How to Balance Your Energy with Ayurvedic Nutrition

A few weeks ago we attended a workshop on Ayurvedic nutrition. Ayurveda is a system of traditional medicine from India. This was another step in becoming more aware of what we eat (after becoming vegan about a year ago). The workshop was held in the same place where we practice power yoga and the link with yoga was explained right at the beginning of the workshop. Yoga is about balancing the energy in your body and getting aware of your body. Nutrition is energy, so what you eat can cause a balance or disbalance of energy in your body. Most complaints are caused by a disbalance of energy in the body, so it is important to know what to eat and how to eat it.

Basic Rules
Some of the basis rules about nutrition are:

• It must taste good.
• It must be easy to digest.
• It must be the right quantity. Think of it as adding wood to a fire. If you eat too much, you will extinguish the fire. If you don’t eat enough, the fire will not get enough fuel and will go out.
• Only eat if your stomach is empty, when the last meal has been digested.
• It has to collaborate, not thwart, with other nutrition.
• Eat in a nice environment, with the right tools for pleasure (candles, nice music, etcetera).
• Don’t eat too fast or too slow.
• Focus on eating while you’re eating.
• Only eat things that support your dosha (vata, pitta or kapha – further explained below).

Doshas
There are 3 doshas: vata, pitta and kapha. A dosha is a combination of the 5 elements (ether, air, fire, water and earth). Your dosha stays the same during your whole life. As a child you have the purest dosha. Sometimes it gets out of balance by several influences when you are an adolescent or an adult.

A dosha has qualities of its own. It needs food and an environment with the opposite qualities to get balanced. For example: if your dosha has the quality ‘dry’, it needs food and an environment with the quality ‘moist’.

You can test what your predominant dosha is at holisticonline.com (Gerber = pitta, Laura = kapha).

In this article the focus is on nutrition. Expect a more in depth article about the three doshas in the near future. In the meantime you can learn more about the characteristics of the doshas at holisticonline.com: vata, pitta and kapha.

Vata
Vata is a combination of ether and air. Its qualities are light, cool and dry. To balance this dosha you need food that is heavy, warm and moist.

Good flavors: sweet, salt, sour.
Good nutrition: soup, (sweet) potatoes, pumpkin, olive oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, honey, yoghurt, grains.
Bad nutrition: cabbage, legumes, dried fruit, salads.

Pitta
Pitta is a combination of fire and water. Its qualities are moist, hot and light. To balance this dosha you need food that is dry, cool and heavy.

Good flavors: bitter, sweet.
Good nutrition: potatoes, rice crackers, basmati rice*, mint, raw broccoli, cucumber, spinach, salads, legumes (like chickpeas), coconut oil, sunflower oil*, melon, citrus fruit, soybean products.
Bad nutrition: too much oil (other than coconut oil or sunflower oil), cheese, spicy food (peppers).

Kapha
Kapha is a combination of water and earth. Its qualities are heavy, moist and cool. To balance this dosha you need food that is light, dry and hot.

Good flavors: bitter, spicy.
Good nutrition: tea (especially ginger tea), apple, pear, dried fruit, leek, chili, mustard, garlic, corn, spinach.
Bad nutrition: cool water, yoghurt, milk, cheese, meat.

General Remarks
The temperature of the food is not the same as the quality of the food. For example: yoghurt is kept in the fridge but is not cool. In fact, yoghurt is a warming kind of nutrition.
Basmati rice and sunflower oil can be eaten by all types of doshas.

Gunas
One more way to distinguish between several diets is by looking at the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas.

• Sattvic food is pure and fresh; excellent to eat before a yoga session. Examples are: vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, herbal tea, fresh/raw dairy products (not from the supermarket).
• Rajastic food is activating nutrition (not good for pitta), like alcohol, coffee, strong spices, onions, garlic, eggs, fish and chocolate.
• Tamastic food is heavy (not good for kapha), like meat, overripe vegetables and fruit.

More Resources
There are some great books available on this subject. Here are three that are highly recommended:

• The Ayurvedic Cookbook by Amadea Morningstar
• Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution by Robert Svoboda
• Perfect Health: The Complete Mind/Body Guide by Deepak Chopra

There are also lots of great websites about Ayurveda and nutrition. Here are two of our favorites:

• http://www.holisticonline.com/ayurveda/ayv_home.htm
• http://franlife.blogspot.com – also has lots of nice recipes!

Have fun!

Laura & Gerber