PIZZAWHAT DOES IT DO TO YOU? HOW CAN YOU MINIMIZE NEGATIVE EFFECTS?
Are you prone to a problem with 'Pizza'?
Let's face it: Pizza happens. Growing up, one of my favorite memories was when my dad would take my sisters and I to Brother's Four Pizzeria. We would have so much fun picking out toppings, watching the cheese become stringy as we pulled up a slice, and outdoing one another with the most red pepper flakes sprinkled on top. But by the end of meal, we would all sink into the happy food coma of pizza bliss. Now that I have two daughters of my own, I take them out for a special treat to Blue Mountain Pizza, a local favorite, and enjoy the daily live music while the kids wolf down the grub. I know that, Ayurvedically, pizza is the closest thing to poison, but somehow the memories are worth it. That's why we've devised these special tips, aptly named, "How to Eat Pizza and Live to Tell the Tale." Mangia! How to Eat Pizza (and Live to Tell the Tale)Food is not only about health. Food is also a joyful way to celebrate with loved ones. It might seem tempting to abstain from indulgence in social situations, believing that you are following the rules or being "good," but Ayurveda is not about having a perfect diet at the expense of your relationships. The word "companion" derives from the french word meaning "with bread" - you grow closer and bond with loved ones over food, which actually reduces stress and helps keep you healthy. It is healthier to eat the pizza or cake with joy than to sulk in the corner, missing out on memories & quality time with loved ones. There are other reason why you might stray from your Ayurvedic diet, sometimes for convenience, or simply because you don't have any other options on hand. Travel, a church potluck, or a child's birthday party may make eating cookies, cake, pizza, and other "unhealthy" foods virtually unavoidable. If you generally have a healthy diet, you can afford a transgression on the weekend, so long as you are 'artful' about about it. Ayurveda literally means the 'art of life.' To have an artful life means finding ways to live life joyfully, without sacrificing your health. While these tips won't make pizza actually healthy for you, they will help you indulge responsibly. Ayurveda can help reinforce your relationships and bond with loved ones over food, with minimal impact on your body. By following some basic steps in the example, you can figure out how to eat pizza and live to tell the tale. You don't have to follow all these tips - we've included them just to convince you that in any situation, you have lots of options to stay healthy. Once you master pizza, you'll soon figure out how to participate healthfully in myriad social situations. Note: Yes, you might have to abstain if you have a wheat or dairy allergy, unless gluten free, dairy free options are available. Step 1: What is Pizza Like? Let's figure out what's behind Ayurveda's 'pizza is poison' philosophy, then we'll try to restore some balance, slice by slice. First, consider how pizza makes you feel. Pizza can make you feel heavy, tired, and even depressed. You might notice a throbbing brick in your stomach that makes you feel stuffed and sluggish. That night, if you have trouble digesting pizza, you might get acid reflux, gas and bloating. The next morning, you might feel swollen and puffy. From an Ayurvedic point of view, the main qualities of pizza are the following:
Step 2: Choose a responsible amount of pizza. Once you've figured out how pizza makes you feel, and its Ayurvedic qualities, you're in a great position to decide how much you can reasonably consume. No food is ever off-limits, so long as it is eaten in an appropriate quantity and with the proper precautions, it should be fine. Only you can discover the appropriate amount for your body, and you can only do so by listening. For pizza, a slice or two is normally enough to satisfy you without leading to imbalance. If you've eaten too much, you'll know - there will be a sense of heaviness, tiredness, and stagnation in the body and stomach. Notice the amount you ate, and remember to scale back in the future. Step 3: Chew it well. Whenever you are in the worst of food situations, chew your food carefully. Saliva has digestive enzymes. Try to 'digest' the food as much as possible in your mouth. Unchewed food is even more difficult to digest. Plus, the slower you eat, the less you'll eat of potentially harmful foods, without feeling too austere. Step 4: Always order a salad when you eat pizza. The roughage of the salad breaks up the Goopy-Pizza-Glob, dispersing it into smaller pieces instead of keeping it as one big, difficult, mass in your stomach. The bitter taste of the salad increases bile production and flushes the gall bladder, helping you mobilize heavy fats from the meat and