The Great Principles of Ayurvedic Eating

Eating is an important act. What are the great principles of Ayurvedic eating?

To heal, Ayurveda offers precise diets suited to Vata, Pitta, or Kapha, but they are not always easy to follow: they call for strong motivation, often reserved for times when someone is genuinely ill or being guided through a cure. Following the general rules, on the other hand, is already an excellent starting point, and already very effective for staying healthy and preventing illness. These are rules found in almost every traditional culture that stayed healthy, before industrialization came along and upset them. One of the great rules, for instance, is not only about what you eat, but also about how you eat, and when you eat.

Ayurveda advises eating in a calm, relaxed setting, rather than in an exciting or stressful environment, such as in front of the television and the news. It also offers many small pieces of advice for the meal itself: Vata, for example, can allow itself a little more salt than Kapha. How you drink matters too: drinking most of your water between meals, rather than to make up for a shortfall during the meal, where a glass or a digestive herbal tea, sipped slowly, is enough.

There is also the question of the six tastes, which correspond to the five elements and rebalance each dosha according to its dominance. For Vata, it is very balancing to favor, within the mix of a meal, sweet and salty tastes. That does not mean giving up healthy eating: vinegar, for instance, is sour and healthy; here we mean natural ingredients, like unrefined salt, salty vegetables rich in minerals, or healthy sweet foods like carrots, fruit, or good grains. Vata can consume these tastes in slightly greater quantity than others, while keeping in mind that every meal benefits from carrying all six tastes together. If Vata eats too much that is astringent or too spicy, however, that is not ideal: it tends to increase the dosha rather than calm it. In an ordinary meal, the six tastes, brought together, activate digestion and the secretion of enzymes in every digestive organ.

Finally, there is the question of eating locally, of adapting the great Ayurvedic principles to one's own region rather than importing a diet from elsewhere. Our environment is directly linked to who we are: we are exposed to the same climate as what grows around us. If our ancestors lived in the same region for a long time, they grew accustomed to eating certain foods, a habit sometimes carried all the way into our DNA, which can digest certain things specific to a region more easily. Beyond the ecological considerations around transport, eating the food of your own environment is favorable because it follows the same seasonal biological cycle we do: winter vegetables bring a warmth that suits us in winter; summer fruits and vegetables, exposed to the same climate as us, support our digestion in that season. Eating rightly, in the end, always means eating in connection: with your constitution, with the season, with the place where you live.