You´re not JUST what you eat
The importance of healthy digestion. According to Ayurveda you are not what you eat, you are what you absorb. And in this process your Agni has a main role!
Food is to be digested, absorbed and assimilated, which is key to maintain a healthy life, and this is performed by the Agni. Agni means fire and is related to the digestive or metabolic fire. Agni drives all types of transformation within, not only food but also emotions and thoughts.
“Let food be the medicine and medicine be the food” In early times Hippocrates asserted that the state of body & mind are balanced by the food you eat. And we may all eat with all five senses. Your sense of touch, smell, sight, and even sound can affect the way you taste and digest.
Each person is unique. Ayurveda suggests that healthy food choices and eating habits should match your dietary requirements, based on your very own ayurvedic constitution. According to the Dosha theory, health exists when there is a balance between the five fundamental elements (space, air, fire, water and earth) which combine into three humors or doshas (Vata,Pitta and Kapha), which define our physical, physiological, and psychological traits and are the template for individualized diet, lifestyle counseling, and treatment.
What is taken into account in the Ayurvedic Diet?
- Ayurvedic constitution: Your unique identity, your unique dosha proportion which will define your personalized nutritional needs. The diagnosis is made by an Ayurveda Expert (Vaidya) which will assess your constitution by Questioning, Observation (tongue, nails, overall) and touch (pulse).
- How strong is your Agni, or your digestive fire. Low agni symptoms include not absorbing nutrients properly, bloating, gas, constipation or diarrhea.
- Understanding rasa (taste), virya (heating or cooling energy), vipaka (post-digestive taste) and prabhava (unique properties) of the food itself.
- Wrong food combinations: eating the wrong foods together can hinder digestion. Avoid banana milkshakes if you want to keep strong agni.
- Season: Weather changes and so may we change our routines and adapt the diet to seasonal foods. Nature gives us what we need.
- Eat during the healthy timings: The strength of the surge in the agni and dosha depends upon the movement of the Sun. If you want to keep strong agni, you should avoid salads on cold nights.
- Medicinal properties of Spices: Very often spices and herbs are added in Ayurvedic cooking to help make foods easier to digest, e.g. cooling cilantro in very spicy food.
How does it work?
Your personalized Ayurvedic meal plan consists of a first session in which I will assess your constitution (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) and I will customize the program to meet your nutritional and spiritual needs of your own current state of balance and specific health goals.
Ayurvedic program includes a written Ayurveda report with easy, healthy and tasty ayurvedic recipes and I’m available on demand to answer your doubts and questions that may arise during the program.