cheese and taking the pitta-aggravating heating out of the oils. Order your salad with a vinaigrette dressing instead of ranch. The sour taste of vinegar also aids in fat metabolism by stimulating bile production and will help your body process the heavy fats in the cheese and meat. Step 5: Order hot water with lemon. Hot water is a great way to get your digestive fire going and the sour taste of lemon improves digestion. Order this with your pizza and sip throughout the meal. Do not drink ice water or cool drinks - this will extinguish your digestive fire, and thwart all your efforts. Step 6: Indulge Early. While it's not always possible, it is better to eat heavier foods early in the day as opposed to later. Around noon, your digestion is the strongest and therefore better prepared to handle heavy foods. If you are planning to go out for pizza or host a party with cake, try to do it around lunchtime or early afternoon rather than a late-night pizza binge. This will give your body more time to digest the heavy foods. Step 7: Honor your body by eating light before and after. If you plan to eat pizza for lunch, eat something light for breakfast, like grapefruit with honey, and give your body a break. Your body has a tipping point. If you assault your body with bad choices meal after meal, eventually you will reach the straw that broke the camel's back. Eat lightly for dinner as well, or skip dinner altogether. This can keep your body from getting overwhelmed or bogged down by too much food. P.S. Eat just enough so that you aren't starving when you arrive at the pizza joint. Step 8: Enjoy a stroll after your meal. Taking a short walk around the block afterwards revs your metabolism, adding an element of mobility and breaking up heaviness from the pizza. Step 9: Consider Triphala before bed. Triphala is a mild, non-habit-forming laxative that is good to take the evening after indulgence, right before you go to bed. It will give your body a gentle cleanse, will help remove any lingering toxicity formed by the pizza, and will reset digestion so you feel ready to go the next day. Step 10: Give Thanks, Release Regret, and Have Fun. If you eat anything with guilt or regret, it will certainly harm your body more than if you eat it with an attitude of thanks and joy. Eating a piece of pizza or a slice of cake is not the end of the world, and its important to keep that in mind. Focus on being thankful and enjoying the quality of time you have with loved ones and don't worry about the food. ARE YOU NEW TO AYURVEDA?
Are you wondering what Ayurveda is and how to use it?
DIET FOR IMBALANCES RELATED TO 'PIZZA'Augment your diet with these specially chosen ingredients below which may be useful for 'Pizza'. Individual results vary depending the cause of your imbalance and by constitution. Please research the ingredients below to find which are most helpful for you, and check with your doctor before making any changes to your health and wellness routine.HERBS AND PRODUCTS FOR IMBALANCES RELATED TO 'PIZZA'DIET TIPS DISCLAIMER: The pathogenesis of each person's condition is unique, and so the diet must be fit to the individual and the unique root causes of the condition in your body. The information on this page is for educational purposes only and should not be used to treat a medical condition. It is not a substitute for medical care. Please check with your doctor before making any changes to your health and wellness routine. WHAT IMBALANCES CAN IT CAUSE?AGGRAVATES THESE DOSHAS & QUALITIES'Pizza' is likely to aggravate the following doshas and qualities. If you have a systemic imbalance of one of these doshas or qualities, Ayurveda would generally recommend removing, substitute or lessen the frequency of 'Pizza'.![]() Imbalance Accumulates Improper food and lifestyle causes balances to accumulate. Ayurveda shows you exactly which doshas and qualities are likely to accumulate in your body. Once these doshas and qualities accumulate too much, they will begin to cause imbalance. You can reduce an imbalanced dosha or quality by removing things that aggravate it from your diet and lifestyle.V = VATA, P = PITTA, K = KAPHA
To learn more about the symbols above, click on them. Are you prone to a problem with 'Pizza'?
FAVOR DIETS, LIFESTYLES & HERBS WITH THESE MEDICINAL EFFECTSEverything you eat has an effect on your body, which Ayurveda categorizes in a simple and easy way, using gunas. Gunas are qualities (like cold and hot) that describe the effect a food or herb has on your body. Cooling foods like cucumber, decrease metabolism. Heating foods like chili pepper, stimulate your body and increase metabolism. For 'Pizza', you should select foods with the following qualities (gunas). Individual results will vary, based on your body type and the root cause of your imbalance.
