Even more fundamental to health than the type of food, vitamins etc is breathing.
Interesting site devoted to breathing and especially the idea that overbreathing is the root cause of many disease conditions.Paradoxically overbreathing reduces tissue oxygen content.Seems that there has been lots of published research on the connection between overbreathing and disease.There has even been doubling in average breathing rates in liters per minute over the past century as our lives have been made so much easier and involve much less exertion. See the connection to cancer, heart disease, diabetes etc....
http://www.normalbreathing.com/
Based on the work of Buteyko(who discovered the connection between chronic overbreathing and asthma) Frolov and others. They are just the modern ones, the Indians knew about the importance of breathing for thousands of years and therefore it is central to yoga.
