INTRODUCTION:
The body grows and gets stronger from conception. Growth happens due to the right time, favorable nature, good food, and lack of obstacles. Good food is crucial for growth and overall health, which is essential for achieving life goals. Ayurveda focuses on maintaining health through proper food intake. Health and disease depend on many factors, but food is the most important. Food provides energy, helps in growth, repair, and maintenance of cells and tissues. Dietary needs vary based on age, sex, and occupation. A balanced diet includes various foods in the right amounts to meet the body’s needs. Regularly eating a balanced diet and maintaining an ideal weight are key for physical and emotional well-being. In Ayurveda, diet is one of the three pillars of life.
Ayurveda specifies that food quality, quantity, and timing should suit an individual’s age, constitution, digestion, season, and health. Eating the wrong food or cooking it improperly can cause health problems. Poor digestion creates toxins (Ama) that lead to diseases like Rheumatoid arthritis (Amavata). Eating too much sweet food can cause diabetes, and heavy foods can cause obesity. Modern lifestyle diseases like diabetes, obesity, cancer, liver diseases, insomnia, anxiety, and asthma are often due to poor diet habits. Ayurveda emphasizes proper diet planning for treating diseases and maintaining health.
The theory of five elements (Panchamahabhoota) in Ayurveda states that everything, including the human body and food, is made of five elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether. A balanced diet maintains the body’s balance.
The theory of three biological humors (Tridoshas) explains that the body is made of these elements, forming Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Each food affects these Doshas, and Ayurveda prescribes specific diets to maintain their balance. Food contains six basic tastes, each affecting the Doshas and the body’s balance.
Tastes and Elements:
– Sweet (Madhura): Earth and Water
– Sour (Amla): Earth and Fire
– Salty (Lavana): Water and Fire
– Pungent (Katu): Fire and Air
– Bitter (Thikta): Air and Space
– Astringent (Kashaya): Earth and Air.
Drugs with sweet, sour, and salty tastes help reduce Vata. Astringent, sweet, and bitter tastes reduce Pitta, while astringent, pungent, and bitter tastes reduce Kapha.
Psychosomatic Constitution (Prakriti): Ayurveda classifies people based on their body and mind constitution (Prakriti) according to the balance of the three doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha).
There are seven types: Vata, Pitta, Kapha, Vata-Pitta, Vata-Kapha, Pitta-Kapha, and Sama Prakriti. This classification helps in disease assessment, diagnosis, and treatment, including diet planning.
Kitchen and Food Attributes:
Ayurveda emphasizes a clean, spacious, and airy kitchen. Food should be protected from insects and dirt.There are eight attributes related to food:
1. Prakriti: Quality of food
2. Karana: Food processing
3. Samyoga: Mixing
4. Rashi: Quantity
5. Desha: Habitat
6. Kala: Time and season
7. Upayoga Samstha: Digestibility
8. Upayokta: The person consuming the food
Diet and Mind:
Food affects the mind. There are three diet types:
1. Satvik: Ideal, vegetarian, non-oily, non-spicy
2. Rajasik: Spicy, hot, sour, salty, excites the mind
3. Tamasik: Oily, heavy, leads to lethargy
Forms of Food:
1. Ashitam: Eatables
2. Khaditam: Chewables
3. Peetam: Drinks
4. Leedham: Lickables
Diet Principles:
1. Eat food in the right amount, hot, and not conflicting in nature after the previous meal is digested. Eat in a proper place, without talking or laughing, and focus on the meal.
2. If food is heavy, fill only three-fourths or half of the stomach.
3. Eat easily digestible, energetic, soft, and warm food when hungry.
Incompatible Diet (Viruddha Ahara):
Eating incompatible foods can be harmful, causing various disorders and weakening the body. Examples include:
1. Fish or fish soup with milk
2. Milk with alcoholic beverages
3. Radish with milk
4. Lotus stem with honey
5. Equal amounts of honey and ghee
Seasonal Diet:
Ayurveda prescribes specific diets for different seasons:-
Spring: Bitter, hot, and astringent foods; avoid salty, sour, and sweet foods. Recommended: wheat, barley, honey syrup, mango, jackfruit, and forest animal meat.
Summer: Cool, liquid, sweet, and oily foods to calm Pitta. Avoid hot, spicy, sour, and salty foods. Recommended: rice, milk, ghee, sugar, grapes, coconut water, forest animal meat.
Rainy Season: Sweet, sour, and salty foods to calm Vata. Food should be hot, dry, fatty, and easy to digest. Recommended: preserved rice, wheat, barley, and mutton soups.
