Chapter 9
The Sattvic State
— bliss, the joy of the present — to activate and nourish it —
« Our inner states are not our character: they are weather. And the only animal that can choose its own climate — through food, light, breath, sleep — is us. »
The three weathers of being
Ayurveda names three qualities — the guṇas — that colour every food and every moment: sattva, clarity; rajas, movement; tamas, inertia. But the key that changes everything is this: no one 'is' sattvic, rajasic or tamasic. We pass through them, like climates. Each of us has a default sky, a dominant weather — and each of us can, day after day, shift that sky.
And food is one of the most powerful levers of that shift, because it works in both directions of a single spiral. Downward: a poorly nourished body sleeps badly, feels worse from within, chooses worse, sinks. Upward: nourishing calm and clarity sharpens sleep and the sense of self; we feel better, we choose better, we desire more life. Two staircases — one descending, one rising — and every meal is a step on one of them.
The guṇa colours what we perceive
Here is the dizzying point. The dominant state does not only change mood — it changes the world made visible to us. Under tamas, the world seems heavy, threatening, without exit (an exhausted brain over-detects danger). Under rajas, it seems urgent, to be conquered. Under sattva, the same world seems connected, possible, worthy of trust. We do not merely inhabit different moods: we inhabit different worlds.
Our bad days are not our character — they are our weather. And weather can be fed.
Of these three weathers, two are cultivated: sattva, the state of clarity and joy, which this chapter unfolds; rajas, the state of drive and action, which has its own. The third, tamas, will have no chapter — not out of reticence, but because the other two are already its way out. We will return to it, with compassion, on the final page.
Sattva — clarity and the joy of the present
Sattva is the state where the body is light and the mind clear. Nothing weighs, nothing presses; thought is available, mood settled, and a quiet joy rises to the surface — not euphoria, but the clean taste of the present moment. It is the state of presence, of easy gratitude, of deep rest. It is also the one from which the finest decisions are born, because there we see the real without the veil of fear or urgency.
This state has a measurable terrain. It rests on low inflammation, good vagal tone (the heart-rate variability that marks a settled nervous system), a stable blood sugar that sends neither spike nor crash, and fine interoception — the capacity to feel oneself from within. All of this is built, in part, by what we eat. Sattva is no gift of temperament: it is a terrain we tend.
The table of calm — feeding the system that makes peace
Calm is not a pill: it is a making. The body builds its molecules of appeasement from what we eat. The great evening pathway begins with an amino acid, tryptophan (pumpkin seeds, amaranth, hemp, banana), which becomes serotonin — the messenger of serenity — then, as night falls, melatonin, the hormone that opens sleep. Tryptophan → serotonin → melatonin: the chain of peace.
One subtlety decides everything. Tryptophan is a small traveller that must cross the brain's barrier in competition with larger amino acids. For it to pass, a little gentle carbohydrate is needed: the slight rise in insulin pushes its rivals aside and lets it through. This is why a wholly protein evening meal makes for poor sleep, while a touch of complex carbohydrate — the soft evening bowl — invites calm. The grandmothers' wisdom and their warm honeyed milk were an active formula.
Magnesium — the brake pedal
The mineral of release. It supports GABA, the great inhibitory neurotransmitter, and blocks the excitatory NMDA receptors. It is found in raw cacao, pumpkin seeds, buckwheat, leafy greens; as an evening supplement, the bisglycinate form is the gentlest — it pairs magnesium with glycine, which also acts on sleep.
Glycine — the signal of the descent
This gentle, discreet amino acid slightly lowers the body's core temperature — precisely the signal the brain reads as the hour to sleep. Yamadera's work showed that three grams before bed shorten sleep onset and improve sleep quality. It is found in sesame and spirulina.
Sleep — the first threshold
Sleep is the daily threshold of sattva — the nightly workshop where the brain washes itself, the body repairs, memory is filed. And the last thing we eat writes its first hour: to sleep well is, quite literally, the first sattvic act of the day to come.
The joy of the present — beyond sleep
Sattva is not reduced to sleeping well. Sleep is its threshold; presence is its day. A meal eaten slowly, the first three mouthfuls in silence, the unforced gratitude that precedes the first spoon: all of this opens the parasympathetic system and makes food something other than mere provisioning. The table becomes a place of presence, and presence is the door to joy.
This is how the spiral rises. A nourished night makes the morning clear; a clear morning makes attention available; available attention tastes the moment better; and the savoured moment gives a desire for more life, and so for more right gestures. Joy is not a distant reward: it is what begins to surface as soon as the terrain settles, step by step.
Bliss is not ecstasy — it is the clean taste of the present moment, when nothing more weighs between it and us.
