Ayurveda states that food is medicine. What we put into our body has a direct effect on our health. If our digestion is too strong we will not receive the nutrients from the food. When our digestion is weak we are left with stale food that turns toxic in our digestive tract. Optimally we need to be aware of how we feel after we eat. Read on to discover the Ayurveda eating guidelines and view a simple recipe.
What can you eat to improve your digestion?
The digestive system has been termed the ‘second brain’ because what we put into our body affects the whole us, physically and emotionally. As mentioned by Science Daily ‘the enteric nervous system (ENS) is known as the “second brain” or the brain in the gut because it can operate independently of the brain and spinal cord, the central nervous system (CNS)’. Learn how the tastes of food affect our digestion.
Ayurveda eating tips
The Ayurveda eating guideline says that we need to eat what suits our body type. This information can be gleamed from knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your dosha.
It is important to notice how your body reacts to everything you ingest through your senses. Therefore the food you eat is what needs to work for you. Always aim to eat foods in a conscious way, and what can digest.
This is similar to putting the right petrol into your car, or feeding your pet food that keeps it healthy. Yoga Ayurveda Therapy for over 40’s teaches us how to connect with ourselves. Likewise we begin to notice what does and doesn’t work for us and make conscious choices.
An Ayurvedic breakfast idea
Rice flakes are an easy foundation for a good healthy easy to digest breakfast. You can add many things to the rice flakes that suit your body type. An Ayurvedic eating guideline is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your digestion depending on your Dosha or body type. Your Dosha will give you these guidelines. Learn about Ayurveda tastes of foods.
Breakfast – eat like a saint
Lunch – eat like a king
Dinner – eat like a pauper
Eating a big mean after 7pm is hard to digest
How many times have you eaten a big meal late at night and tossed and turned restlessly as the food digests? Really, eating anything big at night is not good at all it just sits there and can turn to fat.
Therefore it is best to eat a smallish meal for dinner. If you have followed the Ayurveda eating guidelines, you have had a big lunch and something light for dinner.
For dinner soups are ideal, especially in winter. Try some adding kidney beans to create a very nourishing meal that tempers the vata dosha. You might like to view our Ayurvedic food workshop.
Combining Yoga with Ayurveda
Just doing Yoga on its own or Ayurveda without Yoga is only half the benefit. Traditionally, Yoga and Ayurveda are practiced together. For a healthy digestive system at Yoga Works for Over 40s we keep this in mind.
Why just practice Yoga on its own if you are putting foods into your body that are not serving you? Or why focus on your diet if you are not using the asana (exercises, breathing and meditation) and living a sedentary life with blockages building up in your body.
Understanding the premise that the body effects the mind and visa versa is a simple yet effective way to look at your health and wellbeing.
As we learn to listen deeply with a regular Yoga (union) practice, we begin to notice even the smallest symptom in the body. Likewise Ayurveda (science of life) helps to make you conscious of your choices. As living beings with the prana flow or (life force) we are all effected by cause and effect.
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