What makes a meal ayurvedic?

29 May

When I started cooking ayurvedic food at home, I very quickly noticed how much better I felt - more energised yet also calmer, and that craving for a little sweet treat after dinner just wasn’t there anymore. I also felt more emotionally balanced, focused and life was just more enjoyable. I was, however getting tired of eating curries and dhal and kitchari. I am Irish, so this was pretty far from the diet that I grew up on. So I decided to do some research, and also study ayurveda properly so that I could understand the principles of ayurvedic cooking and try to “ayurvedise” all of my favourite recipes. The process is both simple and complex, but I have laid out below some guidelines regarding what ayurvedic food is and how you can apply it in your own kitchen.

Ayurveda is the oldest and most comprehensive healing science known to humankind, dating back more than five thousand years and looks at food as combinations of the five physical elements - space, air, water, fire, earth - and how these food elements and their qualities interact with the same elements and qualities in our physiology.

Ayurvedic food is the food that is most balancing for you right now, that is combined & prepared in ways that are compatible with your digestion. Ayurveda also recognizes that what and how we eat can influence our thoughts, feelings and relationships, and ripple into all areas of our lives and even the communities that we live in.

A lot of people think that following an ayurvedic diet means strict meal plans, and that you are limited in the foods that you can eat. This is not true at all, and no food is off limits in ayurveda. It might take some getting used to and some adjustments, but once you get into a rhythm with it, it can be the most nourishing and easy and creative and kind way to eat.

So here are 5 principles of ayurvedic cooking and eating that you can apply in your own kitchen today 🥘

1. Balancing And Connecting Your Food Choices With Your Digestion

What type of digestion do you have? We all digest food differently. The strength of your digestive fire is one of the most important factors in determining what foods are healthy for you. Ayurveda describes the four main types of digestion as: Balanced, irregular (airy), sharp (fiery) and slow (earthy)

In a balanced state, your flame burns neither too high nor too low, and you enjoy a healthy appetite; after a meal you feel satiated and blissful. Your optimal digestion, absorption, and elimination are attuned with the needs of your body. It is like cooking your food to perfection. Unfortunately, stress, processed foods, leftovers, bad food combinations and unhealthy eating habits can take our digestion off balance.

Irregular, airy digestion usually occurs when too much air in the stomach makes the digestive fire sometimes high, sometimes low, and appetite fluctuates. Irregular digestion produces airy type reactions such as flatulence, bloating, constipation, dryness and belching without acidity. The toxic residue from semi-digested food can potentially make us experience fatigue, stiffness and poor circulation.

Sharp fiery digestion occurs when the fire in the stomach is turned up too high. Imagine sautéing vegetables in a pan with barely any water on the highest heat without stirring. Too high fire can reduce moisture in your stomach, causing some nutrients and friendly bacteria to burn before they reach the state of absorption - you end up always feeling hungry, craving more food, especially sweets, but losing weight and experiencing nutrient deficiency. Eating a lot of fiery foods when you have sharp fiery digestion may result in burning reactions such as hyperacidity, heartburn, dryness, bad breath, gastritis, ulcers. Fiery digestion often produces hot, acidic toxicity that can potentially trigger inflammation.

Slow earthy digestion occurs when the digestive flame is too low, and there is more dampness in your stomach. It is like trying to boil food in a lot of water on the lowest heat - it takes forever. Slow digestion is often caused by eating food without spices, and your stomach cannot break down the food you eat. With slow earthy digestion you may experience the heavy type of digestive problems: sluggishness, fatigue after eating, loss of appetite, congestion, lack of circulation, weight gain.

Seasons also affect our capacity to break down food completely. It is likely that many of us will experience irregular, airy digestion during late autumn & early winter, sharp fiery or irregular airy digestion during late winter and summer, and slow earthy digestion during spring.

Finding Balance In Your Diet

“Like increases like, and opposites balance”

However, each one of us has a unique reference point for balance, based on the body-mind constitution we were born with - this is what we want to come back to when we’re seeking optimal health. If we neglect the alarm signals, an unchecked imbalance will make the five elements deviate from their natural proportions, and we feel unwell or even develop an illness. Unfortunately, once we are in a more imbalanced state, we tend to crave or select things that will perpetuate the imbalance rather than those that will soothe it.

2. Include All Six Tastes In Each Meal

Every food has a predominant taste, and each taste has a specific physical as well as emotional effect on our well-being. I find the ayurvedic guideline for a balanced meal helpful, and not to difficult to incorporate into how you cook - that is to include every taste on your plate. The specific proportions of tastes depend on your individual needs, and the season. Balancing the 6 tastes on your plate is the best way to keep your body and mind healthy, and to overcome food cravings.

The Six Tastes And Their Corresponding Emotions Are:-

Sweet - satisfaction; contentment; fulfillment (e.g rice, milk, cream, ghee, fish, meat, sweet potato, cucumber)
Sour - discernment; insight; heightened awareness (e.g citrus fruits, yoghurt, cheese, tamarind, tomato, vinegar)
Salty - desire; zest for life; passion (e.g sea salt, rock salt, sea vegetables)
Pungent - extroverted; driven; ambitious (e.g garlic, onion, radish, ginger, chilies, cloves)
Bitter - dynamic; focused; cool-headed (e.g coffee, dark leafy greens, bitter melon, turmeric, fenugreek)
Astringent: introspective; mentally clear; composed (e.g broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, spinach, pomegranate, apples)

If any one of these tastes is missing in the diet over a long period of time, or is present in excess, it can cause emotional and physiological imbalance.

