आयुःसत्त्वबलारोग्यसुखप्रीतिविवर्धनाः।रस्याः स्निग्धाः स्थिरा हृद्या आहाराः सात्त्विकप्रियाः॥
āyuḥ-sattva-balārogya-sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥrasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛdyā āhārāḥ sāttvika-priyāḥ
Word by word
The verse says
Food that adds to life, clarity, strength, health, cheer and contentment - juicy, smooth, solid, kind to the heart. That is what the clear love.
In plain words
Six things this food adds to, and the list is worth reading. Life, clarity, strength, health, cheer, contentment.
Then four words about the food itself. Juicy. Smooth. Substantial. Agreeable.
Nothing here is austere. This is not a verse about eating less. It is a verse about eating what leaves you better than it found you.
Where you've felt this · in health
You have had two kinds of lunch in your life. One leaves you wanting to lie down with the lights off. The other leaves you still interested in the afternoon. You know perfectly well which foods do which. Nobody ever had to explain it to you, and you knew it long before anyone told you what was healthy.
Going deeper
The test offered here is about what food leaves behind, not what it contains, and that is unusually useful.
Six effects are named: longer life, clarity, strength, health, cheer, contentment. All six are things you notice afterwards. None of them is a rule about particular foods, which means the test survives every change in what people eat and every disagreement about nutrition.
And the food is described warmly. Juicy, smooth, satisfying, pleasing. There is no suggestion that good eating should be grim. That matters, because a great deal of religious seriousness about food turns out to be punishment with a diet attached.
So the question left with you is small and answerable at the next meal. Not: is this allowed. Rather: an hour after eating it, what sort of person does it leave in the chair?