Reenita's Wisdom

As much as people might recognize that Ayurveda is an ancient medicine from India and that it enhances positive health, most do not realize how intricately it is connected to sustainability.

Translated from Sanskrit as The Science of Life, Ayurveda is probably one of the oldest known systems of sustainable living. Given that it enhances longevity goes to show how important sustainability is…not just as a marketing or lifestyle trend but as a method of achieving long term health.

Ayurveda is the natural medicine of India, about 5,000 years old.  It provides a system for maintaining the health of the mind-body via daily and seasonal self-care practices.  Since disease begins with improper digestion, digestive health and healing lies at the core of Ayurvedic self care.  Food preparation techniques, appropriate food selection and combination, proper eating habits all contribute to preventing ill health.

Living In Harmony With Your Environment

Because Ayurveda is the Science of Life, it provides a set of tools that help you live in harmony with your natural environment. When this happens you can truly maintain a state of balance. This means eating local foods and preparing your meals to balance the effects of seasonal elements on your mind-body. Choosing not to harmonize your living patterns with seasons and geography can throw your health off course ultimately leading to poor health and disease.

You do not have to completely re-invent your life every few months but you should plan to make small changes over the course of the year, to live in harmony with the seasons. While the supermarket can provide all foods all year round, there is a wisdom in eating warming foods in winter or cooling fruits in the summertime. Try eating fresh and organically grown produce, fruits, and vegetables that are available through farms and suppliers close to where you live to be sure that you are in tune with the season and surrounding geography. A perfect reason to sign up for community supported agriculture (CSA) or start regularly visiting your local farmer’s market!

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Image Credit: WordRidden @ Creative Commons

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 Vata Dosha

Vata dosha types are most often digestively challenged.  A tendency towards dryness can easily translate to gas, bloating, colonic gripes, hard stool and other digestive stress.  Follow these tips to optimize digestion for Vata folks:

1. Eat warm, cooked, light foods with sweet, salty, sour tastes.
2. Lubricate dry or raw foods, breads, omelets, with oil, protein and butter
3. Avoid caffeine in excess—this might take practice for coffee addicts!
4. Substitute brown sugar, honey, or maple syrup for white sugar.
5. Avoid gassy, bloating foods such as beans and soda. If you really want to eat beans, cook them with ghee and digestion-aiding herbs such as ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cilantro and dill.
6. Opt for more root vegetables and leafy green vegetables rather than canned or raw vegetables.
7. Eat plenty of fleshy fruits such as peach, mango, papaya, etc. Drink plenty of citrus, fruit and vegetable juices.
8. Avoid meals on the run.  Eat in a calm frame of mind.
9. Do not mix different types of animal proteins such as fish and eggs, milk and meat, or turkey and shellfish.
10. Avoid “low fat” diets. Vata folks need the nutritious quality of fats to keep them warm and to build strength.
11. Sip a specially blended Vata tea (available from health food stores) to help regularize digestion in the colon.
12. Eat many “small” meals through the day to help ramp up your energy level.

Image Credit: ArtofMovement.Net

I often argue that ‘green’ means going back to the ways of the earth.  Unfortunately, the color ‘green’ is is all too often associated with $$.  Not necessarily true. With the Thanksgiving holiday just a few days away, it is easy to splurge on gourmet delicacies in the name of sustainability but if you put your mind to it, you can have a green Thanksgiving on a budget.

So, when NBC11 came to interview me about this last week, I decided to focus on ‘affordability’ above anything else. Of course it was fun walking around the Ferry Building posing as what has popularly come to be known as ‘Brown Martha (Stewart).’  And with plenty of maple leaves to gather from the parks nearby, my table centerpieces turned out to be organic in the true sense of the word.

Click here to view the NBC segment.

And have a wonderful Turkey Day.

Are you wondering how you can get your kids involved with Thanksgiving? Have them create your table centerpiece. Sound complicated?  It’s actually much easier than you might think.

I spent the morning with NBC11 today as they were recording an interview about how to have a Green Thanksgiving (they air the first segment this Thursday at 6.45pm Pacific as part of their Green Week programming, so set your tivo). As SustainLane’s Lifestyle Editor and classified foodie, I am always looking for an excuse to visit the Farmer’s Market, play ‘Martha Stewart‘ at home and basically… talk Turkey!  But this one I could not have managed without the kids. I put together this simple video to show you how they helped.

By the way for more tips on green living ideas, visit www.SustainLane.com.