To learn more about the symbols above, click on them. Digestion: Digestive DIGESTIVEHerbs that encourage healthy digestion.Heart & Circulation: Hypotensive HYPOTENSIVEAn herb that lowers blood pressure.Weight Loss: Hypolipidemic , HYPOLIPIDEMICScrapes fats / cleanses blood vesselsLowers Blood Sugar LOWERS-BLOOD-SUGARAn herb that lowers blood sugar.Bowel-Poop-Elimination: Breaks Up , BREAKS-UPThe Sanskrit word for breaking up congealed matter / clogs in the body. Often used for constipation. Be careful with herbs that have Bhedana action.General Laxative , GENERAL-LAXATIVEPromotes a bowel movement. General laxative is an umbrella term that refers to several different types of laxatives...High Fiber Laxative HIGH-FIBER-LAXATIVEA class of laxative that adds bulk and water to stools. The size of a stool stimulates peristalsis and the stool passes more easily through the colon. It is important to drink plenty of water when using high fiber laxatives, as they can be dehydrating.ADDRESS ISSUES IN STAGE OF DISEASE 0PIZZA IS IN STAGE OF DISEASE 0 - POTENTIAL CAUSEPotential causes increase and disturb your imbalanced doshas and qualities, causing them to accumulate and spiral out of control. For example, if you're overheated and eat a chili pepper, heat may become excessive and cause disease. As a dosha or quality accumulates in your body according to your dietary and lifestyle habits, it is more and more likely to cause disease. You can reduce an imbalanced dosha or quality in two ways, by removing, or lessening the frequency of aggravating causes from your diet and lifestyle, as well as by favoring balancing diet and lifestyle practices. For example, try eating something as cool as a cucumber when you're overheated, instead of a chili pepper. REDUCE THESE RELATED SYMPTOMS & HABITSThe following symptoms & habits may be related to 'Pizza'. See your quiz results for a computerized assessment of your body type. Please click on the symptoms below to learn more about them.![]() DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR UNIQUE BODY?What aggravates it? What heals it?
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HOW AYURVEDA WORKS
ARE YOU WONDERING HOW AYURVEDA CAN HELP YOU?
WHY IS AYURVEDA THE RIGHT SOLUTION?Ayurveda strengthens the body, in addition to addressing the disorder. It take a holistic, systemic approach, instead of myopically focusing on the disorder in question. Ayurveda shows a person how to interpret signs and symptoms of imbalance, and how to address them using materials from home, so they can optimize their health on a continual basis. You can't take the doctor home with you, but you can take Ayurveda home with you. Ayurveda is the most advanced and easy to use home system for self healing with an exceptional focus on digestion.HOW DOES AYURVEDA WORK?Ayurveda starts by identifying your body type, which identifies certain tendencies in your body to get sick (as well as identifying your strengths). It uses body type to determine the likely root causes of your disorders. Next, Ayurveda analyzes the nature of your disorder. It fits all your signs and symptoms into a pattern, expressed as a combination of gunas / qualities. For example, you may have a heat disorder, a cold disorder, or an oily disorder, etc. This simple categorical approach shows you how to correct systemic imbalances and strengthen your body as a whole.On Joyful Belly, we've created an extensive categorization of food so you can easily match food to your imbalances (gunas). By eating an optimal diet that balances your gunas, your whole body is strengthened and the conditions that created the disorder are removed. Once the root causes of the disease are removed, the disease lessens in strength or disappears altogether. Additional remedies - such as herbs and lifestyle practices - focused on the specific disorder, can greatly enhance your healing. Want to learn more about Ayurveda and its step-by-step approach to healing? Click below.LEARN MOREGET STARTEDTo get started on your Ayurvedic journey, we first recommend that your find your body type by taking our free quiz. In Ayurveda, every solution is based on your unique body type, so by taking this quiz, you’ll get the best results.5 WAYS TO HEAL YOUR BODY
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