Ayurvedic Cooking

In Ayurveda, diet and digestion are accorded equal importance to maintaining good health. Just as the choice of food unfit for your constitution can lead to imbalances, following routines and habits incorrectly can cause havoc on your digestion, turning even carefully chosen and prepared foods into ama or toxins in your system ojas rather than the biochemical essence that supports all aspects of life, health, happiness and longevity.

Here are some universally applicable principles of eating that ayurvedic healers recommend you keep your digestive system working effectively:

1. Eat three meals a day. Fasting and skipping meals are not recommended in Ayurveda, as they throw off the rhythm of digestion. A light breakfast, a substantial breakfast and a light dinner allow you to keep pace with the ebb and flow of the digestive fire, which accumulates in the morning, peaks around noon and then ebbs again in evening.

Once you get up, drink a cup of hot water to which a tablespoon of lemon juice was added. This will help eliminate, get the digestive juices flowing, and cleanse the digestive tract. drinks containing caffeine are not recommended in Ayurveda.

A light breakfast is essential to start the digestion and provide energy to pass through the activity of the day. If you wait until lunch to eat a good meal, chances are you'll be tempted to Wade in this package of potato chips or a donut to get some time in the morning. Have an apple or pear, then follow 30 minutes later with some hot cereal or a loaf of whole wheat with a little honey spread or almond butter. Warm cooked foods are preferred as breakfast items on cold cereal, cold milk and cold juice, which are more difficult on the digestive fire alarm.

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

The ideal ayurvedic lunch includes two or three kinds of vegetables, one of whom should be a leafy green and a lentil or bean dish or a paneer dish, a whole grain, chutney or relish, aid to small a warm salad or soup, and lassi, a drink made by blending fresh yogurt and water. All dishes must be cooked with spices, dosha-appropriate, and using a dosha-appropriate health care for fat ghee Vata and Pitta and Kapha olive oil for good choices. This may seem a huge meal, but some can be kept small to moderate, the variety is essential for healthy, balanced diet.

If you need a snack mid, eat a little help of nuts soaked (almonds should be blanched) if you try to balance Vata, or some sunflower or pumpkin seeds if you try 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 light meal one pot dish of vegetables, grain or a vegetable / lentil soup with a loaf of whole wheat, for example.

Drink plenty of pure water in the day, but limit your consumption of water or drinks with meals. Do not drink iced drinks or beverages containing caffeine and avoid alcohol and milk with meals.

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

Fresh foods are easier to digest, so cook only what you think you'll eat in a meal. To improve the appetite, a slice of fresh ginger root mixed with rock salt and fresh lemon juice about an hour before a meal. Chew fennel seeds after a meal to enhance digestion and freshen breath naturally. Taking as Amalaki and Triphala Rasayanas after a meal also boosts digestion and assimilation and helps the system flush out ama regularly.

2. Eat at roughly the same.