AYURVEDIC COOKING
I thought I would share a couple of things I learnt in the Ayurvedic cooking class I attended recently.
Ayurveda is an Indian holistic science which focuses on healing the body, mind and spirit through diet, lifestyle, medicinal herbs and therapies.
However, you don’t need to follow an Ayurvedic diet or lifestyle for the following points to be interesting to think about! These are all general principles, so may not suit everyone!!
Eat Seasonally – fresh, locally sourced and ideally organic as much as possible.
If you are not hungry, then don’t eat. Your body should tell you when you need to eat again. (If you are not hungry for lunch then you have had too much breakfast !!!) Ayurvedic principles would generally not include snacking between meals.
Ideally finish dinner by 7 pm (don’t eat afterwards) and leave 2 to 3 hours for digestion before going to bed.
Sip warm water throughout the day. Digestion requires warmth in your body, and drinking cold drinks dilutes the digestive fire!
Don’t drink with your meals as this dilutes your digestive juices – 1 hour before and wait for 1 hour afterwards.
Only fill your stomach 3/4 full when eating a meal – the 1/4 space left is to leave room for the digestive process to work, eg enzymes, gases have to have some room to move around to do their job properly!
Agni – good digestive fire – is vitally important for the proper digestion of food and in order to absorb all those vital nutrients from what you eat. Hence, taking the ginger tonic before eating and not drinking with your meals help to promote Agni.
