Ayurveda completely transformed my relationship with food. When I was a teenager, I used food like a drug, numbing my mind and heart from all that felt out of control in my life. I used to starve myself for long periods of time, thinking that I was somehow gaining greater self-mastery. In actuality, my body was wasting away from a potentially deadly psychiatric disorder: anorexia. I was also suffering from other conditions, such as anxiety, insomnia, excessive fear, and acne.
When I began eating at Vedika Global, however, I felt much better physically and mentally. Eating according to Ayurveda empowered me to overcome all of my physical health challenges within just a few months. Over a longer period of time, this led directly to healing my mind and, ultimately, to transforming my spiritual consciousness (a beautiful continual process).
Now, when people approach me to learn how to experience more wellbeing in life, I always tell them it starts with food. Along with sleep and balanced sexuality, food is one of the three sub-pillars (upastambhas) of health — and the most important.
The ancient spiritual text Chandogya Upanishad emphasizes the purity of food and its ability to heal our body and mind. In Ayurveda’s understanding of purity, undigested food becomes toxicity in our body, called ama or aam in Sanskrit. Ama is a causative factor in physical and even mental diseases. Hence, food is healing only to the extent we can actually digest it, and thereby convert it into nutrients our body can utilize to create good health. We are not only what we eat, but what we digest. Thus, we want to keep our bodies free of toxins.
When we eat a pure and wholesome diet, we can experience perfect digestion. Our mind, intellect, and ego are able to start to become purified, too. We begin to experience a calmer, clearer mind. And only with a calm, pure mind can we actually reach for spiritual freedom (moksha), which is the ultimate goal of the science of Ayurveda.
There is a famous Ayurvedic proverb: “When diet is correct, medicine is of no need; when diet is incorrect, medicine is of no use.” Hippocrates, father of modern medicine, similarly stated: “Make food thy medicine and medicine thy food.”
Wishing you much health and joy as you heal your diet.
Eating according to Ayurveda’s vast wisdom gives you food for your body, mind, and spirit.
Throughout this book I have included experiences from students and private clients from various “Take Health Into Your Own Hands” trainings, workshops, and one-on-one health consultations I've given at conferences, universities, companies, and nonprofits. You can learn more about these Ayurveda trainings in Resources.
This may come as a surprise, given how much salads are touted as the classic healthy food choice, but cold, raw, uncooked foods are difficult for your digestive system. Ayurveda compares your digestive capacity to a physical fire, which you extinguish whenever you consume excess cold foods.
It is best to eat warm, cooked, and oiled foods, as all of these factors help food to kindle your digestive system and travel smoothly through the digestive channels of your body. We learn in physics that heat expands, while cold contracts. Ayurveda envisions the body as possessing channels or pipe-like pathways called srota, which are responsible for transporting and circulating nutrients, and for elimination. All of these bodily channels need to stay open and unclogged for optimal health.
When you consume cold foods, you constrict your body’s digestive channels, making your food sit in your system for a longer time. Warm food, on the other hand, keeps all of your channels open and flowing, serving to kindle your digestive fire, thus supporting healthy elimination. Cooking your food “pre-digests” it for you, meaning your digestive system doesn’t need to work as hard.
Having the right amount of oil ensures your food can travel smoothly through your body’s digestive and elimination passageways. Typically, about 1 teaspoon of oil is good, although it’s beneficial to modify the amount throughout the year (see chapter 9) and according to your individual health needs. The type of oil you choose also varies throughout the year, though ghee can be safely used anytime.
Even if you can’t cook your food, due to time constraints, traveling, or lack of kitchen, simply choosing warm instead of cold foods can make a huge difference in your digestion and overall health.
Just as warm, cooked foods are preferred to cold, raw ones in Ayurveda, so, too, is warm, boiled water preferable to cold. Cold water, good for putting out a physical fire, also diminishes your inner digestive fire. Boiling helps lighten the quality of the water, making it easier for your body to digest. Once water has been boiled, you can drink it for the next 24 hours. Even if the water cools to room temperature, the fact that it has been boiled makes it much easier to digest (though warm, boiled water is best if you need elimination support).
This is not to say that you should chug gallons of hot water a day. Nowadays, we are conditioned to drink at least eight glasses of water a day. We are also told that if we wait to drink until we are thirsty, we’ll be dehydrated. (Not surprisingly, the water bottle industry was beginning to boom just as this myth started circulating.)
