Ayurveda has it's own unique approach to diet. It promotes self awareness and learning how to eat for your constitution. It offers a tailor made system, taking the tastes (sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent) and qualities of food into account that are most appropriate for your body type and specific imbalances. Ayurveda also encourages establishing a solid routine for grocery shopping, cooking and mealtimes to reduce the likelihood of improper eating habits. Your appetite plays an important role in your dietary choices. One of the most important aspects of managing your appetite is learning to distinguish between true and false hunger. True hunger is when your body has a genuine need for nutrition, detected by rumbling in the stomach and other physical indicators like weakness and fatigue. False hunger is the desire to eat when you're body doesn't actually need food. This false hunger can be fueled by perverted cravings, stress, boredom, low energy or the desire to seek some sort of emotional comfort from food.
A weak appetite can stem from a variety of sources, both physical and psychological, and can lead to improper eating habits, low energy and digestive toxins (ama). If you don't have much practice in the kitchen, it can be intimidating to try create new recipes and lead you to fast food alternatives. These convenient options not only take a toll on weight, but also overall health, digestive strength, energy, mood, and emotions. Ayurveda promotes engaging in the cooking experience.
Coffee is like a metabolic credit card. By suppressing exhaustion, coffee prevents you from learning how to build and restore vitality naturally. It enables people to live at a superhuman pace for years, and by stimulating the mind can even prevent...
A vegetarian diet excludes meat, fish, and eggs, focusing instead on plant-based foods and dairy. Many people ask: Is a vegetarian diet healthy? According to Ayurveda, the answer depends on the individual. A vegetarian lifestyle...
Chocolate is difficult to digest and hot. Bitter chocolate is Kapha pacifying. Since chocolate is often mixed with sugar and cream, it aggravates all three doshas. Chocolate stimulates the reproductive organs in women, which explains why chocolate can...
Do you eat meat every day, or large quantities of meat? Some constitutions (Vata and Kapha) benefit from the blood building qualities of meat. Those with a "full" constitution, meaning individuals with plenty of heat and oil, often have an excess of...
In Ayurveda, excess weight is considered a symptom of something deeper. You might feel physically heavy, puffy, or sluggish; perhaps there is a feeling of discomfort in overly tight clothing or a shame about the number on the scale that makes you...
Dairy creates heaviness, cloudy thoughts, bloating and constipation for many. It provokes weight gain, mucus and Kapha dosha. Although adult humans have adapted to milk, it was originally intended for babies. Lactose intolerance may be quite natural.
Alcohol is also a medicine when used in the right dose. Alcohol is recommended in Ayurveda during winter months as a remedy to blood stagnation. Two (2) tablespoons of wine represent a daily medicinal dose of alcohol during the month of January and...
A poor diet is a diet 1) high in refined foods & empty carbs (sugar, corn syrup, white bread, potatoes, etc), processed foods (TV dinners, canned foods), Fried foods, 2) Low in vegetables and fire, or 3) High alcohol, caffeine, or other substance...
Wheat is generally difficult to digest, very heavy, gums up the digestive tract, and causes mucus.
Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are cruciferous vegetables. They are all difficult to digest in a person with a dry or cold digestive tract.
Beans are difficult to digest, high in soluble and insoluble fiber, and high in potassium (drying). They feel cold and heavy in the digestive tract. See more...
Xerostomia, or dry mouth is a subjective feeling that the mouth is too dry. The terms comes from the Greek: Xeros = dry and stoma = mouth. This condition is commonly called pasty mouth or cotton mouth and effects 20% of the population. Lips may stick...
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,...
Fruits digest quickly. Other foods, such as yogurt, meat, peanuts and other heavy foods digest more slowly. While the body is trying to digest these other foods, bacteria quickly ferment the fruit, causing gas, bloating & toxic buildup. Fruits should...
Refined sugar consumption has increased exponentially. The average American consumes over 150x the amount of sugar eaten just 100 years ago. Refined sugar is highly processed, and, like a drug, wreaks havoc with our metabolism, causing a sugar high,...
Tomatoes aggravate Vata and Pitta. They are difficult to digest and acidic. Like most members of the nightshade plant family, they have a funkiness that irritates the liver.
Red meat (such as beef, lamb, venison, etc) strongly builds blood, which can benefit cold constitutions such as Vata and Kapha. Pork has much less iron in it than beef, and may not build blood as strongly. Red meat can aggravate Pitta-Kapha...
