INTRODUCTION
Ayurveda has traditionally embraced nutrition as a primary strategy for promoting physical and mental wellness. Ayurveda developed rules for making Hippocrates’ admonition to “Let food be thy medicine” feasible hundreds of years before Hippocrates. Food choices, meal timing, and mental state during meals either improve ojas (vitality) or decrease ama (toxicity). The ten guidelines that follow will help you tap into the ancient knowledge of Food Rules in Ayurveda and use it to produce health, vitality, and energy via food.
Here are 10 Food Rules in Ayurveda you must know;
1. Have your largest meal of the day during lunch.
Agni is most powerful when the sun is at its zenith. By eating the biggest meal of the day around noon, the body may utilize its tremendous inner fire to break down and digest nutrients with less energy output than at other times of the day. The midday meal is the greatest time of day to include heavier or more difficult-to-digest meals. This is also the best time to spend on Food Rules in Ayurveda (think an icy drink or sugary treat). By having the heaviest meal around midday, the body is kept energized throughout the afternoon, helping to minimize the “afternoon energy drop.”
Each of these ancient Ayurveda guidelines will help you stay healthy not just by what you eat but also by how you consume it. Furthermore, remember to enjoy your meals and be appreciative of the things you consume along the road
2. Get Rid of Snacks
Ayurveda principles dictate that three stages of digestion must be completed after a meal. The Kapha energies are strong in the first hour after a meal. The body may feel bloated, heavy, and sedentary. Pitta components influence digestion two to four hours after a meal. At this period, hydrochloric acid levels rise, internal heat rises, and the food is converted into nourishment for the body. Vata energies surge four to five hours after a meal. Lightness and space return at this period, and hunger grows.
Incomplete digestion results from disrupting the digestive cycle with extra meals. Incomplete digestion leads to the buildup of ama or toxins over time, which may manifest as a variety of mild to severe symptoms after following the Food Rules in Ayurveda. As a result, Ayurveda suggests three meals each day, with no snacks in between, to maintain digestion and prevent stomach tension.
3. Eat till you are satisfied, not full.
Consider your stomach to be a gas gauge with numbers ranging from one to 10. On that scale, one is entirely empty and 10 is overflowing. When you get to a two, you want to eat, and when you get to a seven, you want to quit. Eating before two puts you in danger of disrupting your digestion cycle. Eating over seven diverts a massive amount of energy away from vital physiological activities.
Apart from the apparent weight gain effect following the Food Rules in Ayurveda also helps, overeating boosts free radical generation in the body, which accelerates the aging process. By putting down your fork when you are content but not filled, you prevent overeating and your body obtains the food it needs without the extra stress of processing and, in many cases, storing, superfluous calories.
4. Quit eating three hours before going to bed.
During sleep, the body repairs heal, and restores itself, while the mind digests the day’s ideas, emotions, and experiences. Physical healing and mental digestion are blocked when the body’s energy is focused on physical digestion. To prevent this imbalance keep following the Food Rules in Ayurveda, Ayurvedic medicine suggests that the final meal of the day be light and finished three hours before bed. As a result, the body’s prana is free to relax and heal at the deepest levels during sleep.
5. Incorporate all six flavors in each meal.
Ayurveda identifies six tastes, each of which sends to the body a particular mix of energy and information. The body acquires a bio-diverse energy palette by combining each of the six flavors throughout every meal. This energetic palate sends signals to the body’s cells that are particular to one of the flavor categories. In general, the six flavors provide the following biological information to the body and maintain the Food Rules in Ayurveda :
Sweet is a grounding, fortifying, and nourishing herb.
Sour: cleaning and cleansing
balancing and regulating
Bitter: cleansing, mineralizing
Astringent properties include anti-inflammatory and cooling properties.
Warming and invigorating.
Strive to include a modest quantity of each flavor in each meal. It might be as little as a sprinkle of salt, a squeeze of lemon, or a sliver of pepper, but as long as the flavor is there, the energy puzzle is complete.
