by Dr Bhaswati
Bhattacharya
The understanding of food from the wisdom of Ayurveda begins
with the Sanskṛit term āhāra, meaning
to bring near, to bring into oneself. It points toward all that we take into
our bodies, consciously or unconsciously, that become part of our tissues,
quietly reminding us that all five senses feed us.
Our ability to take nourishment into our body also depends on
the environment. Ayurveda whispers of the dependence of the human body on the
cycles of the earth due to its relationships with the gravitational forces of
the sun and the moon. As we move through days and nights, through full moons
and new moons, from hot seasons through cold seasons, we have altered access to
beneficial food and nourishing water depending on these cycles.
Ayurveda asks us to deepen our awareness of these cycles and
reminds us quietly that we can only successfully incorporate nourishment into
the scaffolding of our body when our internal clocks are aligned with the
external clocks.
The internal clocks of the body determine when, how, what,
where, why, how much, and with whom to eat. Our internal clocks are our clock
genes and the biological clock coordinating our physiology with a circadian
rhythm of approximately 24 hours. Variations are known as Chronotypes. When we are aligned, we receive nourishment.
When we are not aligned, our body simply attempts to transform the things we
swallow and passes them as waste out of our body.
The external clocks outside the body tell us about the cycles
of the Sun and the moon. If we are exquisitely attuned to Nature, we can sense
how moonlight and sunlight alter the heat and transformational fire in the
body, as well as the moisture and available condensation inside the body.
External clocks called Zeitgebers are also set up by society to assist us,
stimuli that condition in the body to aid physiologic functions such as
mealtimes, opening of curtains and sleeptimes.
During the period between January and June, the increasing
moments of daylight each day in the northern hemisphere provides more
electromagnetic waves of sunrays with its ions. The longest days of the year
occur for several days or weeks in June, depending on your local latitude and
distance from the equator. During this time, the extended daylight heats the
atmosphere and constantly challenges the human body with the effects of this
heat.
Aligned within a
similar timeframe is the movement of the sun, rising and setting more toward
the northern sky, then changing course in July on the astronomical occasion of Dakshina-ayana to move toward the
southern sky from July to January, when Makara
Sankranti signals the change in course toward the northern sky once again,
known as Uttara-ayana. In Sanskrit, uttara means northward and dakshina means southward.
As the sun moves from
its most northern point in our sky toward the south in this annual cycle, the
days shorten. The shortest days of the year occur for several days or weeks in
December. We receive less electromagnetic waves with its ions and depleting
heat. While the plants receive less and less sun and receive signals to bear
fruit, donate seed, and begin the journey toward death or hibernation, the
animals receive harvest, and gain strength to gather from the earth, as the
lesser and lesser minutes of daylight daily allow them to flourish. The earth
begins to release its heat from June and by September the land becomes cooler.
The autumn equinox in September reminds us that the nights (nox) and days are
approximately equal (equi-) during this time. This interwoven cycle between
plants and animals is the basis of traditional nourishment.
When we live close to
these cycles of Nature, we allow the cycles of heat and cold, dry and unctuous,
heavy and lights, to move through us. These undulations allow our body to move
in waves, mathematical spirals through time.
If we ride these waves, we triumph with good health, strong bones,
supple muscles, healthy fat that protects and nourishes, and nerves “made of
steel” or at least enriched with ions of the human metallome.
To understand foods
suited for each season, one must first assess whether we ride these waves or
whether we have settled into the comfort of 65-75 o F / 18-24 o C
temperature-conditioned rooms, using air conditioners or heaters to cushion our
existence. When we have narrow windows
of comfort, we have small waves in our lives.
Indeed, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and modern
research authorities for decades excluded women from clinical trials, stating
that biological cycles were disturbances to good standardized research! The
idea that cycles actually fortify the body has only been “discovered” by modern
medicine in the past few years, as it continues to deny the logic and
observable truths of Ayurveda.
If you live a life aligned with these cycles, you will go
through months of sweating and months of feeling cold. You will gain fat during
the lunar-dominating months, when soumya
and cooling darkness meet the dry, rough sinews of your body and allow your
body to attract extra unctuous fat to nourish it through preenanam. You will again
lose fat during the solar-dominating months when the greesma (gras, to grab) effects of the drying sun will meet the
sweaty, soft fat of your body and take away its strength.
Ayurveda whispers that
this physiologic (kriya-sharira)
understanding drives its food recommendations. People must tailor their food to
the local gunas of their environment
and how these gunas interface with
the gunas of each individual body.
If you live in a modern, urban, fast-paced lifestyle, what
can you do? Eating according to the seasons simply needs to be converted to
eating in tune with the gunas of your
body, since your environment is controlled and usually within a small window of
humidity and temperature and light.