A Fresh Look At Leftovers There's something bright, juicy and colorful about fresh food. Fresh food has a "je ne sais quoi" about it - something special even if you can't detect the difference in a lab. Classical Ayurveda recommends against...
Trying to lose or control your weight is exhausting and often empty process. Let your body decide what weight to be and focus instead on establishing balance in your body and your life. When you desire or try to be a weight that is unhealthy for your...
If you do not eat leafy greens at least once a day, or every too days, your diet is low in leafy greens. Our ancestors subsisted on a diet high in leafy greens and nuts. Bitter leaves such as endives stimulate digestion, restore proper food...
If you drink more than 8-12 cups of water a day, and aren't nursing or sweating, you may be drinking too much. Signs that you are drinking too much are a frequent need to urinate, with clear, colorless urine. If you're taking diuretics, your pee...
Whole grains are more difficult to digest than husked, but have more fiber and are nutritionally superior. If your digestion is poor, however, you won't be able to absorb the nutrition benefits of whole grains.
Water before the meal is nectar. Proper hydration improves digestive function up to 24%. Water during the meal is honey if taken in small sips. Water after meals dilutes the acids in our stomach, and leads to digestive problems.
Consuming food soon after a meal forces the stomach to process partially digested and undigested foods at the same time, disturbing the rhythm of digestion. Desserts especially challenge the stomach due to their heaviness. The stomach produces special...
Why do we love nuts? Humans have a long history of eating nuts. Nuts were the primary source of fats and proteins prior to the agricultural revolution. Unfortunately, peanuts...
Spicy food stimulates digestion, blood flow and sweat. Spicey food liquefies mucus in the digestive tract, lungs, and anywhere mucus is found. Spices can irritate the digestive tract.
Supplements include herbs, extracts, vitamins, minerals, and any other item you ingest as an addition to your everyday meal. Occasional use of supplements may be beneficial - during a busy week, when you are pregnant or having so other short term,...
Many people smoke without thinking, leading to addiction. As a first step to quitting, Ayurveda recommends smoking slowly and with full attention.
Eating late at night provokes Kapha. When a person goes to bed with undigested food in the stomach, the food tends to stagnate both in the intestines and the blood, leading to weight gain. Sumo wrestlers in Japan gain weight by eating late at night. If...
A low body weight may cause an unsettling sense of lightness, ungroundedness, or weakness. It is important to determine the cause of weight loss. Unexplained weight loss can be serious - please see a doctor if you have chronic weight loss issues....
Digestion demands alot of blood to function properly. Cold drinks cause blood vessels in the stomach to shrink. A warm drink expands blood vessels in the stomach, much like the cheeks become red and flushed on a hot July afternoon.
Refined flours are processed grains in which the nutrient-rich germ and bran have been removed. This is the key distinction between whole wheat and white bread—white bread is made from refined flour. When wheat is refined, it loses much of...
The high convenience factor of protein shakes allows you to nearly skip the eating process altogether. Along the way, you can even forget your body's intimate connection with food - the cravings you were meant to feel and enjoy. Food is supposed to be...
Sandwiches are generally a bad food combination, dry, heavy and cold. Sandwiches were invented by the earl of sandwich, a british lord who was also a compulsive gambler. He would gamble for many days and nights together without stopping to eat or...
There is no right or wrong answer to the raw versus cooked debate. The real answer to the debate depends on the digestive strength of the individual. Raw food offers nutritional benefits but is more difficult to digest, causing gas and bloating in...
If you ever asked why fried food is bad for you, you're not alone. We understand your concern. After all, the sizzle of french fries in a deep fryer or the sight of a funnel cake at your local fair can be hard to resist. These foods are fun...
No matter how much you love digestive enzymes for saving you from embarrassing gas or tummy discomfort, digestive enzymes could magnify the real root...
Canned, frozen food may be nutrient deficient, and lack taste. Taste is important to help the body choose the best foods for the season.
Burgers and hot dogs combine meat and wheat, two difficult to digest ingredients. These heavy, gooey, difficult to digest ingredients often cause heaviness and stagnation in the stomach, and gas and bloating in the colon.
Irregular meal times create unstable blood sugar levels which can lead to binging on junk foods. Skipping meals aggravates Vata as well. If occaisonally you must eat off schedule, choose easy to digest, nourishing foods. For example, an almond milk,...
On Joyful Belly, we've created an extensive categorization of food so you can easily match food to your imbalanced biocharacteristics. By eating an optimal diet that balances your biocharacteristics, 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.
Founder of Joyful Belly Ayurveda, John Immel, answers the question ‘What is Ayurveda?’
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