如果把一个人比作一台机器，萨古鲁说，要选择正确的燃油，你首先得知道自己是什么类型的机器。在这篇文章中，萨古鲁阐述了自己对于如何正确选择食物从而实现健康和活力的话题，但也提醒我们不要将食物当成一种信仰，变成一种束缚。只需做到合理饮食。

我们该吃什么：

选择正确的食物非常重要

确保你吃进去的食物是新鲜的

Ensure that the food you eat is fresh

吃得合理对身体健康来说是一个很重要的方面。如果你关心自己和孩子的健康，你必须要确保你吃进去的食物是新鲜的。大多数美国人吃的加工过的食物，在3-6个月之前就已经在开始制作了。在瑜伽文化中，我们总是在食物出锅后的1.5小时内就把它们吃完。一旦超过这个时间，食物中就会产生惰性成分。如果你吃掉的食物在你的身体系统中产生惰性成分，你就会失去你所有的活力。你吃的食物的种类也会影响到你需要的睡眠的多少。一般而言，医生会建议每个人最少的睡眠时间为8小时。如果你每天晚上都睡8个小时，那意味着人生的1/3时间你都在睡觉。

Eating properly is an important aspect of health. If you are interested in your wellbeing and that of your children, you must ensure that the food you eat is fresh. The average American eats processed food that has been prepared three or six months ago. In the yogic culture, we always consume cooked food within 1.5 hours after it comes off the stove. If it’s any later, inertia will set in. If you eat food that creates inertia in the system, you will lose all your dynamism. There is also a correlation between the kind of food you eat and the amount of sleep you need. Generally, doctors advise that everyone must sleep a minimum of eight hours. If you sleep eight hours per night, it means you are sleeping one third of your life.

有人写了整整一本书阐述为什么每个人都需要8小时睡眠，并且警告人们如果你不这么做，你将会有多么可怕的后果。这些日子以来，我感觉有点懒，每天要睡4个小时。但早些年，差不多有25年的时间，我通常每天只睡不到3个小时，而依然能够保持健康。身体需要的是休息，不是睡眠。决定你需要多长时间睡眠的一个重要因素在于你给予身体系统什么燃料。如果你给你的车加了错误的油，它就会需要很多维修。同样地，如果你给你的身体系统错误的食物原料，它就会需要大量的睡眠。

People are writing whole books on how everyone must sleep eight hours, and warn of dire consequences if you don’t. These days, I am getting a little lazy and sleep for four hours. But earlier, for twenty-five years, I used to sleep less than three hours per day, and I am healthy. The body needs restfulness, not sleep. One important factor of how much sleep you need is what type of fuel you put into your system. If you put the wrong fuel into your car, it will need a lot of servicing. Similarly, if you put the wrong fuel into your system, it will need a lot of sleep.

还有一些方面需要被考虑进来。一个很重要的因素是，你吃的食物中很可能含有很多惰性成分。我们将食物分为悦性食物、惰性食物以及中性食物。惰性食物就是那些含有惰性成分的食物。如果你吃的食物具有惰性成分，那么你又怎么可能很有活力？如果你吃的是迟钝的食物，它便会让你也变得迟钝。

There are many aspects that need to be considered in this context. One important factor is that you may be eating food that has a high level of inertia in it. We classify foods as rajas, tamas, or sattva. Tamas means inertia. If you eat food that has the quality of inertia to it, then how can you be active? If you eat dull food, it will make you dull.

吃那些在基因上离你最远的食物

Eat What’s Far From You

你的身体只是你吃进去的食物的累积，当食物被吸收和转化之后，它们就变成了你的身体。身体内的智能、记忆和基因代码决定了食物会转化成什么。举个例子，同一个苹果，因为吃它的主体不同，将会变成不同性质的身体——女人、男人或是一头牛。

Your body is just an accumulation of the food that you have eaten, after it has been transformed and assimilated. There is a certain intelligence, memory, and genetic code in the body that determines what the food that you eat is converted into. For example, the same apple, depending on who eats it, becomes part of the body of a woman, a man, or a cow.

