How to Transform Your Health with an Ayurvedic Diet

Food for Wellness

In my previous article, I introduced you to Jivananda—a lifestyle regimen based on the principles of Ayurveda to bring in eternal bliss into our lives. Today I would like to discuss one of the most important aspects of Ayurveda—food.

According to Ayurveda, food is not only a mixture of all the basic ingredients like proteins, vitamins, fats and carbohydrates, but it is also something, which serves as a source of energy for the mind and the soul as well. After digestion, food is either converted into Ojas or Ama, depending whether the food consumed is pro-Ayurvedic or ante-Ayurvedic. Ojas is the most refined product of the digestive process—the biochemical essence that sustains life and health. Ama is the toxin formed from improper metabolism of the food. Therefore, the food chosen, cooked and consumed in accordance with the Ayurvedic principles is finally converted to Ojas which provides vigour, strength, and vitality to all tissues (dhatus).

According to Ayurveda, your dietary needs are as unique as you. An ideal diet is determined after considering your body constitution (Vata, Pitta or Kapha doshas), age and gender, environment, and your needs for balancing the doshic tendencies at any given time. This can be best assessed and decided by an Ayurvedic doctor. Ayurvedic healers generally design individualised diets for people they treat, based on the above factors as well as the strength of the body tissues and the digestive fires, the level of Ama (toxins) in the body, place of living, and the season. Moreover, besides choosing the right kind of food, it is also important that you must adopt an Ayurvedic style of cooking and consuming food for your digestion to work efficiently.

But there are some diet and digestion principles that are universally applicable and can be easily put into practice by everybody for healing diseases, prolonging the life span and welcoming happiness. Below, I shall discuss the kind of food and suggested methods of food consumption that are generally healthy for people with any dosha type.

Instructions

1. Step 1
   Vegetables

   What to Eat
   Ayurveda classifies different varieties of food according to the characteristics such as taste, physical attributes, effect on the non-physical aspects of the physiology, etc. People desiring to follow an Ayurvedic lifestyle should include some elements from each of these categories.
   The Six Tastes
   In Ayurveda, food is classified into six tastes—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Ayurveda recommends that you include all the six tastes at each main meal you eat. Each taste has a balancing capacity in addition to the ability to aid digestion and minimise craving. The general trend in our diet tends to have too much of the sweet, sour and salty aspects of taste but not enough of the bitter, pungent and astringent tastes.

   A fruit-spice chutney or a spice-mix can provide a little of each of the six tastes if you are in a hurry, but it is ideal to choose food items from each category for a complete and balanced nutrition. In the category of fresh vegetables and herbs, for example, you can choose fennel bulb or carrot for the sweet taste, fresh lemons for sour, arugula or endive for bitter, radish, white daikon or ginger root for pungent and cabbage, broccoli or cilantro for astringent tastes.

   The Amalaki Rasayana, made from the Amla (gooseberries) fruit, offers five of the six Ayurvedic tastes—all but salty.

   Balancing Doshas with Different Physical Attributes of Food
   In Ayurveda, foods are also categorised according to their physical properties such as heavy or light, dry or unctuous/liquid and warm or cool (temperature). These different qualities balance different doshas. A balanced main meal should contain some food items of each physical type. Remaining within this overall principle, you can vary the proportions of each type based on your constitution and need for balance, the season of the year and the place you
   live in.

   For example, to keep Vata dosha in balance, choose more heavy, unctuous/liquid, and warm foods, and fewer dry, light or cool foods. To help balance Pitta, focus more on cool, dry and heavy foods, and to balance Kapha, try more of light, dry and warm foods.

   If you live in cooler climes, you will want to gravitate towards warm comfort foods, and vice versa. Similarly, in winter, when Vata dosha tends to increase in most people’s constitutions, almost everyone can benefit from including warm soups and nourishing dals, fresh paneer or cottage cheese and whole milk in the diet. In the summer, try t

2. Step 2

   

   Herbs

   Enhancing Digestion and Assimilation with Spices
   Spices and herbs are concentrated forms of Nature’s healing intelligence. They are particularly revered in Ayurveda for their ability to enhance digestion and assimilation and to help cleanse ama (toxins) from the body. They possess Yogavahi property that is the ability to transport the healing and nutritive value of other components of the diet to the cells, tissues and organs.

