Step back to Ayurveda

This ancient way of eating can help bring balance to your body

“Why am I eating?” asks Radhika Chaliha, rhetorically. A Bengaluru-based yoga trainer, she questions herself every single time she has a meal. Which some days is once, and some days twice. When you are absolutely conscious about your body, your diet changes according to the seasons and levels of activity, she says. “In summer, I avoid fried food, and have more cooling yogurt and buttermilk, and in winter, I add an extra dollop of ghee on my roti.”

This makes for an ideal Ayurvedic diet, “Which includes two meals per day—preferably morning and evening before sunset,” says Dr Issac Mathai, founder of Soukya Holistic Healing Centre in Bengaluru, and a holistic healer himself. It purely depends on an individual’s body type, digestive capacity and the season of intake. “But mixing incompatible items is a complete ‘No’. For example, milk and fish, honey and meat, vegetables and milk, curd and chicken, banana and buttermilk, and so on. Avoid eating curd at night and the excessive use of salt.”

It’s all about maintaining the balance of the three vital forces, vata (wind), pitta(fire) and kapha (water) in the body. “These factors maintain health when they are in balance, and cause disease when their balance is disturbed. They can be disturbed by internal causes, such as an improper diet, and external, such as injury and weather, resulting in ill health,” explains Dr PLT Girija, founder of Sanjeevani Ayurveda and Yoga Centre, Chennai. Vata is responsible for all movements in and of the body; pitta implies heat and is responsible for digestion; kapha implies binding (of joints and more) and stability of the body, she explains. Based on the individual’s body physique, their activities, likings, behavioural patterns and attitude, an individual may be said to be a vata, pittaor kapha, or a combination of two.

Ayurvedic principles say that including all six tastes in your meals is likely to keep you healthier, than if you cook with just a few, adds Mathai. But depending on what body type you are, certain tastes impact in different ways. “For example, the intake of sweet, sour, salt is good for a vata type, whereas these tastes are not advisable for a kapha type. Bitter, pungent and astringent is good for the kapha type, but not for a vata type. Astringent, bitter and sweet are recommended for pitta,” he says.

Besides taste, the fridge and microwave are not gadgets that Ayurveda approves of. Every meal should be freshly prepared and served warm. Manish Mehrotra, chef at Zehen, an Ayurvedic retreat in Delhi, says, “All the vegetables used in the meals are absolutely seasonal and locally produced. We do not use broccoli, baby corn or asparagus, which is not produced locally. And since it is the season of mango, our sweet dishes include shrikandh or aamras, and drinks, aam panna and nimbu paani.”