Chapter 12
Optimising Your Diet: A Recipe for Success
In This Chapter
Finding foods for energy
Fasting to improve health
Introducing kicheree, an Ayurvedic staple
Making glorious ghee
Baking wheat-free bread
Creating your own spice mixtures to promote digestion
You’re nothing short of a walking miracle. Your digestion has achieved the marvel of being able to implement what alchemists through the centuries have attempted to do – to reconcile the opposites of fire and water by way of the perfect balance of acid and water in your stomach. You reap great benefits when you cooperate with your system in any way that you can. This chapter helps you do so with tips to ensure that your diet is nourishing.
There’s absolutely no substitute for a decent diet. One way or another, the food you choose to power your engine ultimately affects how you feel and your ability to ward off illness.
You can get away without knowing your constitution in this chapter, but you may want to refer to Chapter 4 to help tailor the information to your profile.
Highlighting High-Energy Foods to Include in Your Day
All foods are not created equal, especially when it comes to sustaining you through whatever your day brings. In this section I describe four foods that are well-known for providing long-lasting energy, with two from those wonderful workers, the bees.
Your body engages important systems to produce energy and sustain endurance, such as your adrenal glands, thyroid and liver. Carbohydrates are the key to strength and endurance; they promote the storage of muscle fuel and are easily absorbed without excess fat. Carbohydrates are considered to be the mainstay of your diet in Ayurveda, in the form of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, rice and beans.
Basmati rice
In India, basmati rice is considered a holy grain; it’s sweet and fragrant, and so it helps curb a strong appetite. It’s a very nutritious grain that’s low in sodium and cholesterol and is a rich source of manganese and selenium.
Basmati rice is produced by being soaked in lukewarm water and then steamed until it softens or partially cooks. The fluid is then drained off and the grains are spread out in the sun to dry. After that, the rice is hulled to reveal its unique, rich, fragrant flavour. Contrary to what you might think, this ancient practice preserves the nutrient content at the highest level at the centre of the grain.
Rice in large quantities can cause gastric distress. Any brown rice retains its outer covering (or pericarp), which makes it more difficult to digest, but is rich in folate and niacin. Adding some light, warming spices such as cinnamon, cardamom or cumin when you cook rice can help you avoid this problem.
If you’re worried about blood sugar and insulin resistance, choose brown basmati or a product known as converted white rice, which comes very low on the glycaemic index (low-glycaemic-index food gives you energy for longer).
Almond milk
You can easily buy almond milk, or you can use my very simple recipe to produce this high-protein alkaline drink which is also very tasty. You can use almond milk on cereals, in soups and desserts, or drink it on its own, unless of course you have a reaction to nuts.
Almond milk builds shukra dhatu, which is reproductive tissue. Almonds are rich in minerals, particularly bone-building calcium and magnesium, which helps release energy from your cells. One ounce of almond contains 25 per cent of your recommended daily amount of protein. Almonds are also a very good source of the antioxidant Vitamin E.
Those of you who suffer with colitis, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or Crohn’s disease can use almond milk therapeutically. Often these conditions are related to lactose intolerance, so almond milk is a useful substitute. Soya milk often makes sufferers with gut problems quite gassy. Peeled almonds appear to have a protective effect on the colon.
To make your own almond milk, follow these steps:
1. Soak 100 grams of almonds in apple juice overnight.
2. Drain the juice from the nuts. Remove the outer skins from the almonds and discard.
3. Blend the nuts with 1 litre of water in a food processor.
If you like, flavour the almond/water mixture with honey and a teaspoon of orange blossom water.
Honey
Ayurveda mentions many types of honey, but by far the most nutritious and bioactive is simple bee’s honey, which has been used for centuries by people everywhere. According to Ayurveda, raw unpasteurised organic bee’s honey builds something called ojas, which is a store of the finest energy in your body. This produces your aura, transmits energy from your mind to your body, and maintains the integrity of your immune system.
Honey has a property known as yogavaha, which means that it augments the effects of any medicines given along with it – rather like a helping hand to get the medicines deeper into your tissues.
For all its benefits, honey does have a shortcoming. You don’t want to cook it, because cooked honey forms an indigestible mass that blocks the channels of the body known as srotas.
Taking honey with warm water helps disperse mucus. Honey is rough, sharp and drying, which makes it useful for kapha disorders. Taken in the morning, it can be useful as part of a weight-loss programme, because unlike sugar, honey’s effect is heating. Medicinally it can be used for sore throats, ulcers, nausea and asthma.