   Spices, in Ayurveda, are generally eaten cooked. You can sauté spices in a little olive oil or ghee (clarified butter) and pour the mixture over cooked food for taste. Alternately you can simmer spices with foods like beans or grains as they cook. Fresh herbs such as cilantro or mint are generally added at the end of the cooking process, just before serving.
   Ayurveda recommends spices/herbs to stimulate the digestion before a meal, during a meal and after a meal. Eating a bit of fresh ginger and lemon, about 30 minutes before a main meal, helps kick-start the digestion. Eating dishes cooked with a variety of spices and herbs helps the process of digestion—absorption, assimilation and elimination. Chewing fennel seeds after meals helps digestion and freshens up the breath.

   Ayurvedic rasayanas such as Amalaki and Triphala offer additional ways to help nourish and cleanse the digestive system. Amalaki Rasayana nourishes the body tissues, helps enhance digestion and balances the production of stomach acid. Triphala Rasayana helps in toning and cleansing the digestive tract and in nourishing the different tissues.

3. Step 3

   
   How to Eat
   Following Ayurvedic routines for good digestion is accorded equal importance in maintaining good health in Ayurveda. Just as choosing improper food for your constitution can lead to imbalances, following improper routines and habits can wreak havoc on your digestion, turning even carefully chosen and prepared foods into ama or toxins in your system rather than ojas, the biochemical essence that supports all aspects of life, health, bliss and longevity.

   Here, I shall elaborate on some universally applicable principles of eating that Ayurveda recommends for keeping your digestion working efficiently.

   Take Three Course Meals a Day
   Fasting and skipping meals are not recommended in Ayurveda because they disturb the digestion rhythm. A light breakfast, a substantial lunch and a light dinner allow you to keep in tune with the ebb and flow of the digestive fire, which builds up during the morning, peaks around noon and then ebbs again in the evening.

   As soon as you get up, drink a cup of hot water to which a tablespoon of lemon juice has been added. This will help elimination, get the digestive juices flowing, and cleanse out the digestive tract. Caffeinated beverages are not recommended in Ayurveda.
   A light breakfast is essential to kick-start digestion as it provides energy necessary to get through the activity of the day. Have a stewed apple or pear, and then follow it up 30 minutes later with some warm cereal or a whole-wheat flatbread spread with a little honey or almond butter. Warm cooked foods are preferred as breakfast items over cold cereal, cold milk and cold juice,
   all of which are harder on the
   waking digestive fire.

   For a mid-morning snack, choose fresh fruit—an apple for Kapha, a sweet pear for Pitta and a mango or some strawberries for Vata. Fruit is best eaten in the morning, and on its own.

4. Step 4

   
   The ideal Ayurvedic lunch includes two or three kinds of vegetables, one of which should be a leafy green one, a lentil or bean dish or a paneer dish, a whole grain, a chutney or relish, a small helping of a warm salad or soup, and lassi—a beverage made by blending together fresh yogurt and water. All the dishes should be cooked with dosha-appropriate spices. Use a dosha-appropriate healthy fat as medium; ghee for Vata and Pitta and olive oil for Kapha are good choices. This may seem like a huge meal, but portions can be kept small to moderate—the variety is crucial for wholesome, balanced nutrition.

   If you need a mid-afternoon snack, eat a small helping of soaked nuts (almonds should be blanched) if you are trying to balance Vata, or some sunflower or pumpkin seeds if you are trying to balance Pitta or Kapha. Popcorn in moderation without salt or butter is also fine for Kapha, and soaked blanched almonds for Pitta.

   For dinner eat a small and light meal. For example, a one-dish vegetable/grain casserole or a vegetable/lentil soup with a whole-wheat flatbread can be an ideal dinner.

   Drink lots of pure water through the day, but limit your water or beverage intake at meals. Do not drink iced, carbonated or caffeinated beverages and avoid alcohol and milk with meals.

   At bedtime, drink a cup of warm milk spiced with nutmeg for Vata, cardamom for Pitta and ginger for Kapha.

   Fresh food is easier to digest, so cook only what you think you can finish in one sitting. To enhance your appetite, have a slice of fresh ginger root spiked with some rock salt and fresh lemon juice about an hour before a meal. Chew fennel seeds after a meal to enhance digestion and freshen up the breath naturally. Taking rasayanas such as Amalaki and Triphala after a meal also boosts digestion and assimilation and helps the system flush out Ama regularly.