Food provides raw material to the body for repair of wear and tear, generating energy, growth of the body, replenishing lost body material, etc. We should always consume food rationally and judiciously and drop the faulty notion that eating in a good quantity will give us strength and keep us healthy. Every day if food is consumed in excess to the needs of the body, then food will act as a slow poison and will lead to many chronic diseases

Intake of daily food should be in such a way that it should fulfill the daily needs of the body in terms of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, energy, and water and should not be in excess causing stress on various body processes leading to chronic diseases.

Be it a vegetarian, non-vegetarian, or food of any origin, the basic food constituents are
a) Nutrients: like carbohydrates, fats, proteins
b) Vitamins: Like A, D, E, K, B12, C, etc.
c) Minerals: Like Na, K, Cl, Ca, Po4, etc.
d) Water.

Diseases cannot be cured with food alone and medicines as aid are a must. Food helps us maintain health and body homeostasis. Availability of food has increased so much that wherever you look, especially in urban areas, you will get varieties of food. Many advertisements claim that a particular type of food will keep you healthy or keep diseases under control which may not be completely true.

Remember our buying capacity should not decide our eating habits but what and how much we eat should be decided on the following
a) Age.
b) Gender.
c) Weather conditions where you live.
d) Work you do.
e) Underlying disease.

Always remember
1)Eat only 3 meals (caloric food) in a day
. Breakfast, lunch, Dinner.
2) Between meals, consume only simple water (0 caloric intake)
3) Time interval between meals and their quantity.
a) Breakfast (25% of dinner) within 2 hours after waking
b) Lunch (100 %) and within 4 to 5 hours after breakfast.
c) Dinner (50 % of lunch) and within 7 to 8 hours after lunch.
4) No snacks in the evening except if it is advised by your homoeopathic doctor.
5) As far as possible, always eat at same time every day with some deviation of 30 to 45 minutes allowed. The reason behind this is:
a) Your stomach will set the time to secrete digestive juices at the time of eating, thus there are less chances of getting indigestion or hyperacidity.
b) Once digestion and absorption are completed, your G.I. tract would know that there is enough time for the next session, and it can repair the wear and tear of the digestive system cells, occurred during the digestion process, comfortably. This reduces chances to get cancer disease
c) The digestive juices and enzymes are well concentrated that will help digest and disinfect food properly.
d) The acid in the stomach is concentrated and stronger which can easily disinfect (killing the disease producing microorganism) the food and chances of worm infestation and other infections reduces greatly
e) Eating frequently causes dental problems, so, if Teen Aahaar Mantra is followed properly, chances of dental problems are reduced significantly.

Some Facts and Do’s and Don’ts in this section with reasoning

1) SALT:
a) Only in Bhaaji and curry or daal. Avoid salt in Rice and Chapati. Saltfree breakfast is recommended especially for people having high blood pressure.
b) Excess salt for a longer duration may harm a few people if their body is unable to balance the salt in the body. Salt is must for the body without which survival is difficult. In some people excess salt causes water retention, leading to an increase in volume of the blood which may increase blood pressure. Few medicines used to lower blood pressure causes excretion of water and salt from the body via urine. Keeping a close watch every day and every time on salt intake is tedious. Keeping this in mind, in Teen Aahaar Mantra, we advise salt intake through diet in such a way that the daily intake of salt would not be in excess for the body needs or will be easily managed by the normal body process to get rid of the excess. It is very beneficial for people who have high blood pressure
c) In hypertensive patients, saltfree breakfast is recommended, in the afternoon salt is advised only in vegetables and curry or Daal, and at night only in vegetables. This will help minimize your medicine for high blood pressure

2) SUGAR:
a) White sugar and food products prepared using sugar should not be consumed every day; only once a week in small quantities is allowed or as per advice of the Homoeopathic doctor.
b) Sugar is a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are very important nutrients in diet. Body uses carbohydrates as fuel for energy production, to produce hormones, used in cell structure, etc. Excess carbohydrates get converted to triglycerides (fat), and small amounts of cholesterol or proteins and are stored in the body to be used in the future, provided body process is properly functioning. Carbohydrates are categorized as monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. Fruit usually consists of disaccharides which our body can get easily rid of while white sugar is chemically processed and consists of large number of molecules of disaccharide combined together, making it little difficult to get rid of from the body easily. Thus, white sugar stays for a longer time in the body and requires greater efforts to remove from the body and if not eliminated they are stored in the form of lipids and fat in the body causing many diseases along with obesity which increases the BMI.
c) In Teen Aahaar Mantra we have included fruits for breakfast, which is very useful especially for diabetic patients, and white sugar is included once a week (after consulting a homoeopath), so that basic requirement of carbohydrates is taken care and whatever little excess sugar is there can be easily taken care by exercise

3) Packaged Food:
No packaged food like biscuits, diet biscuits, chips, cold drinks, packaged dry breakfast, etc. Packaged food is a type of stored food, which is manufactured days and months back. The food in packets is added with preservatives for its longer shelf life. The food is seasoned with high concentration of spices, salts, flavoring, and coloring agents to enhance the taste and they may harm your body in long run.

