Sanskrit
कट्वम्ललवणात्युष्णतीक्ष्णरूक्षविदाहिनः । आहारा राजसस्येष्टा दुःखशोकामयप्रदाः ॥
kaṭvamlalavaṇātyuṣṇatīkṣṇarūkṣavidāhinaḥ āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā duḥkhaśokāmayapradāḥ
Translation
The passionate desire foods that are bitter, sour, saline, over-hot, pungent, dry and burning and which produce pain, grief and sickness.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Rajasic food is defined entirely by intensity of sensation — bitter, sour, salty, scorching, pungent — which lines up with rajas’s general character established in Chapter 14 as restless, stimulating, and agitating rather than calming. The Gita is explicit that this comes at a cost (pain, grief, sickness), which is worth reading less as literal nutritional science and more as the chapter’s recurring claim that what excites in the moment and what actually sustains are frequently different things.