AYURVEDIC PERSPECTIVE ON HEAVY
Heavy is identified by sedation, sluggishness, or increased weight.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
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