Different layers of
recommendations address appetite, overweight, people with poor or irregular
bowel movements, cravings, emotional eating, irregular or poor digestive fire,
fatigue, and various constitutions. The power of individualizing a diet allows
Ayurveda to rightfully use food as medicine.
If your body is dry,
eat moist foods. Moist foods are usually recommended in the early months of
autumn and winter when the body becomes dry and rough from the windy, cooling
weather. During this time, warm soups with rich ghee or oil, root vegetables with
their natural oils, nuts and seeds, and meats should be used, especially by emaciated
people. Moisture-filled foods are naturally available from the harvest at this
time.
If you are hungry, eat nourishing foods that satiate that
inner hunger. Heavier foods are usually recommended in the months of winter
when the body’s central heat is not dissipated by sweat and copious movement
during cold weather. The digestive fires, known as jatharagni and dhatu-agni
are high. Begin with a glass of freshly-boiled water to settle the belly if you
are overweight.
Ayurveda recommends starting the day with rice-based
preparations. Natural and local rice around the world is the most bioassimilable
food. Known as anna, it is that food
which is eaten and absorbed into the body’s tissues most completely. This
pulling into the body is one reason that rice is part of the BRAT (Banana,
Rice, Applesauce, and Toast) diet that curbs diarrhoea, by promoting the body
to absorb nutrients.
Heavier vegetables local to the environment such as potatoes
and sweet root vegetables such as carrots, beets and yams provide fullness.
Foods made of godhuma (whole wheat
with the bran and germ attached) provide satiation of hunger. Sweets made of
milk and grains are eaten.
If you have cravings,
first get clear on the craving. Fruits, which are nature’s complete meals, are
especially recommended in the transitional seasons of spring and autumn when
the body is transitioning from one temperature extreme to its opposite. During
this time, a midday snack of fruit can help curb cravings. Beginning the meal
with a fruit can also satiate the specific desire. If the craving continues,
scrape your tongue each morning when you wake up, after brushing your teeth, to
clean your taste buds. When you eat, begin with a sweet food, even complete
your dessert to start. Continue with a bitter food to contrast the sweet and
awaken the taste receptors. Then sit to eat in a calm place where you can focus
on your meal. Choose fresh, healthy foods that will nourish the body. If the
craving persists, work on the mental anguish that is underlying the craving.
If your mind is wandering aimlessly, ground it. Grounding
foods are usually recommended in the months of late autumn and during the
monsoon when the body faces a windy environment. The windy mind and the
wind-touched body have irregular digestion due to blowing irregular fires (vishama agni). Choose heavy soups and
gravy-laden grain. Rice and a heavy dahl
are a perfect combination with a side of sauteed vegetables. Protect the mind
as you eat. Do not eat with loud and conflict-filled people. Do not eat around
an environment that overstimulates the five senses, such as loud music,
television, strong smells such as incense or bathroom smells or construction,
high wind or sunlight. A calm mind
allows a person to focus on what they will be taking in, to digest into
building blocks and energies that will become their body. Foods that are very warm, fresh and moist, heavy
and grounding, will lower vata.
If you feel cold, eat
warm foods. Hot and heavy soups are usually recommended in the months of winter
when the body’s heat is centered in the trunk of the body, making the gut’s
cauldron potent and ready to digest heavy foods. Complex meals of beans,
vegetable medleys and heavy grains such as Yava
(barley) and millets can be digested by a healthy person in cold weather.
Multicourse meals with heavy desserts are also digestible in cold weather in a
way they are not in hot weather. Soups of grain and root vegetables are best if
you are hungry.
If you are not hungry,
exercise first. Lighter foods are usually recommended in the summer months as
the body’s heat dissipates with the sweat and the activity. The nature bounty
of the earth at this time produces juicy fruits and light water-laden
vegetables that are easy to cook. Go for a walk before eating to increase the
circulation and stoke the fire. Do some yoga. Eat freshly-prepared foods and no
leftovers. Cook on an open stove. Eat two meals per day, one between 10:30 and
11:30am, and the second just before sunset.
Discluding any chronic disease state, your body will slowly grow hunger
when it eats lightly.
Over 100 food rules
are provided by Ayurveda in the collective term, Kālabhojanam (kāla, time,
timing; bhojana, meal) to align us
with these internal and external clocks that ultimately affect our digestive
fires. These food recommendations focus
on the gunas not on the season.
They recognize that
different latitudes and altitudes create great variation in the gunas. The diversity of typical diets in
any culture also depends on the local environment. The air that the plants
breathe, the water that the plants drink, and the soil that the plants take
nutrients from are the same air, water and land with which the local people
harmonize. Thus, there can be no one accurate and universal set of foods for
each season and for all lands and locales.
