You know the saying: “You are what you eat?” We all do. But we also know that if you give two people the exact same diet, you still get very different people. According to Ayurvedic science, our biological make-up, our environment, and when and how we consume our food all have a significant role to play in our health and well being. It isn’t just the quality of the food or its nutritional value that determines the quality of our diet or how well it can make us, but rather we each need an accurate understanding of our unique constitution and the way we interact with our environment to live a good life.

To Live a Healthy Life, Focus on Ahara (diet) and Anna (food)

While Ayurveda, like western nutritional science, maintains that consuming good quality food in the right quantity promotes wellness, strength, vigour, good complexion and maintains healthy tissues, it goes further and states that we all need to follow our own unique lifestyle and food habits if we want to optimise our health and wellness. A food that nourishes you wholly and suits your body well can enrich your mind, body and soul.

Ayurvedic nutrition understands that we are all unique, and what is good for me may not be good for you.  From this perspective, a good diet harmonizes us with our environment so that we can balance our Doshas. It isn’t enough to know the nutritional facts of a food, or to follow the prescription of a particular diet, because the way a food interacts withone person’s body is always different to the way it will interact with the body of another. So, while it is important to maintain a good overall diet, unless the foods you eat are specific to your dietary needs, you may not get the results you are looking for.

Key elements of Ayurvedic Nutrition: Combination, Preparation and Timing

Combination and Preparation

Ayurveda promotes the use of all kinds of fruits, vegetables and herbs both as part of medicinal preparations and as part of the general diet because of their unique medicinal properties. For example, these days, a lot is said about the value of turmeric for healing and pain relief. Everywhere you see turmeric products—health food bars, drinks and teas. Yet, even mainstream medical science knows that the efficacy of turmeric greatly depends upon how it is prepared and what it is combined with.

Turmeric has been a part of Indian cooking for thousands of years, and is a normal part of the diet. Standard Indian recipes combine all the ingredients necessary for turmeric to have its greatest potency. This balanced consumption at regular intervals at the appropriate meals enables many of the subtle benefits of turmeric to manifest, such as good cellular regeneration that leads to healthy complexion and longevity. However, if you don’t know how to use turmeric properly, or how to combine it with other herbs and vegetables, then these benefits are not achieved.

Access to good quality produce, even powerful spices and medicinal foods, doesn’t mean what you make will be beneficial to you. Unless you know what foods you need, how to prepare them properly, and when they should be consumed, they may do more harm than good.

Timing

Not only is your body unique, but it has its own timetable: at certain times it needs certain types of food. That is why Ayurveda recognises that for a food to provide you maximum benefit it is important to consume it at the appropriate time. This is because your metabolism is continually changing—every two hours your body secretes different hormones, and your body is constantly changing temperature and adjusting to the world around it.

When your body is treated appropriately, and you consume the right foods at the right times, then your health is balanced. This means that your body’s metabolism works properly for you. But if, say, you regularly skip breakfast in the morning, your body will adjust, and your metabolism will become unbalanced. Eventually, you will skip breakfast because you just aren’t hungry in the morning. You will eat later and later in the day. This will eventually tax your entire system: your metabolism will stop working properly; the food you eat will not be as readily digested, and you will begin to suffer chronic health problems.

Furthermore, a food you can eat at one time of the day isn’t necessarily good for you if taken at another time of the day. For example, bananas are nutrient-rich, and taken at the right time and in the right way a banana will provide your body with protein, potassium and healthy starch. However, if you decide to take it before bed, it is likely to cause congestion and sluggishness not just when you eat it, but even for days afterwards. That is because most people don’t have bodies that can absorb the nutrients in a banana late at night. Over time, this can result in issues like constipation and fat gain.

Similarly, your metabolism will slow, and you can become congested, if you eat a diet too rich in animal protein. A diet with 80% meat and 20% greens will reduce your ability to digest food, not just at that meal, but all the time.This can result in both metabolic and organ problems, and significant medicinal and dietary support may be required to rebalance your digestive system.

Ayurvedic nutrition is a complex and precise science, and at Yatan Holistic Ayurvedic Centre we have the skills and experience necessary to advise our clients on the best foods for balancing their doshas. To understand more about your unique constitution and to design a diet and lifestyle plan that perfectly suits you, please ring 1300552260 to make an appointment.