Things you must know about Ayurveda and Ayurvedic diet

Ayurveda is the oldest medical system in the world that considers human life a combination of body, feelings and soul.

Achieving ideal health is possible only if a person is healthy on a physical, mental and spiritual level. Ayurveda emphasizes disease prevention and rejuvenation of the organism, and pays special attention to diet and a balanced lifestyle.

The goal of Ayurveda is to balance the mind, spirit and body.

However, there are also some disadvantages of Ayurvedic medicine.

The word Ayurveda in Sanskrit translates as “science of life” or “art of longevity”, which makes this 5,000-year-old branch of medicine aware that it focuses on each person individually, and the attitude towards treatment or prevention is based on natural ways and preparations prepared mainly from plants. At the same time, Ayurveda deals with both the anatomical and physiological aspects of man, which he approaches through a holistic approach.

According to Ayurveda, the three basic life energies (doshas) are the basis for all our physical and mental patterns: VATA (Wind), PITTA (Fire) and KAPHA (Earth). When doshas are out of balance, they cause disease.

With its preventive approach, Ayurveda can simultaneously help in the timely diagnosis of many diseases (in which it achieves by far the best results), which greatly improves the process of timely treatment and avoids or facilitates later severe manifestations of the disease.

This traditional method of treatment is increasingly present in developed countries where it is advocated by both doctors and patients as a growing number of those who have been helped by Ayurveda in the prevention and cure of many diseases.

Ayurvedic diet

Proper nutrition is an essential part of Ayurvedic medicine. Ayurveda advocates a vegetarian diet, although foods of animal origin can also be prescribed for therapeutic purposes. The Ayurvedic way of preparing and combining foods has a beneficial effect on the body, and can prevent many diseases.

THERE IS AN OLD AYURVEDIC PROVERB THAT SAYS:

Without proper nutrition, the drug does not help. With proper nutrition, medication is unnecessary.

The foods used in the Ayurvedic diet are exclusively from organic farming, because behind Ayurvedic cuisine is the idea of ​​holistic health and disease prevention, which is impossible to achieve if we take factory-processed food into the body. The quality of what we eat is very important, but it is even more important to digest food properly, in order to assimilate from it all the nutrients needed for the proper functioning of the body.

Despite many rules regarding combining foods, Ayurvedic cuisine is not monotonous and boring. A real Ayurvedic meal on a plate contains all the flavors, and due to the interesting way of combining typical Indian and local spices, it satisfies the palate of the greatest gourmets.

Like Ayurvedic therapies, the Ayurvedic diet is also personalized – adapted to the physiology of the individual, and follows cyclical changes in nature.

Thus, for example, basmati rice is known to be easily digestible, while larger amounts of integral rice are not recommended to anyone because it slows down digestion. Honey is considered one of the healthiest foods in Ayurveda, but it is never used in the way it is common in our country, to add it to hot tea, because Ayurveda knows that honey heated above 40 degrees becomes neurotoxic. In Ayurveda, food is prepared exclusively on refined butter (ghee), because ghee, unlike other fats, balances excess acid, speeds up digestion and restores the lining of the stomach and intestines. Other fats slow down digestion.