Al-Muwafaq 'Abd al-Latif said
It was a custom in India that when they wanted to eat, they would perform ablution.
They would wear clean clothes, smell perfume, and refrain from movements.
They would abandon indecent talk and then approach the food.
The discussion on what is facilitated from all this will come.
Cold foods should be eaten in the summer, and hot foods in the winter; introducing food upon another food is bad.
Likewise, movement after it is harmful.
The physicians said
Movement before food is entirely good, just as it is after it entirely evil.
And its hotness should be balanced with its coldness.
And its sweetness with its sourness.
And its fatness with its saltiness.
Its astringency with its fatness.
Increasing the number of colors confuses the nature.
The delicious is praised except for excess of it and sticking to bland food.
It diminishes appetite and induces laziness.
Excessive sourness accelerates aging.
Continuous consumption of sweets weakens desire and protects the body.
Saltiness dries the body and makes it emaciated.
