David Frawley Ayurvedic Healing - A Comprehensive Guide Reading excerpt Ayurvedic Healing - A Comprehensive C omprehensive Guide of David Frawley Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
am food, I am the eater of food, and I eat the eater of food. I Iconsume the entire universe. My light is like the Sun. Taittiriya Upanishad 11.9.6 — PRIVATE PRIVATE
1.6 AYURVEDIC DIET
Personalizing Your Dietary Regimen Dietary Therapy Right diet is the main factor in the treatment of the physical body that is built up by food. Without changing our diet we cannot expect the body, which is its product, to change fundamentally whatever else we may attempt.Wrong diet is the main physical cause of disease. By correcting the diet, we eliminate the fundamental causes of disease. In its constitutional approach, Ayurveda emphasizes the correct diet for the individual as the basis for health. Herbs and foods follow the same energetics and can be looked at according to the same principles. Both involve taste, energy, elements and doshas. Herbs provide subtle nutrition while foods provide more gross or substantial nourishment. Herbal therapy also requires the support of the proper diet to be effective. Diet
Ayurvedic Healing DIET AND THE MIND
In Vedantic philosophy the mind is considered to be the essence of food. The Upanishads state, "The food that is eaten is divided threefold. The gross part becomes excrement. The middle part becomes flesh. flesh. The subtle part becomes the mind." (Chandogya Upanishad VI.4.1.) According to the common adage, "We are what we eat." What we eat affects our emotions and can create a predisposition for both psychological and physical disorders. Just as wrong emotions can upset our digestion, so wrong digestion can upset our emotions. We should consider also the spiritual qualities of the food we take in. Does it enhance our mental processes and peace of mind? Or is it disturbing? It is for this reason that meat, however nourishing, is not a good food. It has the energy of death and brings the forces of violence and decay, and the negative emotions of fear and hatred along with it The Upanishads also tell us, "The water that is drunk is divided threefold. The gross part becomes urine. The middle part becomes blood. The subtle part becomes the life-force." life-force." (Chandogya Upanishad VI.4.2.) What we drink nourishes our life-force. Drinking stale water, such as tap water or distilled
1.6 Ayurvedic Diet SEASONS
The diet should be adjustable for climate and seasonal variations. An anti-Vata diet should be given emphasis in the fall. An anti-Pitta diet should be followed more in the summer and late spring. An anti-Kapha diet should be followed more in the winter and hi early spring. Individuals whose constitutions are equal in two of the doshas, what we call dual types, should vary their diet by season. Vata-Pitta types should follow an anti-Vata diet more in the fall and winter and anti-Pitta in the spring and summer. Vata-Kapha types should follow an anti-Vata diet in the t he summer and fall and anti-Kapha in the winter and spring. Pitta-Kapha types should follow an anti-Pitta diet in summer and fall and anti-Kapha hi winter and spring. CLIMATE
• An anti-Vata diet is more appropriate to cold, dry, windy cli
mates, like the high desert or high plains regions. • An anti-Pitta diet is more suitable for hot climates including
the southern United States and the lower desert of the south west.
Ayurvedic Healing more Kapha (water). Such general factors, however, should enhance, not replace, the basic diet for balancing one's dosha. QUALITIES QUALITIES OF FOOD
Food is usually neutral, neither too hot nor too cold in energy. For this reason the heating or cooling effects of foods are mild. For heating or cooling to manifest, either large quantities or long-term consumption is necessary. Foods can be made hot by cooking and by the addition of spices; colder by taking them cold or raw. Anything very hot, like pepper, or very cold, like bitter herbs, cannot have much food value. Foods are primarily heavy or light, though most tend to be heavy. It can be made lighter through the use of spices or by consuming less. Foods also are drying or moistening; most often they are moistening. They can be made drier by evaporation or dry preparing preparing them. They can be made moister by cooking or by the addition of liquids or oils. DIETS FOR THE THREE DOSHAS
For the treatment of most diseases d iseases the diet prescribed will be
1.6 Ayurvedic Diet Classification is also according to food categories. Each food type has its general degree of increasing or decreasing the dosha. When both the category and the specific food are high for increasing a dosha, the effect is greater. Foods not listed can generally be judged judged by category category or by compari comparing ng them them to rel related ated foods. foods. Foods are classified according to different degrees of increasing or reducing the doshas: * low degree, ** high degree. Therefore, under the YES column: * low degree for reducing the dosha ** high degree for reducing the dosha Under the NO column, a food marked: * low degree for increasing the dosha ** high degree for increasing incre asing the dosha
The best foods for each dosha are marked ** in the yes column. The worst foods are marked ** in the no column. A food that is * on the no column, for example, may be taken occasionally, or easily antidoted. On the other hand, a food marked ** on the no column should be generally avoided. Our predominant diet is what matters; we have some latitude within that field, except
David Frawley
Ayurvedic Healing - A Comprehensive Guide
458 pages, publication 1992
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