Winter: Hot, sweet, sour, and salty foods to calm Vata and increase Pitta. Recommended: milk, sugarcane, rice, oils, and fats.
Autumn: Foods to calm Pitta. Recommended: ghee processed with bitter drugs, purgation, bloodletting, cool and light foods.
Rules of Eating
Do’s:
– Eat food that is tasty, warm, of good quality, oily (unctuous), and easy to digest
.- Eat at a moderate pace, not too fast or too slow.- Only eat when you are hungry and after the previous meal has been digested.
– Include all tastes (sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, and astringent) in your daily diet.
– Choose food that is nourishing and suitable for your constitution and emotional state.
– Focus on your food while eating.
– Eat in a comfortable sitting position.
– Eat in pleasant surroundings with utensils and preparations of your choice.
Don’ts:
Avoid eating foods that are contradictory in action (e.g., fish with milk, radish with milk, equal amounts of honey and ghee).- Do not eat in a hurry.
– Do not eat too slowly either.
– Avoid eating when emotionally upset.
– Do not overuse any of the six tastes (sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, and astringent).
Disease-Specific Diets
Diabetes Mellitus (Madhumeha):
Eat barley, wheat, beans like green gram, fenugreek, horse gram, and bitter gourd.
– Include green leafy vegetables like fenugreek and coriander.
– Eat blackberries, amla (Indian gooseberry), and other sour fruits.
– Triphala (an Ayurvedic herbal mixture) is useful.
Rheumatoid Arthritis (Amavata):
– Eat red rice, barley, horse gram, and green gram.
– Include garlic, ginger, ladyfinger leaves, and black pepper
.- Consume patola (a type of cucumber) leaves and fruit.
– Drink warm water and eat light meals.
Jaundice (Kamala):
– Eat red rice, wheat, barley, green gram, and beans.
– Include banana, pomegranate, blackberry, and garlic.
– Drink sugarcane juice, buttermilk, and radish juice, and eat Indian gooseberry.
Cardiac Disorders and Obesity (Hridroga & Sthoulya):
– Eat barley, red rice, green gram, and puffed corn.
– Include fruits like banana, white gourd, mango, pomegranate, raisins, and citrus fruits .
.- Add garlic, onion, and dry ginger to your diet.- Consume buttermilk, honey, jaggery, and meat soup.
Acid Peptic Diseases (Amla Pitta):
– Follow a milk based diet.
– Eat Indian gooseberry, pomegranate, raisins, and papaya.
– Include cereals like red rice, wheat, barley, and green gram.
– Prefer small and frequent meals.
Diet for the Elderly
– Older adults need less energy due to a slower metabolism and decreased activity levels but need the same or more vitamins and minerals.
– Eating enjoyment may diminish with age due to decreased taste bud sensitivity, leading to a tendency to add more salt or sugar.
– Chronic conditions like hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, and dementia are more common in the elderly, impacting quality of life.
– A nutritious diet can delay age-related decline and prevent chronic diseases.
Dietary Guidelines for the Elderly:
– Include foods from three groups in every meal: energy-providing foods, body-building foods, and protective foods.
Energy-giving foods: Complex carbohydrates (whole cereals, pulses, starchy vegetables, fruits like sweet potato and banana) are preferred over simple carbohydrates (sugar, honey). Sources of fat include vegetable oils, ghee, and butter, but avoid excessive use.
Body-building foods: Protein-rich foods (pulses, eggs, chicken, fish, milk, and milk products) are essential for muscle, organ, and tissue health, repair, and immunity.
Protective foods: Rich in minerals and vitamins, these foods (fruits and vegetables) protect against infections, boost immunity, prevent deficiencies like anemia, and delay chronic diseases.
Planning Meals
Include foods from every food group in each meal. You don’t need to prepare elaborate meals with many dishes; a single dish can include all food groups, like vegetable khichri, vegetable uthappam, or missi roti.
Discussion and Conclusion :The body needs food for energy, growth, repair, and maintenance. A balanced diet has different types of foods in the right amounts to meet the body’s needs. Regularly eating a balanced diet and maintaining an ideal weight is crucial for physical and emotional well-being. In Ayurveda, diet is one of the three main components of life (Tri-Upastambha).
Each food can either increase or balance the Doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) in the body. Ayurveda provides specific dietary guidelines to maintain Dosha balance and health. By following these guidelines, which include understanding Doshas, body constitution (Prakriti), tastes, food processing, quality, quantity, and eating rules, one can prevent many physical and mental diseases. As stated in Vaidyajeevanam, proper diet can eliminate the need for medication.
source: Eating a Balanced Diet: A Healthy Life through a Balanced Diet in the Age of Longevity