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Recipes with Apple (cooked): Baked Apple with Rosemary
Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away? It's a familiar American adage that deserves a renaissance, but with a twist. Ayurvedically, it's a cooked apple not a raw one that keeps the doctor away. Raw apples can be cold, drying and might not digest as easily, especially if unskinned. Cooked apples are warm and soft, like soups, and digests in a snap.
A spoonful of applesauce on the tongue registers sour, a taste that increases saliva and stimulates the digestive tract. Sour taste also cleanses the liver and cools the blood by drawing bile out of the body into the small intestine, somatically experienced as a softening of the eyes. Malic acid, the constituent responsible for sour taste, has a particular affinity for liver cleansing and support. Apples are also sweet, a taste that nourishes the body and awakens our delight.
After we chew and swallow the cooked apple, it descends to the stomach and passes to the small intestine. Although absorption of sweet taste here increases blood sugar, apples have a relatively low glycemic index (38) and calorie count (72). Next, the applesauce moves into the colon. Sour taste continues to warm and stimulate secretions that maintain a moist colon. The high fiber (2.9 grams/cup) bulks up stool for an easy elimination that cleanses the colon.
A clean colon and clean blood is a clean bill of health for many of us. Applesauce is a nourishing tri-doshic experience woven into our American cultural fabric and healing history.
In Norse mythology, apples are said to provide eternal youthfulness. Apples appear in many religious traditions, including the bible, often as a forbidden fruit. Apples originated in Western Asia, where its wild ancestor still grows today. There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples. China, the United States and Iran are leading producers of apples.
Buying & Preparation
To make applesauce, peel, core and thinly slice apples. Simmer them till tender.
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Constitutional nutrition is tailored to the individual.
In the kitchen, especially during your family’s formative years,
you shape your family's lifelong health.
Rooted in the insights curated from Ayurveda and Greek medicine,
constitutional medicine teaches you which foods match your body,
so you and your family have true vitality, strength, and balance.
See How it Works.
Medicinal Effects of Apple (cooked)
Constitutional nutrition systems use biocharacteristics to classify the metabolic nature of food, hebs, lifestyle choices, your body, and disease.
METABOLIC NATURE / BIOCHARACTERISTICS
Metabolic Nature / Biocharacteristics
Ayurveda assesses metabolic imbalances through 20 main biocharacteristics
(vital qualtiies).
Aggravating them weakens your body and causes imbalance.
By knowing which biocharacteristics are habitually imbalanced in your body, you will be able to identify and correct metabolic imbalances before you get sick.
Every biocharacteristic has an opposite which balances it (i.e. hot balances cold).
You restore balance by favoring diet and lifestyle choices that increase the opposite biocharacteristic.
Taste is used to sense the most basic properties and effects of food.
Each taste has a specific medicinal effect on your body.
Cravings for food with certain tastes indicate your body is craving specific medicinal results from food.
Taste is experienced on the tongue and represents your body's reaction to foods.
Sweet taste causes physical satisfaction and attraction whereas bitter taste causes discomfort and aversion.
Kapha should use less sweet taste while Vata and Pitta would benefit from using more sweet taste.
One of the first signs of illness is that your taste and appetite for food changes.
The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent.
Do you crave foods with any of the tastes below?
Ayurveda is a metabolic theory of medicine that explains individual health, tendencies, and disease patterns through the concept of doshas, which can be understood as your metabolic patterns and tendencies.
Each dosha reflects a distinct metabolic nature and describes strengths & weaknesses in bodily function, and how these affect energy levels, digestion, susceptibility to disease, and many other tendencies.
Your metabolic nature not only affects your physical characteristics, but also influences your mental thought patterns, confidence, and enthusiasm.
Ayurveda balances these metabolic strengths & weaknesses to support your body's vitality and prevent recurrent disease cycles. This support is a critical aid, especially in chronic or incurable disease conditions.
The 3 metabolic body types
(doshas),
are Catabolic (Vata), Metabolic (Pitta), and Anabolic (Kapha).