在生命进化过程中，一个生物体所携带的信息和记忆会变得越来越复杂。在瑜伽传统中，我们总是说你必须吃那些在基因上离你最远的食物。在这个层面上说，植物是离我们最远的。如果你必须吃非素食食物，我建议你吃鱼。因为从进化角度上看，鱼是所有动物中离人类最远的食物。因为地球上最早的动物生命被认为是从水中进化而来，最早的祖先就是鱼。

As life evolves, the information and memory an organism carries get increasingly complex. In the yogic tradition, we always said you must eat what is furthest away from you, genetically. In that sense, plant life is furthest away from us. If you must eat non-vegetarian food, we advised the consumption of fish, because among the animals, it is furthest away from a human being, if you look at it from an evolutionary perspective. As the first animal life on the planet is thought to have evolved in water, the first avatara was matsya avatara or the fish.

一个世纪以来，西方学者一直宣传肉类是最好食物，如今，他们慢慢地将观点转换到了一个完全相反的方向上了。一段时间来，他们都说牛肉是现在美国心脏疾病的主要诱因。而在过去几年中，他们也发表言论说肉食会导致癌症。在瑜伽文化中，我们已经传播了一万年这个观点：如果你吃那些带有复杂基因代码的食物，你的身体系统就会垮掉，以这样或那样的方式。

After a century of saying the best thing to eat is meat, doctors in the West are slowly shifting to a different view today. For some time now, they have been saying that beef is the main cause for most of the cardiac ailments in America. And in the last few years, they are also saying that meat consumption is a cause for cancer. In the yogic culture, we have been telling you for ten thousand years that if you eat foods with a complex genetic code, your system will break down, one way or the other.

我们得到这个观点并不是通过做数百万经费的研究，而是通过观察当我们在吃东西的时候，我们的身体系统中发生了什么。如果你付出足够多的注意力，你也会知道这些。每一个生命都可以知道。一只狗都知道该吃什么，不该吃什么。人类不知道这些，是因为人们只是按照别人给出的信息去生活，而不是通过对生命的觉知。

We arrived at that not by doing million-dollar research, but just by observing what happens in our system when we eat. If you pay enough attention, you will know. Every creature does. A dog just knows what to eat and what not. Human beings do not know because they go by whatever information someone gives them, not by awareness of life.

所以，不要将食物当成某种信仰。如果生存是一个问题，那么就去吃任何你能得到的食物。但当生存的问题已经解决，那就有了选择。当你有选择的机会时，你必须吃得理性，吃那些对你的身体系统最有益的东西。对你的身体来说，最理想的燃料是那些会带给你警觉、灵活和活力的食物。你可以做一个实验。在某一天，只是吃水果；另外一天，只是吃生的蔬菜；另外一天，吃熟的蔬菜；然后再选一天吃鱼和肉——尝试一下这些选择。看看什么样的食物让你感受到最大程度的活力与觉察力，然后吃它们，你就会健康。

So, do not make food some kind of a religion. If it is a question of survival, eat what is available. But when survival is taken care of, there is a choice. When you have a choice, you must eat sensibly, what is best for your system. The ideal fuel for your body is what leaves you alert, agile, and active. You could experiment. One day, just eat fruits; another day, just eat raw vegetables; yet another day, you cook the vegetables; then you eat fish, you eat meat – try out everything. With what kind of food you are experiencing maximum levels of energy and alertness, please eat that, and you will be healthy.

什么时候不该吃东西

When Not to Eat

在任何情况下，尤其是你吃得太多的时候，禁食一次在某种程度上是好的。但如果你是强迫自己不吃东西，那会破坏你的身体系统。如果你想要禁食，你需要在生理和心理上都做好准备，这样你才能毫不费力地不吃东西。我们已经指出过，在太阴月中的几天，消化功能不在最佳状态。在这个月中的这两天——也就是我们所说的Ekadashi（爱卡达西日断食日），在满月日和新月日后的第11天——最好的方式是只吃清淡易消化的食物，或者彻底禁食。

In any case, especially when you eat too much, it is good to fast once in a way. But if you forcefully go without food, this may cause damage to the system. If you want to fast, you have to prepare psychologically and physiologically, so that you can effortlessly go without food. We have identified certain days of the lunar month when digestion is not at its best. On these two days in the month, known as Ekadashi, which is the eleventh day after the full and new moons, it is best to have only light food or to fast entirely.