Bee pollen
As well as honey, bee pollen is a great addition to any diet, especially a vegetarian diet, because it not only boosts your energy levels but also contains all the essential amino acids.
You need 22 building blocks or amino acids to make up all the protein structures in your body. The vegetarian diet doesn’t generally provide these unless you work to combine foods to cover the full gamut of amino acids.
You can add bee pollen to your breakfast cereal or porridge, apple juice or yogurt. Take a couple teaspoonfuls and mix them with a little cinnamon – it tastes really good. You can even add it to a smoothie or the lassi recipe later in this chapter.
Certain people may find bee pollen a bit too stimulating to take before bed, because it’s such a concentrated foodstuff. Some schools of thought suggest soaking it overnight to make it more digestible, so bear this in mind if your digestion is sluggish.
Bee pollen provides you with a source of 5,000 enzymes and co-enzymes. Bee pollen is made up of 3 per cent vitamins and minerals: vitamin B complex, vitamins A, C and D, beta carotene, selenium and lecithin. In other words, bee pollen is packed with life-enhancing nutrients.
Test whether you may be allergic to bee pollen by placing one granule on your tongue. If you experience no reaction, add a couple more. If you experience itching, swelling in the throat, and watering of the eyes and nose, stop there and avoid bee pollen in future.
Improving Your Digestion with Lassi
A common drink in India, lassi is made primarily of water and yogurt. It’s very refreshing by itself and after a meal.
An Ayurvedic favourite for helping you to digest your food, lassi also prevents bloating and kindles agni (the essential digestive fire). This is possibly because it supplies your gut with probiotics that keep your digestive tract healthy. Lassi also provides a valuable source of calcium and vitamin B12.
Choose the lassi that’s right for your constitution from the choices in this section. If all’s well with your digestion, you can try all of them with impunity.
Lassi tends to create mucus, so may not be helpful during cold, cool or damp weather. Some Ayurvedic practitioners don’t recommend it for people living in countries with a cool climate.
Vata lassi
If your digestion is erratic, the following lassi recipe is best for you. This recipe is designed for those with a vata constitution:
2 cups of water
1⁄2 cup of organic yogurt
Pinch of rock salt
One teaspoon of roasted cumin seeds
Mix the ingredients with a hand whisk or blender and serve at room temperature.
Pitta lassi
If you tend to get gastritis and burning, make your lassi as follows:
2 cups of water
1⁄2 cup of organic yogurt (use goat’s milk yogurt if you can)
2 teaspoons of jaggery or another sweetener
1 teaspoon of organic rosewater
Mix ingredients with a hand whisk or blender and serve at room temperature. For a change, you can add 1⁄2 teaspoon of coriander powder and finely chopped green coriander leaves.
Kapha lassi
If your digestion is sluggish and you put weight on easily, choose this recipe for you kapha types:
2 cups of water
1⁄2 cup of organic yogurt
1⁄2 teaspoon of ginger powder or 1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger
Pinch of salt
Mix the ingredients with a hand whisk or blender and serve at room temperature.
Fasting for General Health
Fasting – reducing your food intake – is an age-old practice that many cultures include in their rituals. According to Ayurveda, langhana, or lightening of the dietary intake, is the first line of treatment against most diseases, especially in the case of fever. Known as ksut nigraha in Sanskrit, which means ‘to control hunger’, fasting involves abstaining from all food or certain foods, or eating a ‘mono diet’ of just one food.
Don’t undertake fasting of any kind without first consulting your doctor, especially if you have a health condition.
Understanding the benefits of fasting
For a sense of how fasting can help, you need to know about something called ama, the Ayurvedic equivalent to toxins in your body. Ama is generated by such things as:
Poor diet
Environmental pollution
Ingesting heavy metals
Chronic stress
Electromagnetic contamination
Undetected dental disease
Chapter 5 can help you determine whether ama is affecting you.
These factors – on their own or in combination – upset your intestinal flora (the good bacteria that help you assimilate your food) and thicken the blood and lymph circulating in your body. These changes shift the alkalinity of your internal landscape and allow pathogens to invade and create disease.
Most – in fact, about 80 per cent – of the body’s defences reside in the small intestine. Poor dietary habits eventually prevent it from effectively performing its task.
A fast activates T-lymphocytes – white blood cells that are the vanguard of your immune system. These cells help to clear your body of unwanted elements.
Ayurveda frowns on long-term fasting. Pulling the pendulum too far to one side with an extended fast generally means your diet is going to swing back just as far in the other direction. It’s an effect that yo-yo dieters are well aware of. Even in fasting, moderation is a good call.
Knowing which fast is right for you
Follow these few simple guidelines before thinking about fasting:
Don’t fast in very cold weather. You need calories to keep you warm.
If you’re ill, you may be put on a fast as part of an Ayurvedic treatment known as panchakarma. This is a strong treatment for your body and needs to be supervised by an expert.
Don’t fast if you’re pregnant or suffering from any physical or mental illness. Checking with your doctor before fasting is always best.
Don’t fast if you’re weak, fatigued, a child or aged.
Don’t fast if you’re under a lot of personal or professional stress; you need to feel in a good place emotionally.
How you fast can depend upon your constitution. The following guidelines give you some ideas for maximising your own fast according to your profile:
Vata: Try a day’s fruit fast during which you eat only papaya, mangoes and other sweet fruits – the naturally sweet taste pacifies vata dosha. Sip warm water or vegetable broth throughout the day.
The main seat of vata dosha in your body is the colon, so you may be subject to constipation. Therefore you might also want to take a half teaspoon of triphala at night to keep you regular (available at any health-food shop).
Because your system is so delicate, avoid fasting for more than two days. Doing so can knock your system off balance for an extended period.
Pitta: Your very strong digestion enables you to fast for three to four days. You can eat sweet fruits such as pomegranates, grapes and cooked apples as often as you like, because they pacify pitta dosha. Avoid sour fruits. Try vegetable juices like celery and parsley, and salads.
Drink mineral water at room temperature throughout the day. Hot water’s good, too.
Kapha: Your constitution actually enables you to fast longest – for up to a week – but your comfort-seeking personality means you’re unlikely to want to do so! Quite a catch-22. Bitter vegetable juices and cranberry juice are the best choices for you, because they’re a tonic and cleansing to your system.
Drink cooled ginger tea with a little honey added to help dislodge ama from your system. Avoid sweet and sour juices, because they increase kapha dosha.
Your system will appreciate the well-earned rest of a once-a-week fast or even a day of drinking just juice or ginger tea. An even more accessible form of fasting is to give up desserts or fried food for a while; doing so helps an overtaxed system.
If, during your fast, you can abstain from talking, too, you’ll find much more energy available to you and gain greater mental clarity.
Fasting isn’t necessarily a good choice for everyone, or at any time. Think carefully before fasting, and listen to what your body is telling you.
Lightening your diet with kicheree
By far the easiest way to lighten your diet is to eat a mono diet of kicheree three times a day. This is a fundamental dish in Ayurveda that is very cheap, quick and easy to produce. Kicheree includes split mung beans, which are very light and easy to digest and which, with rice, form a complete protein.
The dish helps eliminate toxins from your system and can form the base for any chopped vegetables you may want to add.
Ingredients:
1⁄2 cup of yellow split mung beans
1 tablespoon of ghee
1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
2 inches of cinnamon bark
2 cardamom pods, bruised
1⁄4 teaspoon of turmeric
1 inch of finely chopped ginger
1⁄2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1⁄4 teaspoon of coriander seeds
Pinch of rock salt
Pinch of asafoetida
1 cup of basmati rice
6 cups of water
Method:
1. Wash the mung beans and allow them to soak for about 30 minutes.
2. Put the ghee into a frying pan and melt.
3. Add the black mustard seeds and cook until they pop.
4. Add the rest of the spices and sauté for a few minutes to release their fragrance.
5. Add the rice and beans and mix well with the ghee and spices.
6. Add the water and bring to a boil.
7. Cover with a lid and simmer until all the juices have been absorbed (in 15 to 20 minutes). Stir occasionally and add more water if necessary.
You can easily customise this meal to your constitution. Add coconut and more ghee if you’re a pitta; more ginger and spices if you have a tendency towards kapha; and more fluid with a bay leaf or garlic if you’re vata.
Eat the kicheree three times a day for one or two days to cleanse your system.
Introducing Ghee, the Cream of the Milk
Ghee – clarified butter – and its advantages to health are legendary in Ayurveda. Cows process the essence of plants and produce milk, which in turn is churned to form butter. Then the essence of the butter is modified and refined by heating and removing the fat solids to form ghee.
Discovering ghee’s benefits
Ghee is said to nourish all the different tissue elements in the body, and maintain the agni and all the subtle fires at tissue level. Ghee also:
Strengthens the immune system by increasing ojas, a superior form of subtle energy in the body
Enhances the intellect and improves memory
Boosts your digestive capacity without aggravating pitta dosha – the fire principle in your body
Dissolves wastes and toxins known as ama in your tissues, and carries them to your digestive tract to be expelled
Helps in the healing of peptic ulcers and gastritis
Relieves wounds, skin rashes and burns
You can also use ghee with herbal decoctions because it has the capacity to deliver the medicine directly to the tissues.
The qualities of ghee are heavy, unctuous and oily, so those of you who are kapha dosha should use it in moderation. Ghee pacifies both pitta and vata.
Whenever possible, make your own ghee (use the recipe in the next section) or at least buy an organic version. The versions of ghee commonly available in the supermarket are either of vegetable origin or they contain preservatives. In my experience, their taste is a far cry from the sweetness and fragrance of your own blend.
Making delicious ghee
Creating your own ghee is a very simple process. Just buy the best unsalted organic butter you can find and then follow these steps:
1. Melt two packets (about 500 grams) of butter in a saucepan at medium heat for about 20 minutes.
As the butter dissolves, froth will rise to the surface.
2. Reduce the heat.
The butter will turn golden brown.
3. Test the ghee by putting a drop of water in the pan.
If you hear a cracking sound, the ghee is ready. At this point, you’ll see that the solids have sunk to the bottom.
4. Gently pour the liquid through a strainer, decanting the clear golden fluid into a sterile container.
Always use a clean utensil when you want to scoop out some ghee. Doing so prevents contamination.
You don’t need to put the ghee in the fridge, because it keeps well at room temperature. In fact, like wine, the older it gets more it is prized. Some ghees in India called mahaghrita are over 100 years old!
Making special ghees
Medicated ghees are an important part of Ayurveda’s extensive toolbox. They can be time-consuming to make, but are hard to come by and so worth the effort. Ghee is what’s known as an anupana in Ayurveda, which means that it effectively delivers herbs deep into the system. Common examples are Brahmi ghee, which is used as a brain tonic and applied daily to the nose on the tip of the little finger, and triphala ghee, which you can use in cooking to cleanse the channels, improve your skin and enhance digestion.
As a rough guideline, you need a 1⁄2 ounce of herb per 2 ounces of ghee. Fresh herbs are ideal, but sometimes powdered ones – which also work just fine – are all you can get.
To make medicated ghees, follow these steps:
1. Calculate the amount of water you need. Use four times the amount of water as the amount of ghee you want to produce. So if you’re aiming for 8 ounces of ghee, use 32 ounces of water.
2. Simmer the herbs (use 1⁄2 ounce for every 2 ounces of ghee you hope to produce – so if you’re making 8 ounces of ghee, use 2 ounces of herbs) in the water until the liquid is reduced by 75 per cent.
Simmering concentrates the active ingredients of the herbs.
3. Gently mix in the ghee and heat to a slow simmer. Be careful not to burn the mixture. Regulate the temperature.
4. Once all the water is removed by gentle heating, the herbal ghee is ready.
5. Strain the mixture into a screw-top jar through five or six layers of cheesecloth placed in a strainer.
If your mixture doesn’t solidify after a time it has too much water in it, so reheat it to get rid of all the water. The whole process takes practice, so be patient.
Bread of Heaven: Wheat-free Recipes for an Excellent Loaf
According to Ayurveda, wheat is sweet and heavy in nature, so overuse of it can put on the pounds if you’re a kapha dosha or indeed if you already have excess weight. Modern wheat has been tinkered with a lot to increase the yield, so many people find that they have an adverse reaction to it. As an alternative to regular flour in recipes, try spelt flour, poetically known as dinkel in Germany, where it’s used a lot. Spelt is an old, traditional form of wheat, so your system has more chance of recognising it so that it can be digested properly.
Here I offer you two tasty wheat-free bread alternatives, which are easy to make.
Serbian cornmeal bread
This recipe makes a delicious loaf.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of dried yeast
100 millilitres of lukewarm milk
25 grams of potato flour
1 tablespoon of molasses or agave syrup
50 grams of fine cornmeal
2 tablespoons of soya flour
Pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon of corn oil or sunflower oil
Method:
1. Put the yeast, milk and molasses or agave syrup in a bowl and allow to stand for 10 to 20 minutes somewhere warm.
2. Now put the dry ingredients into a bowl. Then add to the bowl the beaten egg, oil, and the yeast and milk combination, and mix together.
3. Spoon the mixture into an oiled, lined loaf tin. Leave it in a warm place for half an hour.
4. Bake in a pre-warmed oven at 180°C/350°F for 40 to 45 minutes.
5. Let the loaf cool thoroughly on a wire rack before you eat it.
African millet bread
This recipe makes tasty individual bread patties.
