AYURVEDIC PERSPECTIVE ON EASY
Elements: Water, Earth
Balanced by '
Difficult'.
Easy refers to anything easy to digest, or digests quickly.
How would you like to improve your digestion by making a few simple changes in your diet?
The key is to eat fewer difficult to digest foods, and choose others that don't challenge your digestive tract quite so much.
With that simple change your system will process food with less fatigue, and have more time to rest between meals.
And you'll take back some of the energy you now spend digesting your food.
You can also look forward to improved health.
Keep reading to learn how.
Why Your Digestive System Needs Easy to Digest Foods
Difficult to digest foods force your body to work hard to break them down so they can be assimilated into your body.
Examples include beans, which are difficult because they contain natural protein digestion inhibitors (saponins) to protect them from insect invasion.
Heavy, dense foods like meat, nuts, cheese, and wheat are also difficult to digest.
In contrast, cooked apples, bone broth, avocado or zucchini (to name just a few) are easy to digest.
Difficult to digest foods sit longer in your body and attract bacteria that feast on them, producing fermentation, toxins and gas. The bacteria also leave their waste products (bacteria poop) behind - a growing pile of toxins.
If not regularly removed, the toxins overflow into your bloodstream and begin to wreak havoc all over your body.
Easy to digest foods, on the other hand, glide through your digestive tract. You quickly absorb their nutrients, and your body efficiently dumps the waste before it ferments.
This process is effective and gives your digestive system ample time to rest between meals.
And because it is quick, you accumulate many fewer toxins.
Digestion Takes Work
Every day you use up to
30 percent of the energy (10 percent on average) from your daily calorie intake on digesting and assimilating your food.
Fat digestion uses up just 3 percent of the calories it releases, carbs 5 to 10 percent. And, it takes up to 30 percent of the calories released by protein to digest and assimilate it into your body.
If you suffer from indigestion your digestive system needs even more energy to get the job done.
This is taxing and deprives your body and digestive organs of the rest they need to work effectively.
Digestion, Illness and Brain Fog
When you are sick, easy to digest foods reduce the burden on your digestive organs and give your body extra energy to heal itself.
Reducing your digestive load also boosts your agni (metabolic fire) a Sanskrit word that describes the energy used for digestion.
And would you like to think more clearly?
Easy foods pull less blood into the digestive tract, leaving more for the brain.
On the other hand, heavy foods cause "food coma" or sleepiness after eating.
Remember how you felt after eating a big holiday dinner? Probably more like taking a nap than working out a complex math problem or tackling a challenging crossword puzzle..
What Foods are Easy to Digest?
Generally cooked, soft, and soupy foods are easy to digest.
Think baby food.
No one gives a baby steak or a salad to wean it from mother's milk. Instead, babies get mashed bananas and carrots.
The idea is to get maximum nutrition with the least amount of digestive effort. Rice soups with steamed carrots is ideal.
Sunflower seeds and fish are some of the most easily digestible proteins.
Ayurveda's Specialty
Digestion is Ayurveda's speciality and gift. It offers a straightforward approach to treating digestive disorders, including more advanced conditions like IBS and Crohn's.
Everyone has a different amount of power in their digestive tract. A consultation with an Ayurvedic practitioner can help evaluate your particular situation and help you design solutions that are unique to you.
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