Feeling thirsty isn’t a sign you’re already dehydrated. Ayurveda classifies thirst as one of your body’s natural urges, akin to the urges of hunger, sneezing, burping, yawning, sleeping, and eliminating waste (learn more here). Just as you wouldn’t want to try to force yourself to urinate when you don’t feel the urge, Ayurveda says you need not force yourself to drink water to avoid feeling thirsty. Drinking way too much water can cause water intoxication (hyponatremia), in which your nerve impulses, kidneys, and brain can get seriously, and sometimes fatally, stressed.
If you’re thirsty, drink boiled water until you’re satisfied. Then stop. It’s really that simple.
Takra, a light spiced yogurt drink (see recipe), is a fantastic way to boost your digestive power.
Dairy is shunned in certain circles. It is thought to be responsible for a number of ailments, from digestive upsets to acne. Ayurveda, however, embraces certain dairy products and suggests that it’s not just what you are consuming but how you are consuming it that disturbs you. Even those who thought they were lactose intolerant (myself included) find that they can consume the dairy products Ayurveda recommends.
Ghee. Ayurveda heavily emphasizes clarified butter, or ghee — so much so that several Ayurvedic texts devote a whole chapter to it. Ghee (see recipe) is extremely beneficial to your digestive health. In the Ayurvedic text Bhavaprakash, ghee’s benefits are described:
Ghee is rejuvenating, sweet in taste, good for vision, kindles digestive fire, removes poison and inauspiciousness, bestows luster, courage, beauty, good voice and memory, increases intelligence, prolongs life, gives strength, cures gas in the abdomen, fever, insanity, abdominal pain, ulcers, increases immunity, benefits herpes and diseases of the blood.
Modern research has started validating what the ancient Ayurvedic sages have known for thousands of years: ghee is tremendously good for you. It is the highest known food source of butyric acid, a beneficial fatty acid that boosts immunity, supports healthy levels of cholesterol, reduces fatty tissues, increases energy production, and regulates elimination. You can learn more in the references section.
You can cook meat and vegetables in ghee, and add warmed ghee to cooked lentils. You can also add a small spoonful of ghee to dry, light foods like popcorn and salads. Ghee helps increase digestibility without causing vata dosha (the gaseous bioforce) to build up excessively in the body as uncomfortable bloating and constipation. You may be pleasantly surprised to know that Ayurveda even recommends ghee to those seeking to lose weight and those suffering from diabetes. I would, of course, recommend less ghee to those who are trying to lose weight. You can consume ghee even if you’re lactose intolerant, as the casein (dairy component) has been removed.
In Sanskrit, the word for “to oil” is sneha, which also means “to love.” Like any lasting love relationship, ghee gets better the longer you have it. So make a large supply of ghee and store it for long-term use.
Warm milk. I thought I was lactose intolerant before encountering Ayurveda, but then I learned I was only unable to digest milk because I was drinking it cold and unflavored. As with food and water, Ayurveda recommends consuming milk warm so it runs smoothly through your bodily channels. See here to learn how to make warm spiced milk for a satisfying and delicious treat.
Light spiced yogurt. Regular yogurt is heavy and does not promote good digestion for most people, but when whisked with water and spices, it forms a delicious and healthy treat called takra (see recipe).
Fresh cheese. Fresh cheeses that are typically not fermented, such as paneer (a type of cheese common in Indian cuisine), goat’s milk cheese, fresh mozzarella, and fresh farmer cheese are fine when eaten in smaller quantities.
“When you taste ghee, you’ll love it, so make it your friend because it is also very beneficial. After including ghee in most of my food, I have not only lost weight, I also lowered my diabetic and cholesterol counts, to the delight of my Western physician!”
— Roopa
Cold yogurt. Ayurveda warns against consuming yogurt straight out of the fridge. This is contrary to Western food dictums — we’re told that yogurt is great for digestion and energy, due to its probiotics. Regular yogurt is heating, heavy, sticky, and sour. It clogs your bodily channels. It does not support the downward movement of bowels, which further contributes to its constipating effect.
In general, Ayurveda does not recommend fermented food, as it is one of the root causative factors for constipation. Given how important healthy digestion is in Ayurveda, we want to avoid constipation at all costs.
Cheese. This is another fermented food that is heavy to digest. Have you noticed how you feel unmotivated to move after eating a feast of fettuccine Alfredo or ravioli? The inertia you feel after eating cheese-filled foods is not healthy. It’s indicative of a quality of dullness, darkness, and even depression called tamas (learn more in chapter 5). Only those who have very strong digestive fire can handle small quantities of cheese (see here to determine the strength of your digestion). The best time of the year to eat cheese is the winter, when digestive fire is naturally peaking (learn more in chapter 9).