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons of lukewarm milk
Pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon of dried yeast
100 grams of flaked millet
1⁄2 teaspoon of salt
225 millilitres of lukewarm water
Method:
1. Mix together the milk, sugar and yeast and leave in a warm environment for about 15 minutes.
2. Grind the millet flakes in a grinder until fine then put them in a bowl with the salt.
3. Make a well in the centre of the ground millet and pour in the water and the yeast mixture, stirring all the time using a wooden spoon to form a smooth batter.
4. Beat for one minute and then cover the bowl with a cloth and leave for about an hour until the mixture becomes frothy.
5. Now cook the batter on a lightly greased and heated griddle or in a heavy-based frying pan. Drop the batter into the pan in spoonfuls and cook for about six minutes on both sides until the patty is crisp and honey-coloured.
Crafting Super Spice Mixes for Everyday Use
Spices are highly prized in Ayurveda for their health-giving benefits and for their excellent flavour. You can make your own blends that correspond to your doshic balance.
For all the mixes, get non-irradiated varieties if you can. In Europe and the United States, spices are irradiated to prevent fungal growth, so when I travel outside these areas I bring the fresh spices back with me. I once went to the Yemen, and the flavour of non-irradiated pepper is fragrant and more pungent than that of the pepper we get here.
Use 25 grams of each individual spice, as follows, to make your concoctions:
Cooling pitta spice mixture: Turmeric, coriander, fennel, aniseeds
Warming vata spice mixture: Ginger, clove, cardamom, cumin, asafoetida, ajwan
Heating kapha spice mixture: Ginger, black pepper, mustard seeds, kalonji, cumin
Now put your spices in a coffee grinder, but don’t make them too fine; leave them quite granular because they keep their flavour longer that way. Then place the mixtures in separate labelled screw-top jars so that they’re ready when you need to cook with them. Use the spice mixes in seasonal cooking, assuming you’re balanced and well.
Chapter 18 gives you information on ten super spices for your kitchen.
Adding Herbs to Your Diet
A very simple way of adding to the much-needed spectrum of tastes in your daily diet is by adding herbs. The more variety of the six tastes mentioned in Chapter 11 you can ingest, the more likely you are to feel satisfied with less food. You eat more if your body is crying out for nutritious food. So often, the modern fast food diet is devoid of minerals and vitamins, which are essential for health. Get into the habit of adding fresh herbs to your shopping list.
Listed in Table 12-1 are short lists of herbs for each dosha.
Table 12-1 Choosing Herbs for Your Dosha
|
Vata |
Pitta |
Kapha |
|
Basil |
Green coriander |
Horseradish |
|
Parsley |
Mint (in moderation) |
Rocket |
|
Chervil |
Chicory |
Parsley |
Head to Chapter 17 for ten wonderful herbs to use liberally.
Quenching Thirst with Pure Water
There is much to say about the life-giving substance of water, and I can only marvel at the minds that revealed this knowledge to us in the Vedas.
Every cell in your body is dependent on water. Water serves as a heart tonic and a pacifier of pitta dosha due to its cool potency.
The amount of water you need depends largely on your exercise levels, on air-conditioning, heating and the seasons, and on your constitution. I so often see large ladies forcing big bottles of water down themselves and thinking it will flush the kidneys, but in many cases they’re doing more harm than good because they’re diluting their precious agni or digestive fire.
Nature gave you such a concentrated environment in your stomach so that you digest everything that you put in! So as a general rule, drink:
Five to six cups of water daily if you have a pitta constitution
Seven to eight cups of water per day if you have a vata constitution
Roughly four cups of water per day if you’re kapha
Drink water at room temperature without ice, to aid your digestion. If you serve water in a copper vessel for optimum agni, this has the added bonus that it helps to neutralise chlorine. Drinking from a clay pot is said to be good for all doshas.
Bottled water is readily available but varies greatly in its content:
Bottled waters with a low mineral content, such as Evian or Volvic, are good for babies and general use.
Mineral waters like San Pellegrino and Contrex are rich in calcium, and so are advised to promote healthy kidneys and healthy bone tissue.
Those waters with a high mineral content, such as Vichy, are good for short-term use for the bones and kidneys, and are also useful as part of a fast. They’re also believed to be helpful if you have hypertension, arthritis, low immunity and digestive problems. Badoit, which is high in magnesium, is a personal favourite and is excellent for sufferers of cystitis and anyone with liver problems.
Avoid plastic bottles, because the chemicals used in the plastic can enter the water; glass is much better.