17.8

Sanskrit

आयुःसत्त्वबलारोग्यसुखप्रीतिविवर्धनाः । रस्याः स्निग्धाः स्थिरा हृद्या आहाराः सात्त्विकप्रियाः ॥

āyuḥsattvabalārogyasukhaprītivivardhanāḥ rasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛdyā āhārāḥ sāttvikapriyāḥ

Translation

The foods that augment vitality, energy, vigour, health, joy and cheerfulness, delicious, bland, substantial and agreeable, are dear to the pure.

Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain

Explanation

There’s a small wordplay worth noticing here that the English can’t quite preserve: the compound listing what sattvic food increases includes “sattva” itself in the sense of vital force or constitution, distinct from but clearly echoing the guna name — the text is having it both ways, describing food that builds bodily sattva and belongs to the sattva disposition. The list otherwise reads as a fairly ordinary ancient dietetic ideal: food valued for nourishment and steadiness rather than intensity.