3. Food Combinations

Good Food Combinations

Based on the concept of the six tastes, food qualities, and digestion, the following foods get along well together in a meal:

Grains - go well with all vegetables, milk and yoghurt, legumes
Legumes - go well with grains (especially when cooked in digestive spices), non-starchy vegetables (such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, and asparagus), and leafy greens (such as kale, collards, chard, spinach, and lettuce).
Nuts & seeds - go well with milk, yoghurt, leafy greens, citrus fruits, and sour fruits
Starchy vegetables (such as winter squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro root) - go well with leafy greens and non-starchy vegetables.
Meats - go well with light foods, such as non starchy vegetables, leafy greens, and salads.
Milk - Goes well with grains (such as wheat, rice, oats, amaranth and quinoa), sweet dried fruit (such as dates, soaked raisins), ghee and butter, nuts, turmeric, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, saffron and vanilla
Yoghurt - goes well with grains, nuts and seeds, dried fruit (such as dates, raisins, figs, and apricots) non leafy vegetables (such as summer squash, cauliflower, broccoli, radish), legumes, honey and other sweeteners.
Cheese - goes well with non starchy or green leafy vegetables, or may be eaten alone.
Raw fruits - best eaten alone or in combination with other fruits of the same kind and same predominant taste. However always eat melons alone because their high water content requires strong fire to digest them. Cooked and dried fruits are an exception and suitable to mix with other foods.

Heavy Food Combinations To Avoid When You Experience Slow (Earthy) Digestion

Milk or heavy cream with nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers) or eggs
Yoghurt with nightshades or eggs
Cheese with nightshades, meat, bread, crackers, macaroni, beans or eggs
Meat, fish or eggs with dairy (milk, cream, yoghurt, cheese) as they are very heavy and cause clogging of the circulatory channels in the body.

Incompatible Food Combinations That Can Lead To General Indigestion

Milk or heavy cream - cause negative reactions when mixed with salt, sesame or fresh fruit and foods of predominantly sour taste (such as fresh fruit, cheese, citrus and tomatoes)
Yoghurt - causes negative reactions when mixed with fresh fruit, milk, or leafy greens
Cheese - causes negative reactions when mixed with fresh fruit
Raw fruit - causes negative reaction when mixed with dairy, cooked foods, grains, legumes, salads or leafy greens (except pineapple and papaya)
Cucumber - does not go well with lemon because their prolonged “fight” in the stomach could lead to slowly accumulating toxins and calcification. Use cucumber with lime instead.

You can reduce the negative effects of bad food combinations with the help of spices. Spices enhance metabolism and act as connecting links between ingredients. Even in small doses, spices help reawaken our digestive intelligence.

4. Is Food Invigorating, Lacklustre or Depleting

Food = Energy

The role of food is to charge us with energy, or prana, but why is it that sometimes we eat and feel awake and energised, and other times we feel totally drained and need to take a nap? Depending on how our digestion interacts with the quality, freshness, and method of preparation, food gives us different pranic charges - some foods are full of life and others are energetically dead.

Let us assess the food we eat from a different angle than we usually do - is it invigorating, lacklustre or depleting?

Foods that invigorate us, that bring us a bright charge of prana are freshly prepared and seasonal, locally grown in nutrient-dense, toxin-free soil. When such foods are combined in recipes and prepared appropriately so that their vital nutrients are preserved, in a positive, loving environment, we digest them perfectly, feeling energised and balanced, nourished down to a cellular level. Our systems eliminate on time, our natural healing capacities are supported, and our life may be prolonged - and most of all, we feel happy.

Some foods are lacklustre, not bright with energy. Think about frozen foods, their fresh energy is gone, Other lacklustre foods are those that are hard to digest or combined to disadvantage in recipes. they don’t shine! They may taste pleasant at first, but cause us digestive discomfort later. And we feel lacklustre after eating when we are in a hurry, under stress, or when we eat food prepared without care in a negative environment. Eventually, a steady diet of this type of food can produce a variety of mild digestive disorders.

Depleting food are drained of energy - and they can drain us too. Canned, deep-fried - microwaved, heavily processed, and artificial foods, and sometimes even slightly rotten or putrefied foods, may taste like food, but they give us no prana. They clog the body’s digestive system, elimination systems, and even its subtle channels of energy, and a steady diet of such foods leads to imbalance and disease.

The more invigorating food you eat, the more your immune system will act intelligently and do its job of keeping you strong.

5. Using Spices

The way that spices are used is unique to ayurvedic cooking, and it does so much more than just make food taste good. The potent medicinal ingredients help us to:

Enhance and maintain good digestion
Balance the doshas (the combination of the five elements in our bodies)
Incorporate all six tastes in a dish or meal
Transport nutrients from the food to the body’s tissues
Maintain an optimal metabolic rate
Support the body’s timely elimination functions
Maintain hormonal and emotional balance

If you feel tired after finishing a meal, overeat because you don’t feel satisfied, or crave sweets excessively after finishing a meal, then you could be spice deficient. The essential principle of proper combination of spices is based on not only layering flavours, but on balancing one’s spice action with another. For example, the heating effect of turmeric, ginger or chilies balances the cooling energy of fennel, coriander, cumin, cilantro and dill, and vice versa. Once you grasp the principle, you can easily create your own spice blends. And don’t forget to smell the spices. Even inhaling their aromas is therapeutic.

So...

I hope that you found this helpful. If you are just starting to learn about ayurveda, and about how it can help you find peace with food, it can be really helpful to work with an ayurvedic practitioner or health coach, as it can all feel a bit overwhelming in the beginning. Once you get into your groove with it though, the possibilities really are endless, and you can get creative "ayurvedising" all your favourite recipes too 🤍

Bernie Patton