Reenita's Wisdom

Once you’ve identified your primary Ayurvedic dosha or mind-body constitution, you can work towards achieving perfect health by eating to for your dosha-type. This could mean that you need to experiment with making a few changes to your diet that will help keep your body in balance. Of course, you won’t be able to stick to these guidelines all the time, but being conscious of your body’s natural tendencies is a great way to help control your moods, keep your energy up, and maximize your ojas, or vitality.

How to Eat for the Kapha Dosha

1.    Eat warm, cooked, light foods with bitter, pungent and astringent tastes.
2.    Avoid heavy oils and butters. Opt for lighter oils such as olive or canola oil.
3.    Avoid caffeine in excess and sugars—try cutting down on the mochas and opting for tea instead.
4.    Avoid heavy, congestive foods that are difficult to digest such as pastas, breads and cakes.
5.    Eat plenty of dark leafy green and brightly colored vegetables like celery, carrots, spinach, and tomatoes.
6.    Eat plenty of citrus fruits and berries. Drink citrus, fruit and vegetable juices.
7.    Avoid more than three meals or snacks in a day and maintain a gap of at least four hours between meals.
8.    Avoid high protein diets for extended periods—the lack of other nutrients will begin to set off imbalances in your doshas.
9.    Sip a specially blended Kapha tea (available from health food stores) to balance digestion in the stomach and prevent discomfort during and after mealtimes.
10.    Flush your system with water through the day—aim for at least 48 ounces.
11.    Make sure that dinner is the lightest meal of the day and try to eat no later than sunset.

For more tips about eating right for your dosha type, check out Inner Beauty.

Image credit: http://www.sailusfood.com

How many times have you heard the cliché “You are what you eat”? I think that when it comes to staying healthy, most clichés originated from Ayurveda. According to this ancient healing science, everything that you eat, and the way you eat it, has a strong effect on your mind and body. So not only the food and herbs that you eat, but the amount you eat, the timing of your meals and snacks, and the combinations of flavors all influence your well being. Ayurvedically speaking, food and cuisine can have a medicinal effect. When you eat well, you maximize your vitality or ojas. Ayurveda recommends whole, nutritious foods and eating patterns that are tailored to balance your mind-body constitution or prakruti (primary dosha).

There are no “bad” foods in Ayurveda—there is only the idea of balance. A harmonious diet balances not only nutritional qualities, but tastes and even the heating or cooling energetic effects of a food after it is digested. It takes into account single raw materials such as fruits, meats and vegetables as well as they meals that they combine into once they are cooked. While there is an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, and many Indians are vegetarian, Ayurveda in itself does not prescribe vegetarianism. In fact, a whole array of meats and fish are emphasized in the ancient texts.

But Ayurvedic doctors do recommend a diet that is pure and close to nature with plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish and lean meats, combined with herbs and spices that will purify and balance the mind and body. Moreover, if you are to truly benefit from these foods then it is important that each meal reflect the natural colors and flavors of the ingredients. Poor digestion, stemming from an unbalanced diet, is one of the first signs of ill health. When your diet is out of balance, not only are food nutrients are not easily absorbed, but they can also accumulate as toxins.

Since your digestive tract is the origin for imbalances, ahar or diet is always considered to be the first order of medicine. And since preventative medicine is the only surefire way to ward off disease, eating Ayurvedically as often as you can, will help you to stay healthy for the long term. Although this healing science originated in India, Ayurvedic cooking encompasses so much more than merely Indian food. As long as it is prepared per Ayurvedic principles, it can draw from just about any cuisine. You can have fun mixing and matching your favorite foods with Ayurvedic herbs, ingredients and cooking techniques to yield flavorful cuisine. It is simple to prepare, yet easy for the body to assimilate into the raw building blocks for health and vitality.

Understanding the concept of Rasa or ‘taste’ is critical for understanding the medicinal value of foods. There are six different tastes, each of which has a post-digestive energetic effect on the doshas, influencing the ultimate state of the mind and body. Most foods are a combination of tastes.

In the West we think of a balanced meal as one which combines carbohydrates, proteins, fats and so on. In Ayurveda, a balanced meal is one that comprises all six tastes. We can then further tailor to dosha balancing needs by having more of some tastes than others. A healthy person is able to enjoy all of the six tastes, but if vikruti (imbalance) exists then we might develop an aversion to foods with similar qualities as the doshas that are imbalanced. These foods are then no longer palatable, no longer medicinal and in fact become unhealthy for us. So, we need to reduce these and use other foods as medicine to rebalance.

There are six tastes in Ayurvedic cuisine –

Sweet Foods with a sweet taste are calming and soothing to the system. Their grounding qualities balance Vata and their cooling qualities balance Pitta. But taken in excess, these foods will imbalance Kapha creating heaviness and slowing digestion. Sweet foods include sugar, honey, milk, sesame seeds, fruits and vegetables with a naturally sweet taste such as bananas, yams or fennel and also carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice or bread.

Bitter Foods with a bitter taste create lightness and clarity. They balance Kapha and Pitta but taken in excess, they aggravate Vata inducing dryness in the skin. Bitter foods include olives, dark leafy green vegetables like spinach or mustard greens, and coffee.

Sour Foods with a sour taste stimulate digestion. Their warming qualities balance Vata but taken in excess they will disturb Kapha and Pitta increasing body weight and skin sensitivity. Sour foods include yogurt and sour cream, citrus fruits, tomato or fermented foods such as vinegar and pickles.

Pungent Foods with a pungent taste decongest the system increasing digestion. Their drying and heating properties balance Kapha but taken in excess, these foods can disturb Pitta and Vata creating excess internal heat and dryness. Pungent foods include garlic, onions, wasabi and hot spices like ginger, cumin and black pepper.

Salty Foods with a salty taste are calming and enhance digestion. Their warming qualities balance Vata but taken in excess, they can disturb Kapha and Pitta leading to water retention and internal inflammation. Salty foods include seaweeds, salted chips and foods, and soy sauce.

Astringent Foods with an astringent taste create lightness. Their cooling properties balance Pitta and their drawing properties balance Kapha but taken in excess these foods can disturb Vata creating dryness and flatulence. Astringent foods include pomegranates, aloe vera, green grapes and chickpeas. All the six tastes translate into one of three post digestive tastes: sweet and salty tastes end up as sweet tastes and are digested in the stomach by the Kapha dosha. So, these foods should be eaten first, which makes a great case for having bread before a meal! Sour tastes remain sour and are digested in the small intestine by the Pitta dosha. These should be eaten next. Pungent, bitter and astringent tastes all end up as astringent and are digested in the colon by the Vata dosha and should be eaten last.

In the West, meals are typically served in courses. But in India small portions of food representing each of the six tastes are put together on large platters called thalis. This way, we can pick and choose what food to eat in the preferred order and also adjust our intake of the tastes according to the doshas we are aiming to balance.’

– Taken from ‘Inner Beauty ‘Discover natural beauty and well being with the traditions of Ayurveda”

I find it hard to identify my favorite Ayurvedic remedy but if I must pinpoint a wonder-drug then honey is probably the first that comes to mind. The health benefits of honey are plenty, it has been used as a medicine for centuries.

Extremely high in antioxidants, honey is a great immune booster and has huge benefits for almost every dosha. Moreover, its soothing quality makes it perfect for healing wounds. Ayurvedically speaking, it has been used for situations related to internal or external bleeding.

The Honey Book is a highly recommended read about the health benefits of honey.

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