In short whenever you are eating packaged food, you consume the following things

Actual food + excess and concentrated spices and salt + chemicals (preservatives, coloring agents, flavoring agents). The excess chemicals that get absorbed in the body are either thrown out or remains in the body organs like liver which in the long run may deviate body processes and lead to diseases like cancer

4) Chapati / Bread :
a) FLOUR made of a mixture of WHEAT + naachni, soyabean, makai, jowari, in a fixed proportion. In 10 kg wheat add 250 grams of each of the above ingredients or as advised by your homoeopathic doctor.
b) Diabetic people should use barley wheat flour after consulting a homoeopathic doctor
c) It takes care of your daily body requirements of protein, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.
d) Never worry about gluten present in wheat, because gluten does not harm most people, unless they are sensitive or allergic to a particular type of gluten protein.

5) Ghee:
a) Desi ghee can be used one spoon in Daal every day.
b) Desi ghee consists of Vitamins A, D, E, and K with fatty acids like omega 3 and omega 9 which are very useful in memory building. Vitamin K helps in calcium absorption and is good for bone growth and strengthening of the teeth. Vitamin E helps rejuvenate the skin, scalp, and hair. It contains butyric acid, which is claimed to be anti-cancerous, and helps form T cells when needed to fight diseases. Though it consists purely of saturated fats, if we follow Teen Aahaar Mantra properly, it will not be harmful compared to other sources of fat. If we use ghee, produced from cow butter milk, in our diet judiciously, we can easily avoid use of supplements.

6) Never eat uncooked food (salad, fruits, etc.) along with cooked food..
The digestion time is different for uncooked, cooked, and deep-fried food. Thus, if too much uncooked food is eaten with cooked food in the name of salads, fruits, healthy food, etc. it may upset the digestion process. If you want to eat salads, have them during breakfast: one day salad and another day fruits.

7) How many times to eat in a day
We should have 3 meals in a day, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Our GI tract secretes more than 50 hormones and it has a large and extensive network of nervous system that sends information to the brain. The rate of information increases when any food enters the GI tract along with the release of many gut hormones. So, eating food at short intervals or many times in smaller quantities may have the following impact on the GI tract:
. The GI tract is frequently stimulated which excites brain, pancreas, liver, and other digestive glands repeatedly in shorter period of time. The digestive glands may get fatigue and worn out easily, which may cause many diseases like diabetes, acidity, obesity, etc
. Digestive enzymes are not well concentrated,
. Blood is directed to the abdomen for digestion and absorption frequently
. Earlier food consumed if not completely digested and if at the same additional food is taken, there is disruption in the functioning of the stomach leading to improper secretion of acids and digestive enzymes (either too concentrated when not needed or too dilute causing indigestion, flatulence, acidity, eructation, bloating of abdomen, etc.).
. Frequent eating at short interval does not give enough time for the repair of wear and tear of the villi, brush border and cells of the GI tract that has occurred during digestion and absorption process leading to faulty repair (by faulty mitosis) thereby increasing the chance of GI tract cancer.

8) Eating time interval and quantity.
. Breakfast should be 25% of dinner and should be taken before 10 am.
. Lunch should be 100% and should be taken approximately 4 hours after breakfast.
. Dinner should be 50% of lunch and should take approximately 8 hours after lunch and 30 minutes before going to bed
. Simple breakfast takes 2 to 3 hours to get digested and absorbed from the gut completely and so by the time you have your lunch your stomach is completely empty. Even you get 2 hours of fasting before lunch assuming you had breakfast at 9 am, it gets digested by 11am and you have lunch by 1pm. These 2 hours of fasting cause excess stored food (fat) to be utilized as energy and the beta cells (insulin producers) get rest because blood glucose levels start dropping towards lower limits causing decrease in the insulin secretion while increase in the secretion of glucagon hormone from the pancreas and cortisol hormone from the adrenal gland. Glucagon hormones remove stored glycogen and fat from the liver and other fat deposits in body and converts it into glucose to fulfill the demand of glucose in the body thus helping get rid of excess food in the form of body fat.
. A complete and simple vegetarian lunch takes around 4 to 5 hours to get digested and by the time we have dinner our stomach is completely empty. Let us assume that you have lunch around 1pm, so around 5 pm your stomach is empty and by 6 pm or 7 pm your blood glucose level is nearing the lower limit, and you start feeling hungry. Do not eat anything and continue to be in the fasting state for the next 3 hours for the reason explained in the breakfast section above.
. After dinner we go to sleep, and some part of the food consumed is used to provide energy needed during sleep while the remaining food is converted to energy stored in the form of glycogen, fat, and ATP. In the morning, we can use the same stored glycogen, fat, and ATP to provide energy for our 1 hour of exercise. Thus, again excess food can be easily gotten rid of from the body.

9) Healthy and non-healthy food
. Food should not be more than the needs of the body. Most of the food becomes unhealthy if it is eaten in excess and at an inappropriate time while most of the food becomes healthy if it is consumed in appropriate quantity and at a proper time. Whatever we eat, be it protein, carbohydrates, or fats, if it is not utilized in the body, it will be converted into fat and will get deposited in the store house of the body (liver and adipose tissue) along with the muscle cells. As time progresses, if excess fat is not utilized, it also starts getting accumulated, in excess, in unwanted places like between lever cells (fatty liver), in the inner linings of blood vessels (atherosclerosis), on the outer coverings or internal parts of the organs, etc. If such unwanted deposition continues for longer periods, then after sometime the stored fat starts interfering or causes hindrance in the functions of many organs, reduces blood supply to the particular organ leading to slow death of the organ, especially by hypoxia (less oxygen supply) and causes diseases like diabetes, hypo or hyper thyroid, cancer, etc. Our body is naturally designed to store fat in enormous quantity, normally or abnormally, but on the other hand excess protein or carbohydrates are stored in very little amounts in its actual form (protein or carbohydrate) and are converted into fat and stored in the body. This can be justified by taking the example of a body builder, in whom muscle breakdown starts (muscle protein) if they stop working out for a few weeks or months.

Now let’s see the role or how food is utilized in body
To understand the role of food in the body, we will divide the entire lifespan of a person into 2 phases
A) GROWING PHASE :
- From birth to 18 to 21years of age
- Food is utilized for
   . Growth,
   . Fuel (energy production),
   . Repair.
   . Material source for chemical substances.

B) MAINTENANCE PHASE
- From 18 or 21 years till death
- Food is utilized for
   . Fuel (energy production),
   . Repair.
   . Material source for chemical substances.

It is clearly seen and understandable that in the maintenance phase, normal growth of the body is stopped, except for certain body parts like for nails, hair, etc.

Two major differences we can see in the maintenance phase as compared to the growing phase:
1) In the maintenance phase, nil or least growth of the body parts occur except for some body parts like hair, nails, etc. while in the growth phase major portion goes for growth of the body and energy production
2) In the maintenance phase, most of us live a sedentary life or have a faulty lifestyle due to workload or laziness, while in the growth phase most of us live an active life in school or colleges. On the other hand, we keep on consuming the same amount of food in the maintenance phase, as in the growth phase, though we require less food. In the maintenance phase, food is required for repair, energy, and to replenish the lost chemical substances and a small quantity for growth of the body while in the growth phase we require food for all the above plus a major part for growth. So, in the maintenance phase, either we should decrease the amount of food we are consuming, or we should carry out vigorous exercise each day to get rid of excess food we have consumed. If this is not done, the food will get stored in the body in the form of fat, to be used in the future as fuel if needed and slowly the excess food and fat starts hampering our body function and deviating the body process which can be seen in the form of many chronic diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, infertility, hypothyroidism, etc.

Teen Aahaar Mantra takes note of this and is designed in such a way that food is not consumed in excess and if it is in excess then body gets easily rid of it by exercise. We can understand it by taking one simple example of a person suffering from chronic disease diabetes mellitus

Person with diabetes mellitus not exercising, he or she starts gaining weight in excess after consuming antidiabetic medicine because these medicines never burn glucose in the body, but, it just shifts glucose from the blood to the cells with the help of forceful insulin secretion or by other method leading to excess fat deposition or it reduces release of glucose from the stored fat and glycogen deposits in the cells back to the blood in between meals by interfering many normal body processes and thus avoids the stored fat from getting removed from the body. In both the conditions, blood glucose levels are shown to be normal in investigations, but the body cells and tissue show excess glucose in the form of glycogen, fat, cholesterol, lipids, etc. The cell gets rid of the deposited glucose in the form of fat by reconverting fat into glucose and burning it as fuel in the mitochondria to generate energy or heat during exercise.

Thus, always eat properly and timely and this can be easily done by following TEEN AAHAAR MANTRA