爱卡达西已在你的系统中。因此，如果你可以禁食，那么就去做。如果对你来说，还没达到这样的能力，那么就吃“水果饮食”，也就是我们通常所说的“palahar”。不幸的是，在泰米尔语里，“pala”的意思是“很多”，所以泰米尔人会认为在断食日里，他们必须吃很多种东西！所以他们吃各种各样的零食，而这比我们的日常饮食更糟糕。不是他们理解的那样，“palahar”指的是“水果饮食”。它的意思就是说，当你还无法禁食时，就吃些好消化的食物。

Ekadashi was built into your system. So, if you can fast, please do. If that is not possible for you, go on a fruit diet, which is referred to as palahar. Unfortunately, in Tamil, pala means “many,” so Tamil people tend to think that on Ekadashi, they must eat many varieties of things! So they eat a wide variety of snacks, which is worse than the regular food they otherwise eat. No, palahar means fruit diet. The idea is, if you cannot fast, have something that is easily digestible.

如果你吃了水果，在1.5小时到3小时的时间内，它会被完全消化。如果你吃了熟的蔬菜，它需要12到14小时的时间去消化。如果你吃了熟的谷类或其它类别的食物，它们需要24到30小时的消化时间。如果是熟肉，则需要48到52小时的时间用于消化，生肉的话，则需要72小时用于消化。当食物在身体系统中停留那么长的时间，它会腐烂并产生对人体有害的程度的细菌。如果做出这样的食物选择，你就是在给你的身体系统搞破坏。然后你就会相信你需要药物，而不是活得健康。你需要配方药，因为你自己在给自己制造有毒物质。

If you eat a fruit, within 1.5 to three hours’ time, it will be fully digested. If you eat cooked vegetables, it will take twelve to fifteen hours to digest them. If you eat cooked cereals and other foods, it will take twenty-four to thirty hours. If you eat cooked meat, it will take forty-eight to fifty-two hours. If you eat raw meat, it will take seventy-two hours to digest it. When food remains in the system for such long periods of time, it will rot and cause unnecessary levels of bacteria. With such food choices, you are causing damage to the system. And then you believe you need medicines, rather than living healthy. You need pharmaceutical products because you are generating poison within yourself.

你让自己的身体系统摄入什么食物会造成很大的不同。举个例子，当我在美国开车时，我从来不去有乙醇汽油的加油站。大约12年前，当他们第一次介绍这种汽油给我时，我说：“我不想在我的汽车中放入乙醇，因为那会使我的引擎生锈。”你不需要是一个多么出色的科学家也能知道这一点，因为这是常识。现在，当他们使用这种汽油12年后，他们终于承认，那会使引擎生锈腐蚀。你其实只需要关注事物都是如何运作的就可以了。大多数人什么也不关注，对于所有事物，他们都需要被指示才知道怎么做。

What you put into your system can make a big difference. To give an example – when I drive in the United States, I make sure I never go to a gas station that has ethanol gasoline. When they first introduced ethanol gasoline about twelve years ago, I said, “I don’t want to put ethanol in my car because the engine is going to rust.” You do not have to be some brilliant scientist to arrive at that – it is just common sense. Now, after it has been used for twelve years, they finally admit it may cause corrosion of the engine. You just have to pay attention to how things work. Most people do not pay attention to anything. For everything, they need a prescription.

如果你很长时间以来一直在吃错误的食物，你的身体就会变得无精打采而沉重，你很难注意到任何事物。在那样的情况下，禁食可以给你一个休整的机会。是时候告诉人们去关注在你的身体系统中发生了什么了。只是问问你自己——它运转得正确还是错误？这是一个了解这个问题最简单的方式。

If you have been eating the wrong kind of food for too long, the body may have become so lethargic and dense that you cannot notice anything. In that case, fasting will give you a break. It is time we teach people how to pay attention to what is happening in their system. Just ask yourself – is it working well right now or not? This is a simple way to know.

萨古鲁·加吉·瓦殊戴夫（Sadhguru·Jaggi·Vasudev），当代瑜伽士、诗人、神秘家、人道主义者、环境保护主义者、纽约时报畅销书作家。萨古鲁深深扎根于世俗与务实中，就如他深深扎根于内在体验与智慧中一样，他不知疲倦地致力于人类生命层面上的康乐。他对生命机制的精通，源自于他对人本性的精深体验，指引着人们探索生命精微的维度。他于1992年成立Isha基金（Isha Foundation）。