Your diet is not only what you eat. It’s what you watch, what you listen to, what you read, the people you hang around… be mindful of the things you put into your body emotionally, spiritually, and physically. This is the Rasta way of thinking and a big part of their spiritual way of life which is very much connected to the earth, as much or more so than Native Americans, as they also largely live off the land.
The ital diet, also spelled I-tal, is a diet celebrated by members of the Rastafari movement that emphasizes eating fresh, organic, and preferably homegrown produce. The goal of the diet is to increase “life energy” or livity by eating foods that enhance it. Livity is the belief that an energy or life-force flows through all people and living things.
The diet has some universal rules, including:
Avoid chemically modified foods
Avoid foods with artificial additives
Avoid added fats and salts
No salt
No meat
No dairy
No metal or plastic cookware
No alcohol
Moderate white foods
Natural sugar
Most expressions of the Ital diet include adherence to a strict vegetarian diet. Some adherents to Ital diets are strict vegans, as they do not consider dairy to be natural for human consumption either. Many also avoid pork, shellfish, caffeine, and artificial additives.
Some Rastafarian dishes include:
Yams, plantain bananas, festival, callaloo, chocho, bean curry, garden vegetable stew, and medicinal plants.
Source Family salad dressing:
