AYURVEDIC PERSPECTIVE ON HEAVY

Heavy is one of the eight important healing qualities of nature in Ayurveda. Heaviness describes an important experience that our bodies need for health. This quality also frequently shows up in our bodies to communicate illness. Heavy is the opposite of light quality and can be used to treat an imbalance of light. Conversely, light treats imbalanced heavy quality.

When balanced, heavy creates steadiness and stability, keeping our bodies grounded. Fatigue is heaviness in the muscles, encouraging you to rest when you are exhausted or sick. Sleep and relaxation, essential to your health, are heaviness in the mind. Fat is heavy and bulky, protecting your organs and keeping you warm. Heavy emotions such as grief, depression, and sadness help you slow down, giving you time and space to reorganize and reconnect to what's important.

Food is classified as heavy if it does at least one of the following:

• Has ample calories and can be used to gain weight
• Nourishes muscle and fat
• Slows metabolism, circulation, or the breath
• Reduces anxiety, slows thoughts, causes sleepiness
• Coats, covers, congests, or clogs vessels and tissues

The Lost Art of Tonics

Many heavy foods are also tonics. Tonics are foods that increase resiliency and strength. The use of tonics to strengthen the body is a lost art in modern medicine, perhaps because industrialized nations suffer from high rates of obesity. Foods with sweet taste, including proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, increase heaviness and, when used properly, can help debilitated patients rebuild strength after illness.

Rich Food

Some foods create heaviness because they are too rich. Rich foods including carbs, fats, and proteins lull the nervous system into peaceful slumber. They include wheat and bread, dairy and cheese, pork and beef. When the blood is rich and a person content, motivation evaporates and the body feels heavy.

Food Stagnation

Other foods, like beans, may be too difficult to digest. They may sit and churn in the stomach for a long time. Gooey foods like cheese buffer stomach acids, causing food to stagnate in the upper GI tract. As long as food is churning in the stomach, the stomach will draw energy from the rest of your body, leaving you in a sedative food coma.

Warning Signs of Imbalanced Heavy Quality

• Thick coating on the tongue
• Tiredness after eating
• Heaviness in stomach
• Slow, heavy digestion
• Difficulty waking up and getting out of bed
• Difficulty exercising

Causes of Heaviness

Garlic, nutmeg, romaine lettuce, oats, beer, hemp seed, turkey, and pumpkin induce heaviness with their sedative effect on the nervous system. Salty foods induce heaviness by creating water retention. Soy beans increases heaviness because they are estrogenic. Lifestyle habits, including lack of exercise, late night eating, excess sleeping, sleeping on a full stomach, and emotional eating may induce heavy quality. Hot, humid weather can make a person feel heavy, as well as sad news and depression.

Elements, Gunas, Tastes, & Doshas That Increase Heaviness:

• Elements: water, earth
• Gunas: cold, dull, oily, slimy, dense, hard, stable, gross, sticky
• Tastes: sweet, salty, astringent

Herbs That Increase Heaviness:

• Sedatives and relaxants: ashwagandha, bhringaraj, poppy, hops, kava kava, valerian, wood betony, nutmeg
• Anti-diuretic (astringents that bind the kidney): licorice root, valerian
• Estrogenic/Nutritive: shatavari
• Thyroid lowering: brassicas

Complications of Heavy Quality

Changes in weight retard the rate at which we think, speak, and act. Heaviness creates gravitational stress in the knees and lower back. Heaviness, especially when coupled with liver heat and low thyroid, makes tissues and tendons lax, which decreases joint stability. Muscle tone may become lax as well. Excess heaviness slows metabolism and the rate of digestion, causing sloth and sleepiness. Obesity is stubborn, resistant to change and exercise.

Treatment of Heaviness

• Waking up early
• Fasting: kitchari mono-diet
• Exercise and sweating: yoga, sauna
• Pranayama breathing exercises
• Pungent spices: black pepper, cayenne
• Aromatic spices: cardamom, mint
• Bitter foods: kale, arugula

Elements, Gunas, Tastes, & Doshas That Reduce Heavy Quality:

• Elements: ether, air, fire
• Gunas: light, sharp, hot, dry, rough, mobile, subtle, clear
• Doshas: kapha pacifying diet and lifestyle

Foods That Reduce Heavy Quality:

• Stimulants - coffee, caffeine
• Pungents (destroys mucus) - cayenne, black pepper
• Aromatics (disperses) - mint, bitter orange peel, holy basil, fennel, cardamom
• Cholagogue - dandelion leaves, bitter greens
• Diuretics - parsley, celery, asparagus, cilantro, coriander

Herbs That Reduce Heavy Quality:

• Antidepressant: St. John's wort
• Cardiac stimulant: black pepper, cayenne
• Stimulates thyroid: grapefruit, seaweed
• Blood thinners: turmeric, guggulu
• Diuretics such as punarnava
• Honey helps with weight loss and is the preferred sweetener for Kapha

INGREDIENTS THAT ARE HEAVY

About the Author

John Immel, the founder of Joyful Belly, teaches people how to have a healthy diet and lifestyle with Ayurveda. His approach to Ayurveda exudes a certain ease, which many find enjoyable and insightful. His online course Balance Your Ayurvedic Diet in a Week provides tools for gracefully healing with Ayurveda to thousands. John also directs Joyful Belly's School of Ayurveda , which specializes in digestive tract pathology & Ayurvedic nutrition. John and his wife Natalie recently published Explore Your Hunger: A Guide to Hunger, Appetite & Food.

John's interest in Ayurveda and digestive tract pathology was inspired by a complex digestive disorder acquired from years of international travel, including his public service work in South Asia. John's commitment to the detailed study of digestive disorders reflects his zeal to get down to the roots of the problem. His hope and belief in the capacity of each & every client to improve their quality of life is nothing short of a personal passion. John's creativity in the kitchen and delight in cooking for others comes from his family oriented upbringing. In addition to his certification in Ayurveda, John holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University.

John enjoys sharing Ayurveda within the context of his Catholic roots, and finds Ayurveda gives him an opportunity to participate in the healing mission of the Church. Jesus expressed God's love by feeding and healing the sick. That kindness is the fundamental ministry of Ayurveda as well.

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