Ayurveda nutrition is a whole food system according to the ancient Indian teaching Ayurveda . It is based on meal times, season, and each person’s digestion type.
Features
According to Ayurveda, nutrition by doshas is one of the most important factors affecting a person’s moral and physical health. It is due to the consumption of products containing toxins and slags that the vast majority of health problems arise. The predominance of Pitta , Kapha , or Vata in the human body determines the lifestyle and recommendations for Ayurvedic nutrition, designed to maintain or balance the predominant dosha . Nutrition by doshas:
- Pitta nutrition should contain cool, heavy, and dry food; it should be taken three times a day, avoiding late dinner. You should not consume salty, oily, sour food. Also exclude fried, floury, and fatty foods.
- Kapha should not consume sweet, salty, cold, and spicy food, as people of this type are prone to overweight. The optimal option is hot, light and dry, with plenty of spices. The most dense meal is lunch, breakfast and dinner are light.
- cold Vata is well balanced by hot, oily food, warm drinks. The diet is always at the same time four times a day. Dense meals – breakfast and lunch, light dinner. Rough and cold food, carbonated drinks are contraindicated.
According to Ayurveda, digestive fire Agni is responsible for digestion. It needs to be constantly maintained and strengthened. Only strong Agni contributes to proper assimilation and digestion. A developed meal schedule, the correct combination of products, and the sustained time between meals (4-6 hours) contribute to the strengthening of Agni.
Rules
Ayurvedic nutrition is not a diet in the usual sense of the word, but a certain combination of products and a set of established rules with which you can maintain a healthy balance in the physical and moral appearance of a person.
Food can benefit the body only if it is consumed properly, and Ayurveda takes into account all the factors accompanying food intake, from the quality of products to the state of mind at that time.
One of the most important rules is that you should always adhere to a strict diet characteristic of a particular type of dosha. Despite this, all constitutions obey the general rules of Ayurveda.
- Sweets and sweet fruits should be eaten only for breakfast and lunch. The most dense meal is lunch, the lightest is dinner. This rule applies to all dosha types. Dairy products are recommended to be consumed warm every day, as according to Ayurveda they contribute to the cleansing of the mind.
- You should eat in a calm state, without being distracted by work or watching TV, drinking food with warm water. You should never snack on the run.
- Products used for cooking should be natural. Various artificial dyes and preservatives provoke the formation of slags and toxins harmful to the body.
- To improve the assimilation and digestion of food, you need to add various natural seasonings and spices.
- You need to get up from the table with a slight feeling of hunger, without overeating.
- You should not eat after sunset, as food will not bring benefits at this time.
- Milk should not be mixed with any other food; it can only be seasoned with honey or spices. Be sure to consume warm. Too hot or cold consumption is contraindicated.
- The consumption of potatoes and dishes from it should be very limited, since the starch contained in it is difficult to digest and forms toxins in the body.
- You should never heat honey to melt it. It should become liquid naturally.
- Fruits and vegetables should be consumed in proportion to their ripening time, as the body is set up to digest food according to the time of year. Mixing them with other products is not recommended.
- Melon is never mixed with other products. It is always consumed separately.
- You need to eat at a time when food can be best digested: Breakfast – from 6 to 8 am; Lunch – from 11 to 13 am; Dinner – from 16 to 18 hours. Two hours before bedtime, you can drink tea or a glass of warm milk with honey.
Particular attention should be paid to Ayurveda nutrition for women, which should be based on increasing lunar energy, because the Moon is responsible for female attractiveness, harmonization in personal life, and the correct level of hormones in the female body. To increase lunar energy you need:
- consume warm milk early in the morning or after 6 pm. Milk can be seasoned with honey, sugar or fennel.
- include fruits such as banana (to increase endorphins), plum (contribute to the normalization of heart work, regulate pressure) or pear (awakens leadership qualities) in your diet;
- use honey. A must for every woman, as the most feminine product, personifying love and tenderness.
- consume sweets before 12 pm. Necessary for the normalization and maintenance of hormonal levels.
Combination of products
The main role in Ayurvedic cooking is given to the combination of products and their division into: tamas, rajas and sattva:
- tamas includes products that are chemically processed or grown using fertilizers with various additives and fertilizers: canned goods, eggs, meat, fish, alcohol, frozen products, semi-finished products. It is tamas food that should be excluded from the diet.
- rajas products are fried, stewed, spicy food, sweets, tea, coffee, alcohol;
- sattva products are the most natural and fresh. These are vegetables, fruits, nuts, dairy products. Easily digestible, digestible, the most suitable food for those who suffer from excess weight.
When consuming tamas and rajas products in large quantities, anxiety, nervousness, increased excitability, and decreased performance will be observed. Therefore, the diet should consist of 75-80% of sattva-type products.By adhering to the rules of Ayurvedic cuisine, you can regulate an unbalanced dosha, correct many health problems and restore your peace of mind and balance.