The third weather — a parenthesis of compassion
And here sattva reveals its true nature: the way out. We do not leave tamas by effort — will is precisely the faculty that heaviness extinguishes. We leave it through a first gesture of clarity that reopens the capacity to feel: a glass of water, a living fruit, ten minutes of light, a night at last nourished. The hand held out is not a speech, it is a food. This chapter, and the next, are that hand.
“Our bad days are not our character: they are our weather. And the only animal that can choose its inner climate is us.”
Virgile Escalant · chef-alchemist
Frequently asked questions
What is the sattvic state in food?
Sattva, in Ayurveda, is the quality of clarity, lightness and quiet joy. A sattvic food nourishes without weighing down and leaves the mind clear: fresh fruits and vegetables, well-prepared grains and legumes, soaked almonds, raw honey never heated, gentle spices. In the body, this state rests on low inflammation, good vagal tone, stable blood sugar and a refined sense of self. It is not a temperament but a terrain: it is cultivated, meal after meal, and recognised by the presence and deep rest it makes possible.
Which foods support good sleep in the evening?
Sleep is prepared by a precise chain: tryptophan (pumpkin seeds, amaranth, hemp) becomes serotonin then melatonin, and a little gentle carbohydrate helps that tryptophan reach the brain. The evening allies: amaranth and squash (tryptophan, magnesium), magnesium bisglycinate and glycine (which lowers body temperature, the signal of sleep), a spoonful of raw honey (which refills the liver and prevents night waking), Montmorency tart cherry (a source of melatonin), and infusions of lemon verbena, orange blossom or chamomile. Conversely, cacao and coffee are kept for the morning, as their stimulants still work in the evening.
Is a little sugar in the evening good or bad for sleep?
It is all a question of dose and nature. A little gentle carbohydrate in the evening is no fault: it opens the tryptophan pathway to the brain and refills the liver's glycogen, which can prevent the three-o'clock waking (when an empty liver triggers a rise of cortisol). This is the meaning of the spoonful of raw honey at bedtime. Conversely, an excess of fast sugar or a heavy meal does the opposite: a blood-sugar spike then crash, a digestion that delays sleep. The right rule: light, mineral, just carbohydrate enough to cross the night — neither deprivation nor overload.
The booklet
- Opening
The Intelligence of the Body
Precise and accurate knowledge
Intelligence is already here, within our body — perhaps the most sophisticated and subtle technology known.
- — I —
Energy
the inner flame
We do not eat — we burn stored light. The body is a solar machine running on two fuels.
- — II —
Proteins
the brick of the living — and its hidden origin
Meat does not contain proteins — it only carries them. The source is the plant.
- — III —
Minerals
the body's lattice
The body is a living geological formation — every mineral becomes an enzyme, a bone, a nerve, a thought.
- — IV —
Recipes & Tips
daily practice
The precious tips that elevate my cooking — soak, cook low, tune the umami, vary the oils, dose the acid, sweeten with plants — and the right tools, to wake the full intelligence of living matter.
- — V —
Ingredients & Suppliers
the chain of care
I share here my favourite foods and my gem suppliers — those that make plant-based food nourishing and delicious.
- — VI —
Ayurvedic Intelligence
six tastes, one fire
A science three thousand years old described, without a microscope, what biochemistry rediscovers today — every meal is a complete sensory pharmacology.
- — VII —
Macrobiotic Intelligence
the Qi of food — Japan & China
The cuisines of East Asia do not nourish matter alone: they set energy in motion. Eating becomes an art of balance — yin and yang, the living Ki, deep umami.
- — VIII —
The Intelligence of Biohacking
giving the body back its signals and its common sense
The humblest science adds nothing to us: it gives the body back the ancestral signals it has awaited for three hundred thousand years. The most powerful hack is a return.
- — 9 —
The Sattvic State
bliss, the joy of the present — to activate and nourish it
Our inner states are not our character: they are weather. And the only animal that can choose its own climate — through food, light, breath, sleep — is us.
- — 10 —
The Technology of Rest and Sleep
the great nightly workshop — and the art of recovery
Sleep is not lost time: it is the body's most active workshop. And rest, chosen, is not an absence — it is a regeneration. We do not force sleep: we invite it, by giving it back its signals.
- — 11 —
The State of Action
drive, strength, focus — to light it with intelligence
Action is not a matter of willpower alone: it is a chemistry the body mobilises — and that food lights or extinguishes. To understand this system is to stop enduring your energy and start steering it.
- — 12 —
Feminine Intelligence
nourishing the rhythms of women's bodies — cycle, transitions, carrying life
Women's bodies live in rhythms — the cycle of the month, the great transitions of a life. None is a problem to correct: they are intelligences to accompany. We treat nothing — we nourish the terrain, so that vitality returns on its own.