6. Cut down on ice-cold foods and beverages.
Agni, or inner fire, is the digestive force of the physical and energy body. Agni is like a roaring bonfire. It is ideal when it is heated, bright, and capable of digesting food, ideas, emotions, and experiences. To ignite one’s inner fire, avoid ice-cold meals and drinks that dull Agni’s intensity.
If a continual stream of cold food or liquids is ingested, the agni of all doshas might get exhausted. Vata and Kapha doshas should prefer warm meals and drinks, whilst Pitta doshas may appreciate chilled (but not freezing) beverages and snacks which also maintain Food Rules in Ayurveda. The digestive power will be preserved in this manner.
7. Avoid Distractions When Eating
How many times have you eaten while reading a book, watching TV, checking emails, or returning phone calls? If you’re like most people, you’ll say “quite a few.” Mealtime, according to the Food Rules in Ayurveda, is a chance to connect with the inherent energy and knowledge of the food you ingest. Observe the colors, taste the tastes, and raise awareness of the sunlight, soil, and earth that have worked together to make the energy bundles that are food.
If you’re new to eating with deep awareness, start by eating just one meal a day in solitude and concentrating on each of your senses for a few minutes at a time.
8. Eat Whole, Fresh Foods
Prana, or your life force, feeds the body at its most basic level and is responsible for the formation of health, vigor, and energy. Food components such as vitamin, mineral, and phytonutrient content are just reflections of the energetic, or pranic, imprint.
The greatest technique to raise ojas, the provider of life energy in the body, according to the Ayurvedic diet, is to boost prana. Foods rich in prana come directly from the Earth. Their prana was created by combining the powers of the sun, water, and earth. The instant food is selected with the Food Rules in Ayurveda, and its prana starts to dwindle.
As a result, eating foods as close to their harvest period as feasible can build prana more quickly than eating the same foods later in the season. Local community-supported agriculture and farmer’s markets are important options for locating fresh, high-life-force meals.
9. Drink herbal tea between meals.
Tea is more than simply a tasty beverage; it is also a potent healer that may help restore health, vigor, and joy. To prevent diluting agni, liquids, especially teas, should be drunk in moderation (no more than 1/2 cup) with meals. Teas, on the other hand, maybe consumed generously between meals and work as herbal treatments and helps to maintain Food Rules in Ayurveda. Drinking tea between meals provides the body with “liquid medicine,” reduces snack cravings, aids cleansing, and stokes digestive fire.
Warm, spicy drinks with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves help ground and soothe Vata doshas. Pittas, who can drink tea hot or cold, will find cooling herbs like peppermint, coriander, and rose balanced. Using licorice, black pepper, and cardamom, Kaphas will boost energy, digestion, and optimism.
10. Choose Meals Based on Your Dosha Type
According to Ayurveda, each individual has a distinct mind-body constitution called a dosha. The present doshic imbalance, termed vikruiti, is a mixture of two physiologic factors that are heightened by the Food Rules in Ayurveda. Harmony with the body may be restored by consuming meals that reduce the heightened components. In general, the Ayurveda principles listed below may be used to choose and prepare meals for the three doshas:
The Vata dosha (air and space elements) is chilly, dry, light, and abrasive by nature. Consuming items that have the opposite effect generates equilibrium. Excess Vata energy will be restored via meals that are warm (both in warmth and spice), hydrating (such as soups and stews), high in healthy fats (such as olive oil, ghee, organic cream, and avocados), and grounding (think dense, healthy comfort foods).
Pitta dosha (fire and water elements) is characterized by hot, oily, light, and sharp features. As a result, consuming foods that are cold (particularly in terms of internal cooling, as seen with peppermint, cucumber, cilantro, and parsley), astringent (beans, legumes, pomegranate, and green tea), substantial, and gentle can help to reduce Pitta aggravation.
The Kapha dosha (earth and water elements) manifests itself as heavy, chilly, greasy, and smooth. Consuming meals that are light, warm, dry (like beans and popcorn), and rough (think “roughage” like vegetables) can quickly restore Kapha equilibrium.
Find out what dosha type you are here.
