Reenita's Wisdom

If you are like most people, then your new year probably started out with resolutions for trimming your waistline. A great intention but how committed are you? While most people have good intentions on January 1st, come mid month, they are all too willing to slip back into old patterns of comfort eating. This year, instead of training your belly, why not try training your mind instead?

Mindful eating is not rocket science.  In days when life was not all about TV dinners and eating on the go, people would actually have longer and more enjoyable meals that actually resulted in skinnier waistlines.  Think “French family dinners”  which are inevitably a social event. Traditionally, the focus has always been on the food and the wine. Well, it’s no Ayurvedic secret that focusing on food, aids digestion. [...]

The monsoon season may not considered to be the ideal time to travel in India but if you are looking for a green spa retreat amidst the chirping of birds around a large lake then try the Coconut Lagoon. Situated on the banks of Lake Vembanad, the largest lake in Kerala, this unique health resort offers ayurveda, yoga, and kalaripayattu (ancient martial arts) in old world Kerala style living. It provides the perfect retreat from fifth gear living and its core values abide by the the name of its owner, the CGHearth group, which stands for Clean, Green, Healthy Earth. In the monsoon season, the air is dense with moisture making the flora of the Kerala backwaters seem greener and even more abundant than the rest of the year. [...]

The mango is so widely available in India, that the fruit itself is named aam which translates from Sanskrit as common. Even though the Indian subcontinent is home to more than a thousand varieties of mango, most Indians identify the fruit with the Alphonso variety.

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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

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”