Basic food in Ayurveda

The proof is in the tasting:

There are six tastes according to Ayurveda: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and Astringent. Each consists of two elements:

Sweet (earth and water) examples: wheat, sugar, milk, rice, dates; 

Sour (earth and fire) examples: yogurt, lemon, tamarind; 

Salty (water and fire) examples: sea salt, rock salt, seaweed; 

Pungent (fire and air) examples: onion, radish, ginger, cold; 

Bitter (air and ether) examples: dandelion root, rhubarb root, bitter melon; 

Astringent (air and earth) examples: plantain bananas, pomegranate, apples; 

There are two other considerations in Ayurveda. Secondly, if a food handling is heat or refrigeration. Taste sweet, bitter and astringent is cooling. Sour, salty and sharp, all warming. The second is the post-digestive system of power, or how the foods "taste" of tissue during and after assimilation. Sweet and salt are sweet in post-digestive effect. Sour is sour, and sharp, bitter and astringent is sharp.

Taste, Action, and post-digestive effect are known is Sanskrit as rasa, virya and vipack respectively Ayurveda. They are key to understanding food and herbs. With this knowledge you can unlock the mysteries of the energetic dynamics of food and be able to make the right choices for themselves.

Raw Foods According to Ayurveda:

Raw foods and juices are magnificent in that they are cleansing and energizing. Sprouts are especially wonderful because they contain large amounts of enzymes and nourishment which help with digestion and absorption of nutrients. Some of the Spices sprouts help to destroy and eliminate toxins in the system known as the ama in Ayurveda. 

Fenugreek sprouts can even help in cases of seminal weakness. But in general, raw food is very cold and hard to digest in the Vedic significance, which release their Prana or nourishing life giving energy into the upper part of the body between the mouth and stomach. This provides quick, short-term energy, but not long-term tissue building nourishment. It is good for Pittas and some raw foods are good for Kapha, but this is not very good for Vata.

Cooking Foods According to Ayurveda:

Well cooked grains, beans and vegetables release their Prana in the colon. This provides long-term tissue building energy. However, these energies are not released from complex carbohydrates without the help of enzymes. A clean intestinal tract is also essential for proper absorption. This coincides with two of the modern holistic health theories of colon cleansing and enzyme consumption. But the Ayurvedic approach again is practical and individualized. As herbs, that the Constitution will give the best colon cleansing varies. That is why some people find some of the standard colon cleansing products ineffective or difficult for their bodies to tolerate.

Triphala (three fruits ") used in Ayurveda, is one of the best colon cleansers because it strengthens and tones the muscle action of the colon. It does not cause laxative dependency by doing the work of the colon. Similarly, the consumption of enzyme tablets causes digestive organs natural ability to produce enzymes for digestion to become suppressed and lazy and possibly lose their ability to operate together. Ayurvedic cooking uses certain herbs and spices to stimulate the body to produce its own digestive enzymes.

The Secret of spices in Ayurvedic Cooking:

I can hear the sighs now as you read the subtitles, and you ask yourself, "Does he want to advocate, to eat hot Indian restaurant style food?" Absolutely not! It is unfortunately only a bastardization of the original system. Spices used in small to moderate scale according to the food being prepared, and the person's constitution will encourage all the digestive organs to produce the enzymes required for total absorption and assimilation. This allows your body to perform their work through nutrition without the "put them in a wheelchair", while the chemicals do. Thus, food and spices are better for the poor digestion of Kapha and Vata. Pittas should use only mild spicing, as their "fire of digestion" is generally good.

As you can see there is no good or bad food, and food is your food. Once you understand your body type, you can structure a diet for yourself that will really work to get you to feel totally balanced and harmonized. How soon you feel balanced, depends on how much you have abused yourself in the past. Generally, it takes several months for healing for every year of abuse. Therefore, the Ayurvedic doctor asks many questions about your health history. It is very important to establish when the problem began and what emotional and mental imbalances that preceded, and then your diet and health plan can solve your health problem by going to the source.

Consciousness and Food:

This is probably the most important aspect of Ayurveda: your state of consciousness when you eat and when you cook. One of the great sages of India, Rupa Goswami wrote: "If you eat food prepared by the evil, you will be evil." I urge not hurt, but I point out that if the person cooking is fear, uncertainty, anger, jealousy, greed or one of the many emotions we experience every day, the chef will infuse that preparation with that emotion.

It is important to remember to eat - at home or traveling - the knowledge of the cook is in the food. And the consciousness of the animal or vegetable you eat in there. So in Ayurveda, cooking, considered a sacred act. Animal food is generally not recommended because of the extreme pain, pain, suffering, anxiety, anger and terror the animal experiences have gone into the food. Add the highly toxic chemical contamination of modern factory farming as hormones steroids, antibiotics, pesticides, etc., and you have a prescription for death not life.

Vegetables are also lives and they also feel pain and discomfort at being eaten. The great scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose showed through extensive research that plants are living, feeling beings to experience the feelings that people on their level. The Vedas teach that each living being, from the king to the bacteria has a soul and is therefore sacred. The kitchen is considered the extension of the altar in Vedic culture. In early Christianity, people would bring their crops and put them on the altar of sacrifice and blessing. 

This was done much earlier in ancient India, only everything was prepared in the kitchen under the principles of taste and elemental energetic and then offered with great devotion to the gods: Lakshmi-Narayana, Sita-Rama, Radha-Krishna and others. Therefore, it is about cooking, to the point of preparation, action, offering, and it leaves room were all saints. Awareness of the chefs were focused on how all the food to be prepared in elemental balance.

Knowing that they were made of the same elements and the ability to strike a balance between them and prepare them were direct gifts from God, they offered to return these items and abilities for the Lord, and through spiritual awareness purified vegetarian of all negative karma by bathing it in love and devotion.

You can do it at home by preparing your food with love according to Ayurvedic energetic principles and offering prayers and meditations thanks and love for God. You want to convert food to Prasad or God's grace. Thus, you increase your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health to the highest possible level. There is no greater nourishment than this in the whole world.

The Right Food for the right person:

I think back to the 1985 Whole Life Expo, I can still see the bewildered looks on the crowd. I hope this article helps put things in proper perspective for the confused public. All food is good, but not all foods are good for all people. You must eat the right foods for your constitution in its proper role, if you want the best nutrition and optimal physical and mental health.