饑餓的信息傳到大腦。有趣的是，這種荷爾蒙似乎還有其他功能。饑餓素會刺激并提高海馬體（hippocampus）的性能。海馬體是大腦中學習、記憶和空間分析的部分，能讓我們保持機敏、活躍和專注。當然，這并不是暗示你不要吃東西，而是一個重要的提醒，讓你覺察到自己該吃多少。
Sadhguru explains: “You shouldn’t keep eating through the day. If you are below thirty years of age, three meals a day will fit well into your life. If you are over thirty, it is best to reduce it to two meals a day. Our body and brain work at their best only when the stomach is empty. Be conscious and eat in such a way that within two-and-a-half hours, the food moves out of the stomach bag, and within twelve to eighteen hours, it is completely out of the system. If you maintain this simple awareness, you will experience much more energy, agility and alertness.”
薩古魯說：“你不能一天到晚都在吃。如果你不到30歲，那么一日三餐就剛好。如果你過了30歲，最好減到一日兩餐。空腹的時候我們的身體和大腦是最高效的。保持這種覺察，以這種方式進食：讓你的食物可以在2.5小時內在胃中消化完并清空，在12~18小時內（殘渣）完全排出體外。如果你保持這種簡單的意識，你就會感到更有能量，更敏捷，更警覺。”
四、懷著感恩進餐 （ Eat with Gratitude ）
The simple act of eating a piece of food, if you can do it with a certain awareness, can become an amazing possibility – as Sadhguru explains, “Something that is not you is becoming you…if? you pay enough attention to the simple process of eating, and simply eat – nothing else, just eating – you will see, eating is an explosive process.” When you’re focused on your food, especially if you can eat in silence (without speaking, watching television, etc) you may feel more connected with your food, your body will absorb the food better, and you may even need less food to feel satisfied.
吃進一點食物，這種簡單的行為，如果你能帶著一點覺知去做，就能成為一種令人驚嘆的可能性——正如薩古魯解釋的，“一些不是你的東西，正變成你……如果在簡單的進食過程中給予足夠的關注，并且只是純粹地進食——沒有其他，只是進食而已——你會發現，進食是一個爆炸般強大的過程。”當你專注在你的食物上，尤其是如果你能靜默地進餐（不說話，不看電視等）你會感受到與食物更多的連接，你的身體會更好地吸收食物，你甚至會無需太多食物就能感到飽足。
How food goes into you, from whose hands it comes to you, how you eat it, how you approach it, all these things are important. Above all, the food you eat is life. Other forms are giving up their life to sustain us. If we can eat with enormous gratitude for all the living things which give up their life to sustain our lives, food will behave in a very different way within you. – Sadhguru
食物如何進入你的身體，它經過誰的手來到你這里，你如何吃，你如何取，所有這些都很重要。最重要的是，你吃的食物都是生命。其他生命形式放棄了它們自己的生命來維系你的生命。如果你在進食的時候，對所有這些放棄了自己的生命來供養你的生命的生靈滿懷感激，那么食物在你的體內將以一種完全不同的方式運作。
五、 聽從身體 （ Listen to Your Body ）
Sadhguru explains: “What kind of food you eat should depend not on what you think about it, or on your values and ethics, but on what the body wants. Food is about the body. When it comes to food, don’t ask your doctors or your nutrition experts because these people keep changing their opinion every five years. When it comes to food, ask the body with what kind of food it is really happy. Try different foods and see how your body feels after eating the food. If your body feels very agile, energetic and nice, that means the body is happy. If the body feels lethargic and needs to be pumped up with caffeine or nicotine to stay awake, the body is not happy, isn’t it?
薩古魯說：“你要吃哪種食物不應該取決于你的價值觀和道德觀，也不取決于你對食物的看法，而是取決于身體的需求。食物和身體息息相關。如果你足夠有覺知，你只要接觸到那點食物，你就會知道那食物在你的身體系統中將如何運作。說到食物，問問身體真正喜歡的是哪種食物。嘗試不同食物，然后看看你的身體在吃進這些食物之后的感覺。如果你的身體感到靈活敏捷、精力充沛，各方面良好，那么身體就是喜歡這種食物的；如果身體感到無精打采，需要咖啡因或者尼古丁才能保持清醒，那么身體是不喜歡這種食物的，難道不是嗎？”
If you listen to your body, your body will clearly tell you with what kind of food it is happy. But right now, you are listening to your mind. Your mind keeps lying to you all the time. Hasn’t it lied to you before? Today it tells you this is it. Tomorrow it makes you feel like a fool for what you believed yesterday. So don’t go by your mind. You just have to learn to listen to your body.
如果你聽從身體的需求，它會很清楚地告訴你它喜歡哪種食物。但現在，你在聽從你的頭腦，而頭腦一直在對你說謊。難道它以前沒對你撒過謊嗎？今天它告訴你這就是了。明天它讓你因為昨天所相信的東西而感覺自己像個傻瓜。所以，不要跟著頭腦走，你只需聽從你的身體。
Every animal, every creature knows what to eat and what not to eat. The human species are supposed to be the most intelligent on the planet, but they don’t even know what to eat. Forget about how to be, human beings do not even know what to eat. So, it takes a certain mindfulness and attention to learn to listen to your body. Once you have that, you know what to eat and what not to eat.”
每個動物，每種生物都知道要吃什么，不吃什么。人類本該是地球上最聰明的物種，卻連吃什么都不知道。先不說如何存在，人類連如何進食都不知道。所以要提點醒，用點注意力，來學著聆聽身體，然后你會知道要吃什么