Through dosha, Ayurveda empowers people to identify metabolic imbalances early, break repetitive patterns of disease, and cultivate habits that support long-term vitality and well-being.
Ultimately, these metabolic patterns also provide a framework for understanding yourself, including body, mind, and spiritual tendencies.
Ayurveda & Greek Medicine were the dominant form of medicine along the Silk Road from England to China and South Asia.
They work by assessing your metabolic type, patterns, and nature.
Greek medicine recognizes 4 metabolic temperaments, Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic.
Has a hot and dry metabolic nature. Enthusiastic, vibrant and bright. In excess burns up fluids and ojas, irritable. Corresponds to high bilirubin in the blood that irritates and heats up the body and liver.
Cold and dry with a slow, variable or erratic metabolism. Colicky, tense. Withdrawn, pensive, anxious, and hesitant. Analytical, intelligent, detail oriented and creative. Prone to ojas depletion, dehydration, an overactive nervous system, and depression.
A hot and oily nature with a moderate metabolism and a well nourished body makes Sanguine individuals vigorous, vivacious, outgoing and generous, and prone to impulsivity and self indulgence. Bullish and intense when out of balance.
A Phlegmatic has a cold and wet metabolic nature. The coldness implies a slow metabolism, the moisture that you are well-nourished. Phlegmatics tend towards sluggishness and thickened fluids, including mucus.
Medicinal Benefits, Uses & Herbal Actions of Apple (cooked)
Experiences are Personal
Experiences vary according to the person and constitution. Individual results may vary.
The list of herbal-actions below has not be approved by the FDA and should not be used to treat a medical condition.
STRONG STOOL-SOFTENER
Softens hard and difficult to eliminate stool. Stool softeners are the safest and most gentle type of laxative. Examples include warm milk with ghee.
A class of laxative that adds bulk and water to stools. The large size of the stool stimulates peristalsis so the stool can pass more easily through the colon. It is important to drink plenty of water when using high fiber laxatives, as they can be dehydr
Encourages feelings of stability and heaviness. Makes you feel settled, mentally relaxed. Mildly sedates the nervous system to ease stress. Can bring a spacey or anxious person back to earth. Reduces agitation, irritation, stress and racing thoughts.
Cholagogues stimulate the production & release of bile from the liver & gallbladder. This refreshes and cleanses these organs, as well as increases bile in the small intestines.
An herb that strengthens the liver. It is helpful for people with a history of substance abuse, chronic liver issues from hepatitis and hemolytic anemias. Generally, liver tonics are oily, cool, sweet, mildly sour, or contain beta-carotene.
Apple (cooked) may temper these symptoms.
The suitability of any food for a condition is highly dependent on the individual.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
We will use this information to better predict food that helps you.
CONTRAINDICATED FOR THESE SYMPTOMS
Apple (cooked) may be harmful or contraindicated for these symptoms.
Note this is not a complete list of all possible contraindications.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
Constitutional Nutrition: Strengthen Your Health Naturally
When your dietary choices align with your individual nature (constitution), it supports your metabolism, energy, and health naturally.
A personalized diet, fitting to your constitution, leverages your natural strengths while gently supporting your body where it's vulnerable.
Constitutional nutrition is especially beneficial for digestion, a foundational pillar of health influencing your entire well-being.
Balanced digestion fortifies your body's natural defenses against illness and enhances your resilience when illness does arise.
A healthy digestive fire (*agni*) eases discomfort, speeds recovery, and naturally uplifts your mood.
By embracing constitutional nutrition, you will soon experience a profound sense of renewal, vitality, and inner strength.
John Immel, the founder of Joyful Belly, teaches people how to have a
healthy diet and lifestyle through constitutional nutrition (Ayurveda & Greek Medicine).
His approach is clinical, yet exudes an ease which many find enjoyable and insightful.
John also directs the Joyful Belly College of Ayurveda,
offering professional clinical training in Ayurveda for over 15 years.
John's hobbies & specialties include advanced digestive disorders, medieval Catholic philosophy,
& botany. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University.
John, his wife Natalie and their 8 kids live in Asheville, NC
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* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The information and products on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any
disease.