Okra is ojas building like most plants in the mallow family. It is also slimy and astringent, a seemingly unusual combination. Since okra is also cool, it is tri-doshic. Okra is especially helpful for relieving dryness in the joints.
The avocado fruit grows on trees, but does not ripen until after it has been picked. It has a pear shape, and a rough, dark green to black skin with tiny bumps, which earned it the name "alligator pear". Unlike other fruits, avocado isn't sweet at all,...
A couple of generations ago, sorghum was a staple sweetener in the South. It was cheap and plentiful. Every time I stop in a country store of the Southern Appalachian, I find a jar of sorghum molasses. Sorghum flour is now gaining popularity among...
Replenish Electrolytes and RehydrateYou have spent a long hot afternoon tending your garden or chasing the kids and you're feeling parched. But sometimes, no matter how much water you drink, your body still feels thirsty. Simple...
The dark meat of chicken is oily and has a rich fat content, making it a grounding, nourishing meat for Vata and Pitta. Chicken is an excellent choice to balance conditions of dryness and debility by giving the body strong protein with a heavy dose...
Jaggery is raw, concentrated unrefined juice of sugar cane without separating the molasses from the crystal. It contains sucrose, invert sugars, moisture and other trace minerals and fibers of the sugar cane plant. In some cases jaggery is made from...
Jackfruit is grown in subtropical lowlands. They have the largest fruit of any tree. Like fig trees, jackfruit are in the Moraceae family. Footnote: The information for this article was in part gathered from a 2019 study and survey of 28 students of...
Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times. Sugar refinement in India dates back to at least 500 B.C. Although there are many types of sugars (glucose, fructose, maltose), sucrose is the one most commonly used. Before sugar...
Egg whites are pure protein - ojas. Without the cholesterol egg whites are better than yolks for Kapha. The gel like nature of egg white may be whipped to trap air bubbles as in a meringue. These air bubbles act as a leavening agent in many batters...
Fish is lighter than poultry or meat. Although all meat is considered heavy and tamasic, we are labeling fish as sattvic relative to poultry and red meat.
Brown rice syrup is a sweetener derived fby cooking rice with enzymes (usually cultured from dried barley sprouts). It is only twenty percent as sweet as regular sugar.
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Founder of Joyful Belly Ayurveda, John Immel, answers the question ‘What is Ayurveda?’
