Jayadvaita Swami (BTG)
Some Tips for Staying Healthy in India

The two troubles that most commonly afflict the physical bodies of devotees
visiting India are diarrhea and the common cold. Both are easy to avoid, and
easy to recover from.

Diarrhea

How do you get it?

By eating contaminated food, drinking bad water, or (the most usual way) eating
more than you can digest.

How to avoid it?

1. Eat only Krsna-prasadam. Avoid eating food from hotels, sweet shops, food
stalls, and so on.

2. Drink water from reliable sources: taps and pumps approved by the local
devotees, or bottled water. Always safe: water straight from a fresh green
coconut.

3. Don't sleep more than you need to. (The more you sleep, the less you can
digest. A person who works hard, said Srila Prabhupada, can digest even
stones.)

4. Eat wisely.

When you first arrive, take it easy. Long-distance flights disrupt your body's
inner workings. Your digestion may slow down or quit (even without your knowing
it).

When you land, you may want to launch right into a big meal of prasadam. Don't.
For a day or so, give your system a rest. Drink juice, have some fruit. And
after a day or so, when you're really feeling hungry, gradually settle into
taking your regular meals.

Still, if you're coming from a non-tropical climate, your body needs time to
adjust to India. And you should adjust your eating accordingly.

The main way to stay free from stomach problems is not to have them to begin
with.

Here are the main rules:

1. Eat lightly. Eating more than needed is what gets people's stomachs into
trouble. And you might be surprised how much less you need to eat in India. So
eat less. It's good for your body and good for your spiritual life.

When you're not hungry--or you're not sure you're hungry--don't eat. No need to
worry: When you're hungry, Krsna will feed you, rest assured.

2. Suppose you've done it--eaten more than you should. Your body starts feeling
heavy. Your digestion turns sluggish. You start feeling heavy or wierd inside.
What should you do?

Skip your next meal--or even your next two. Give your system a chance to catch
up. Be satisfied with some lemon water. Your body will be grateful.

When your appetite and digestion come back into line and you start eating
normally again, take it easy. Stick to food that's light and easy to digest.

3. When your digestion is weak, prefer food that's light and cooling. Some
foods are light, others heavy. Some cool the body, others heat it up.

Rice is light and cooling. Capatis are heavier and warming. Fried things are
hard on your digestion. The same goes for rich, heavy, or spicy sabjis. Sweets
create heat. (A few heavy sweets can put you out of commission fast.)

Cold drinks--sodas and so on--are heating, not cooling. They may seem cool, but
the sugar in them creates heat in your body. Genuinely cooling: water, coconut
water, or salty lassi.

Kitchri (when hot and nicely made) is easy to digest.

Raw salads are fine when your digestion is strong. Otherwise, count them as
heavy. (No one has cooked them, so your body has to cook them for you.) The
same goes for nuts and dried fruits.

4. Don't drink water too soon before or after eating. You'll kill the fire of
digestion. Before and after you eat, go about an hour without drinking.

How to cure it

Good news: dysentary cures itself. The trouble comes when you overburden your
system. Give your system enough rest, and the trouble goes away. No heavy
medicine required.

Now, here's the natural miracle medicine for diarrhea. It's called Sat Isabgol.
It costs next to nothing, and you can get it at any Indian medical shop or
general store. It's also called Fleaseed Husks.

You take a spoonful or so with yogurt. Once or twice a day. It has no chemical
action, but what it does is cool your insides down and soak up that soupy mess
in your guts. Result: Take this for a day or so and you'll soon be back to
normal.

(By the way, Sat Isabgol taken with milk or water instead of yogurt relieves
constipation. Versatile stuff!)

There's also a miracle diet. Super-light, super-cooling, extremely easy to
digest. What is it? Simple, plain flat rice with yogurt and bananas. Not flat
rice that's cooked, fried, or spiced--just plain. If plain flat rice isn't
being served, you can buy it anywhere. (In Bengali it's called cheera. In
Mayapur it's sold right outside the front gate.) You just wash it like regular
rice, then soak it in water till it's soft. (This should take 5 minutes or
less.) Then you drain off the excess water, mix the rice with plain yogurt, add
some salt and cumin powder. And if you can get some small, ripe bananas, add
them too. And that's it.

This preparation soothes your disrupted insides. And apart from that, it's
delicious.

The Common Cold

How do you get it?

Mainly by exposing yourself to cold drafts. Even when the days are hot, the
mornings and evenings can be cooler than you think.

How to avoid it?

Dress carefully and stay out of drafts. Most of all: Be careful about sleeping
under a fan. The weather's hot when you take rest, and you don't like
mosquitos, so you turn the fan on--and in the morning you've got a cold. A word
to the wise.

How to cure it?

Here's some advice from the Ayurveda: Keep your head and feet warm. (Wear socks
and keep your head covered.) Stay out of drafts. (Skip the fan.) Drink hot
liquids. Dress warmly. Avoid cold things. (Sensible, right? But it works.)

When you have a cold, avoid foods and drinks that are cooling. That means: No
rice, no yogurt, no bananas, no coconut water, no chilled drinks. Instead, take
things that are warming: capatis, sabjis, and so on.

IN CONCLUSION

As long as we have these bodies, we'll always have trouble. But a little care,
a little common sense, and your health in India should be fine.

Hare Krsna.
