DetailsAyurveda, the traditional medical system practiced in India, considers diet as one of the most critical elements for maintaining disease-free life. Dietary guidelines include the type of food one should eat during different seasons, depending on one's prakriti – body constitution (dosha) type. While both plant-based and animal-based diets are prescribed for maintaining health and for curing different types of diseases, the food itself has been classified as sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic, where sattvic foods are only plant-based whereas meat-based food is classified as tamasic. Diet influences the mind, which in turn affects the balance of dosha (vata, pitta, and kapha), thus leading to diseases. Vata, pitta, and kapha body types have been linked to differential metabolic and gene expression in humans related to their physical and physiological phenotypes. Our research is directed to explore the relationship between diet/dietary components and their effects on various cellular functions, including those of neurons to explore evidence of food's effect on the mind/brain. We will focus on dietary proteins to investigate whether digested peptides from animal and plant sources are bioactive and affect cellular functions, such as apoptosis, gene regulations, and neuronal physiology. We hypothesize that there will be differential cellular responses to digested protein from different sources.
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