Cream. Sour cream and most other types of milk cream used in soups and curries are not recommended by Ayurveda because they contribute to clogging bodily channels and cannot be easily digested. Anything undigested becomes a liability to your system.
I empathize completely if you’re feeling separation anxiety from foods you’ve loved for years. After learning how harmful frozen yogurt is, I actually sat and “broke up” with it. In my head, I said, “Okay, Mr. Frozen Yogurt with sweet fruits, I know you are no good for me, and so it’s time we part ways now. I am saying goodbye to you so I can say hello to greater health. Because I deserve better.”
Some things just don’t go together. Ayurveda teaches that certain food combinations can block your bodily channels and create skin problems, toxicity, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), fever, anemia, or indigestion.
Often when I meet clients, I see that the root cause of their problems — whether skin conditions, obesity, or respiratory issues — is eating incompatible foods. In general, avoid mixing raw and partially cooked foods. Here are some specific incompatibilities.
While it’s not within the scope of this book to go into depth about how each of the incompatible food combinations can harm you, here are a few explanations.
When your body is digesting fruit and milk together, the fruit tends to curdle the milk in the stomach, leading to a lot of acidity and sourness. Milk and fish create obstructions in your bodily channels, which food must travel through to be assimilated into nutrients your body can use. Milk doesn’t mix well with salt, as they have opposing qualities.
Bananas eaten with buttermilk or regular milk, and the other incompatible food combinations listed above, can lower your digestive power and create toxicity in your body, which leads to many other diseases and imbalances.
Simply eliminating incompatible food combinations in my own diet cleared up my skin and improved my digestion. Start saying goodbye to these combinations and saying hello to better health!
Do you experience pain, bloating, and heaviness upon elimination? Have headaches often, and inexplicable chest pain? Feel tired all the time, yet suffer from insomnia without a clue about why?
These are all signs your digestion could be compromised. In the West, we tend to think elimination and digestion are completely separate. Western doctors often won’t say your digestion is disturbed when you have chronic constipation (and haven’t eliminated for a few days). Ayurveda, however, sees digestion and elimination as deeply intertwined. When digestion is optimal, healthy elimination is the natural result. What benefits digestion also supports your elimination.
Having a healthy digestion is the best indicator of overall health in Ayurveda. Healthy digestion positively impacts your sleep quality and reduces stress, among other potent health benefits. It’s importance cannot be overemphasized.
If your digestion is healthy, you:
Observe your elimination in terms of its timing, consistency, and frequency. Think of it as a window into your health. If your stools don’t follow the signs of healthy elimination, make adjustments, such as incorporating into your diet some of the recipes that follow.
I’m always touched by how Chef Sanjai teaches and models the importance of cooking with love and positive thoughts, since your emotions and intentions are transmitted into your food. I believe sending positive vibrations is the biggest secret to making delicious-tasting food that gives you energy, vitality, and strength. Setting up your kitchen with photos that inspire you makes a big difference. You could even light a lamp (see Light a lamp.) before cooking to help get into the right frame of mind of appreciation, love, and gratitude. All of this makes the whole journey of food, from preparation to consumption to digestion, a truly magical, spiritual experience.
Eating according to Ayurveda is one of the ways I give love to myself, and express that to those I love and serve.
Takra (see photo) is an incredible digestive antidote during colder seasons. While Ayurveda typically doesn’t recommend eating cold yogurt because its dense, cold qualities can clog your bodily channels, this version lightens the yogurt by whisking it with water, transforming it into a health-promoting food. It’s magical how a few small adjustments can make such a difference in a food’s healing potency.
Takra benefits those suffering from piles, diabetes, abdominal tumors, diarrhea, many skin diseases, obesity, anemia, and more. Takra is particularly helpful anytime you experience loss of appetite. When combined with khichadi (see Reclaim your health with khichadi.) in a mono diet, it can help those combating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Note: Consume ideally before 3:00 p.m.; eat in moderation in the spring.
Serves 2
I grew up a milk-and-cereal-eating girl. When I learned how milk and ordinary cereal is an incompatible food combination, I happily switched to this sweet cereal substitute. Way tastier than the breakfast cereal of my childhood, sweet sooji cereal is a delicious and delightful way to start your day. Many of my clients have healed from food-related allergies by following this recipe.
