Posted by Live Yoga Life in Ayurveda, Diet on July 5th, 2010
Ayurvedic texts recommend the principle of opposites for reducing the level of a dosha that has become aggravated. Since the characteristics of Vata include dryness, coolness, roughness, lightness and constant motion, qualities that are opposite to these in diet and lifestyle help restore balance to Vata dosha.
Dietary recommendations – Vata Dosha
Include foods that are liquid or unctuous in your daily diet to balance dryness, some “heavy” foods to offer substance and sustained nourishment, foods that are smooth in texture to offset roughness and foods that are warm or hot to balance the cool nature of Vata. So what exactly does this mean in terms of foods you should choose and foods you should stay away from? Here are some specific dietary tips:
Suggested Food Choices for Vata dosha
The following list of suggested foods is by no means all-inclusive, but offers starting guidelines if you are new to ayurvedic dietary principles. We will add to this list regularly, so please check back often!
Grains: Rice, wheat, quinoa, oats, amaranth, all cooked until tender
Vegetables: Asparagus, tender greens, carrots, peas, green beans, white daikon, zucchini, lauki squash, parsnips, sweet potatoes, all cooked
Fruits: Avocado, pineapple, papaya, peaches, plums, grapes, mangoes, oranges, cherries, all kinds of berries, limes and lemons, apples if stewed, coconut, fresh figs, raisins (soaked)
Lentils: Mung beans, urad dhal, mung dhal, masoor dhal, toor dhal, red lentils, all cooked until butter-soft
Dairy: Whole milk, cream, butter, fresh yogurt (cooked into foods), lassi, cottage cheese, fresh paneer cheese
Oils: Ghee, olive oil, sesame oil, cold-pressed nut oils such as walnut
Herbs: Fresh ginger root, cilantro, curry leaves, parsley, fresh basil, fresh fennel, mint
Nuts and Seeds: Almonds (soaked and blanched), cashews, walnuts (soaked), pistachios, hazelnuts, pecans (soaked), pine nuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds
Spices: Ajwain, dried ginger, asafetida (hing) in small quantities, fenugreek, turmeric, cumin, clove, cardamom, coriander, fennel, black pepper, basil, Chinese cinnamon, nutmeg, mustard seed, mint, rosemary, thyme, lemon and orange zest, oregano, rock salt or sea salt, black salt, dried mango powder, pomegranate seeds or powder
Other: Rice milk, soy milk, poppy seeds, sucanat, turbinado sugar, raw honey, and tofu in moderation (diced small and cooked with spices)
Lifestyle Recommendations: Balancing Vata dosha
Ayurvedic texts recommend the principle of opposites for reducing the level of a dosha that has become aggravated. Since the characteristics of Vata include dryness, coolness, roughness, lightness and constant motion, qualities that are opposite to these in diet and lifestyle help restore balance to Vata dosha.
Posted by Live Yoga Life in Ayurveda, Diet on June 18th, 2010
What is Vata?
ELEMENTS: Space and Air – dry and restless
Vata is made up of the two elements space and air.
Characteristics of Vata dosha: dry and rough (rookshaha); cool (sheetoha); light–lacking weight (laghuhu); very tiny, penetrating molecules (sookhshmaha); always moving (chalota); broad, unlimited, unbounded–akash means unbounded space (vishadaha); and rough (kharaha).
People with more Vata in their constitutions tend to be thin, with a slender frame and prominent joints, delicate skin that is naturally dry, and dry voluminous hair. They are quick and lively in thought, speech and action, and make friends easily. There is an element of airiness to their step, a quality of lightness in their laughter. Change is usually their second name. They are light sleepers and gravitate towards warm environments. Creativity and enthusiasm are hallmarks of balanced Vata.
If your prakriti or original constitution has more Vata in it, you will exhibit many of the characteristics and qualities of Vata when you are in balance than people who have more Pitta or Kapha in their make-up. And that’s natural. But if the qualities become extreme, or more pronounced than usual at a given time, then the Vata in you has in all likelihood become aggravated or imbalanced, and needs to be brought back into balance. And if a predominantly Kapha or Pitta person starts exhibiting many Vata qualities, that indicates a Vata imbalance in that Kapha or Pitta body type. In both cases, it is then time to follow a Vata-balancing diet and lifestyle to help restore the level of Vata in the physiology to its normal proportion.
Factors that can cause Vata dosha to increase in the physiology include a diet that contains too many dry or raw foods, over-consumption of ice-cold beverages, exposure to cold dry winds, a variable daily routine, too much travel, and mental overexertion.
Signs that you need to balance Vata:
If you answered yes to many of the questions above, following a Vata-balancing diet and lifestyle can help restore balance to Vata.
Posted by Live Yoga Life in Ayurveda, Diet on June 16th, 2010
What is the Goal of Ayureda?
To have a better understanding on my dosha (energetic profile) and explore how to balance my dosha to support me towards health and well-being.
How many of you are familiar with Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is a sister-science of Yoga that deals with health from a perspective of relationships – our relationship to the food we eat, in accordance with our relationship to the earth and the seasons, etc.
The Doshas – read any article on Ayurveda and you are likely to see some mention of the three doshas, Vata, Pitta and Kapha.
What exactly are doshas and what do they have to do with our well-being?
According to ayurveda, the five fundamental elements that make up the universe are:
These elements also make up the human physiology.
How do these elements work within us?
Look at the elements from the point of view of what they do in the physiology, rather than what they are — ayurveda describes three biological profiles/ constitutions/ or psychophysiological energies called doshas.
There are three doshas, called Vata, Pitta and Kapha, and each is mainly a combination of two elements:
Each of these doshas is further divided into five sub-doshas. Together, the doshas create all the activities that occur within us.
The combination of the three doshas that you inherit at conception is called your prakriti or original or birth constitution
While it is not unheard of for people to have nearly equal proportions of the three doshas or just one very predominant dosha as their prakriti, most people have two doshas that are more or less equally dominant, with the remaining one less dominant
Thus, there are ten classic types of prakriti possible:
Of course, each of us has a unique doshic thumbprint, and an ayurvedic healer performs an ayurvedic pulse assessment to discover that unique doshic make-up and the exact nature of imbalances in order to recommend a very individual program (diet & lifestyle) for restoring balance.
For good health and well-being to be maintained, the three doshas within you need to be in balance. That does not mean they need to be equal, unless you were born with equal doshas
It means that you need to maintain your original doshic make-up or prakriti through life as much as possible to maintain good health.
Unfortunately, factors such as the dietary choices you make, the lifestyle you lead, the climate where you live, levels of environmental pollution, the work you do, the nature of your relationships with people and even just the passage of time can cause one of more of the doshas in your prakriti to increase or decrease from its original level in your constitution, creating vikriti or imbalance. If this imbalance is not corrected, you eventually lose your good health. That’s why restoring balance is the central theme of the ayurvedic approach to health.
While it is ideal to follow a personal program of balance laid out by an ayurvedic healer after an ayurvedic pulse assessment and a question-answer session designed to discover your precise needs for balance at a given time, a well-designed questionnaire can help you assess for yourself if you need to balance one or more doshas, and diet and lifestyle tips and herbal formulas can help maintain or restore balance.
Please note: The statements on this web site have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. None of the information or products on this web site is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. For medical concerns, please consult your physician. Before making changes to your diet or lifestyle, please consult your physician.
For more information on each of the three Doshas: