AYURVEDIC MEDICINE
The Upanishads, or early Forest Teachings in India, extol food as the essence of physical, mental, and spiritual development. The Taittiriya Upa-nishad, for example, states: “From food are born all creatures; they live upon food, they are dissolved in food. Food is the chief of all things, the universal medicine.”
The Caraka Samhita, the principal text of Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of India, dates to the 1st or 2nd century A.D. It also emphasizes the central importance of diet in personal health and development of humanity.
“The use of beneficial food is the only cause of growth of a person, while the use of food that is injurious is the cause of disease.”
“It is in consequence of this deterioration [in diet] that there took place a corresponding deterioration in the sap, purity, taste, potency, post-digestive effect and quality of herbs. In this manner, righteousness dwindles in each succeeding age by one quarter and the proto-elements too suffer deterioration, till eventually the world comes to dissolution.”
Sources: Shree Purohit Swami and W. B. Yeats, translators, The Upanishads (London: Faber and Faber, 1937) and Ram K. Sharma and V.B. Dash, translators, Caraka Samhita (New York: Auromere, 1983).