How Can This Ayurvedic Food Make You Feel Great?

Sweet and heavy, cashews calm the nerves and satisfy your belly. The crescent shaped cashew is dense and warm, building strength and leaving you feeling sustained, particularly in cooler months. Initially crunchy, these nuts become creamy and smooth with each bite. You can satisfy your crunchy cravings by sprinkling cashews on top of curries, adding to stir-frys, or crumbled on top of your morning oatmeal. Cashews blend to one of the smoothest consistencies of any nut, and can be turned into a creamy nut butter spread, silky homemade cashew milk, or soft cashew cheeses.

Native to Brazil, these nuts are technically the seeds of the cashew apple. Once you see how cashews are grown, you will understand why they are some of the more expensive nuts on supermarket shelves. Just a single cashew grows out of the bottom of each apple. It is encased in a shell that contains a toxic residue that must be cleaned before eating too. Cashews are a member of the poison ivy family, so some people are highly sensitive to them. They balance Vata and Pitta, but are too heavy and difficult for Kaphas to digest.

Soothe Your Nerves

The heavy and grounding qualities of cashews help stabilize a frantic nervous system. They are particularly beneficial in autumn, the season when the nerves are most easily aggravated. These nuts balance Vata dosha and help slow a racing mind. "After eating the cashews, I felt very calm," explained a client. "It was a relaxing sensation," they continued. As well as its density, the high magnesium content in cashews also helps soothe your nerves. Your nervous system carries out countless jobs every single day, and can become easily agitated. The magnesium in cashews has a mild depressant effect on the nerves that helps ward off feelings of stress and anxiety, relax the muscles, and promote sound sleep throughout the night.

This relaxing effect of cashews can be too sedating for Kapha types. These heavy nuts can burden a Kaphas already sluggish digestive system and leave them feeling weighed down, both emotionally and physically. One client described their experience of this effect, "The heaviness of the cashews left me feeling more weighed down emotionally, more prone to dozing off and wanting to nap." Another client had a similar, but stronger, reaction, "I felt like the cashews slowed down my whole system. My muscles felt heavy, my gut felt overly full, my blood slowed and I felt tired and unmotivated. It was an unpleasant slug like feeling that reminded me why I don't generally eat nuts."