Bg. 17.8

It is well known that sattvic foods increase the life span (āyuḥ). They also increase strength of will (sattva) as well as physical strength, freedom from disease, happiness and delightfulness in eating them. The food should be tasty or juicy (rasyāḥ). Jaggery has taste but is coarse or dry. Sattvic food should thus be mild, with oil (snigdhā). The foam of milk, though tasty and mild, is insubstantial. Sattvic food should be substantial, with long lasting effect in the body (sthirā). Jack fruit and other items are sweet, mild, and substantial, but are not beneficial to the stomach and other organs. Sattvic food should thus also be beneficial to the heart, stomach and other organs (hṛdyā) as well. Thus it is understood that foods such as rice, wheat, other grains, milk and sugar are dear to the sattvic people, because they have all four of the above mentioned qualities. As those foods are dear to them, the foods are understood to be sattvic. However, even if food has those four qualities, if it is impure, the sattvic people do not like it. Thus, purity should be added as a quality of sattvic food. One should compare the description of tamasic food mentioned later. The adjective used to describe tamasic food is amedhya, ritually impure, not to be offered in sacrifice.