Ayurveda, Obesity & Dementia:
The ancient writings of Ayurveda medicine state the following:
"When the food is pure, the whole nature becomes pure; when the nature becomes pure, the memory becomes firm; and when a man is in possession of a firm memory, all the ties are severed."
(Chhandogya Upanishad, VII-xxvi-2) |
Mind Is Made Of Food: Mind is manufactured out of the food that we take. Subtlest part of food reaches upward to the heart and thence entering the arteries called the 'Hita', and thereby bringing into existence the aggregate of the organs of speech and being changed into the form of the mind, it increases the mind. And thus, the mind, being increased by food, is material and not eternal as held by the Vaiseshikas.
The Upanishadic philosophers believed that the mind depends upon the food for its formation. "The food that we take is transformed in three different ways: the gross or the heaviest part of it becomes the excrement; that of medium density is transformed into flesh and the finest part goes to form the mind." (Chhandogya Upanishad, VI-v-1) "Just as in the churning of curd, its fine particles rise up and are transformed into butter, so when food is consumed, the subtlest part rises up and is transformed into mind." (Chhandogya Upanishad, VI-vi-1 & 2). Later, even in the days of the Bhagavad-Gita, we find that the three different mental temperaments-the Sattvic, the Rajasic and the Tamasic-were supposed to be due to the three different kinds of food what we eat. (Bhagavad-Gita, XVII-8 & 10).
British Medical Journal on Memory & Dementia: April 29, 2005
Researchers reviewed the medical records of more than 10,000 people (between ages 40-45) who were members of the Kaiser Permanente health plan in Northern California from 1964-73. They conducted a follow-up on the health of the participants some 20 years later.
By 1994, physicians found 7 percent of the patients surveyed had been diagnosed with dementia. The results proved to be linked to body mass index (BMI), a ratio of weight to height:
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People with a BMI of 30 or above were 74 percent more likely to succumb to dementia than those of healthy weights.
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Those in the 25-29.9 BMI range had a 35 percent greater chance of dementia.
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Obese, middle-aged women were more prone to dementia, though both men and women who were the fattest were 60 percent to 70 percent more likely to have dementia than those who had the lowest levels of fat.
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