Wheat, the main ingredient in this cereal, facilitates healing fractures or broken bones, gives your body strength, and has an aphrodisiac quality. Consuming wheat regularly promotes a healthy complexion. The grounding earth element in the wheat helps you persevere through difficult circumstances; it is a great stress-busting and stresspreventing morning meal.
When I started eating this cereal, I noticed how it had a stabilizing effect on my mind. It makes me feel cheerful to begin the day, rather than anxious and stressed, as I used to feel when starting the day with milk and cereal. See recipe for a savory version.
In Ayurveda, we strive to stay as close to nature as we can. Food loses its freshness quickly and starts to accumulate a lethargic quality known as tamas. Tamas can create a dark, stagnant feeling in the mind (you can learn more about it in Chapter 5). Hence, try to avoid eating food that was prepared more than one day before.
Serves 2
Made of cooked green and/or yellow mung dal lentils, white rice, and a variety of spices, khichadi (also called kitchari) is one of Ayurveda’s superfoods. Almost all Indians know khichadi as a healing food. Khichadi is such a go-to food that I widely recommend it to clients struggling with a variety of health challenges. It can be made with a number of seasonal spices and vegetables (see the Seasonal Food Guide for ideas), so you can continually experience different flavors.
Filling, yet light, it’s wonderful for yoga practitioners who want to go deeper into their spiritual practices, as it brings about a calm mental state. For those who want to cleanse the body, it is helpful to eat a diet of khichadi and takra (a spiced yogurt drink; see recipe) for about 7 to 10 days (or until toxins disappear).
“For nearly my entire life, I struggled with digestive problems. I was extremely motivated to follow Ayurveda’s digestion suggestions during pregnancy — and they worked like a charm! Ananta’s suggestions for lunch and dinnertime included eating vegetables cooked in ghee and mild spices. Almost immediately after following this advice, my digestion improved to the best state it’s ever been.”
— Melissa
Serves 2-3
Time-saving tip: Invest in a slow cooker. You can start cooking lentils and vegetables in it in the morning and they will be ready for you by dinner.
Spiced milk is a truly delicious treat that promotes sound, sweet sleep when drunk at night (especially when made with nutmeg). This is the only substance Ayurveda recommends consuming just before sleeping. You can also enjoy it anytime — in the morning for breakfast, or as a lunch or dinner meal substitute. When consumed during the day, it will give you energy and strength.
This special milk gives your mind a wonderful feeling of clarity, balance, and peacefulness, called sattva in Sanskrit. What’s more, according to Ayurveda, warm milk is the best aphrodisiac food, helps delay the aging process, reduces constipation (it has a mild laxative effect and hence is not recommended if you have diarrhea), and soothes your heart and bleeding conditions. I drink it daily. I’m officially in love with it.
Note: Enjoy this recipe as a meal by itself, or at least 3 hours after your last meal. (Remember: milk is not compatible with meat, fish, lentils, fruits, or vegetables.) If you find cow’s milk too heavy, the best alternative is goat’s milk. However, many who are lactose intolerant find they can digest spiced milk. If your digestion is strong (see Observe your digestion to assess your overall health. to find out), you can simply warm 1 cup of milk; you don’t need to add water or reduce the mixture.
“My grandson hasn’t been able to drink milk for a really long time, because he would get gas and other problems, but now he’s drinking warm spiced milk and the gas is gone. That’s amazing.”
— Sherry
Serves 2
Another Ayurveda superfood, opo squash promotes mental clarity, balance, optimism, and peace of mind. A great nourishing food, it also benefits your heart. It is easily digestible and tastes sweet.
This opo squash recipe is a personal favorite. I love how grounded and clear-headed it makes me feel, and I recommend it for anyone experiencing mental stress and turbulent emotions. It goes great with cooked rice, chappatis, warm wheat tortillas, and khichadi. You can buy opo squash at Indian or Chinese markets. If you can’t find it, you can substitute any winter or summer squash (depending on the season; see Seasonal Food Guide).
Serves 2-3
There’s nothing quite like a satisfying bowl of mung dal soup on those days I am seeking soul food. Light and easily digestible, mung dal can help alleviate fevers, ulcers, and blood-related disorders. The recipe is easily adaptable. You can make it with several different kinds of dals (whole green gram, yellow lentils, red lentils, and split green gram). Add any vegetables you enjoy and serve with white rice or tortillas if desired — or just eat it by itself. It’s delicious in all ways!
Serves 2-3