Recommendations for healthy eating
1. Natural food. Prefer organic, free from pesticides, wholemeal food.
Avoid processed, refined, bleached, with preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, frozen and canned food. In simple terms choose only food that comes from the soil.
2. Fresh food. Avoid leftovers (specially out of the fridge) and reheated food. It does not mean that you have to throw away all the left overs. If you eat them occasionally is fine. However the best is to calculate how much you need to eat per meal.
3. Natural cooking. Use firewood or gas. Avoid using microwaves, even for water. There are plenty of research available on line about the harmful effects of microwaves.
4. Seasonal fresh food. Our body has different needs depending on the season. If you eat food that has been brought from far away, and it is out of season in your place, you may not give what your body needs. It is simple to understand if we think that in the hottest season, summer, watermelons are ready to harvest providing the freshness that we need. But we do not need the same freshness during winter ! Eating the food seasonally available will give you the nutrients that you really need.
5. Local Food. In Ayurveda is believed that the planet grows different plants in every region specially for the people of that particular area. This means that food is meant to keep the health and cure the diseases of the people in that region. For example, in a very hot place like Kerala, India, there are showers of coconuts! They give plenty of coconut milk and they also have a cooling effect, perfect for that area. But in a cold climate, you may not find such an abundance of coconuts... and actually you do not need their cooling effect ! Moreover, to buy food from other regions or from overseas needs a long trip, which means an important amount of carbon print. Support the local farmers, specially the ones that grow organic.
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6. Use the variety of food available in your zone. If you do not know how to cook something, ask someone in your family, try something with your friends, search on internet, there are always some options! We also have a section of Healthy cooking that can be useful for you.
7. Balance your doshas. Understand your Prakrti (Original constitution) and Vikrti (Aggravations), so you can reduce or increase the imbalanced doshas with food and lifestyle.
7. Balance your doshas. Understand your Prakrti (Original constitution) and Vikrti (Aggravations), so you can reduce or increase the imbalanced doshas with food and lifestyle.
8. Lacto vegetarian diet. In general terms Ayurveda recommends this diet. However, uses of meat can be found as a medicine for certain treatments in texts such as Ashtanga Hrdayam, by Vagbhata. As food, meat is considered to be very difficult to digest, producing toxins if it is not eaten in the right way. We personally recommend a vegetarian diet, which helps to relax, calm the mind, be more compassionate and sympathetic. It is of course not an obligation to be vegetarian to follow Ayurveda, but you may want to consider that even one day avoiding meat is at least one animal living one day longer. Would you give one day of life as a gift to someone?
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9. Avoid caffeine. Aggravates Pitta and Vata doshas. Therefore coffee, and black tea are not recommended as drinks, and even less after meals.
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