NUTRITION FROM AN AYURVEDIC PERSPECTIVE

The ancients offered ten principles about a healthy diet and how it is to be eaten.  They are:

1) Food needs to be warm (usually cooked).

2)Food needs to be tasty and easy to digest.

3)Food needs to be eaten in the proper amounts.

4)Food needs to be eaten on an empty stomach, after your last meal has been digested and not before.

5)Foods  needs to be eaten in  pleasant surroundings with no talking or T.V.

6)Foods need to work together and not contradict one another in their actions.

7)Eating should never be rushed and should always be sitting down, never standing.

8)It is best to be conscious and aware of the food and chewing while eating.

9)Only eat food which is nourishing to your particular constitution and which suits your mental and emotional temperament.

10) Most importantly always say a meal prayer before eating your food and never drink cold liquids with your meal as it dilutes the digestion process, creating AMA in the system.

These concepts may seem obvious, and yet if you think  back over the last few days of eating, you are likely to find at least a few or many examples of eating different from these.  Of all the elements essential for the maintenance of positive health, food taken in the proper quanity is regarded as most important.  IN AYURVEDA, food is medicine as well as nourishment and what one eats and  how it is eaten is of the upmost importance to health and well being.  I encourage everyone to to try and implement as many of these basis AYURVEDIC principles in every day life.  Until next time. PEACE