The Ayurvedic Diet
The right nourishment is the most
suitable one for one’s own constitution. Men have always been
looking for alimentary behaviour that could be right to promote
and to keep a good health.
I analyzed different points of view about diets, sometimes very
complex ones, and today, after years of studying, I can assert
that the founder masters of Ayurveda thought and established
essentially simple alimentary rules.
In their opinion, even only through the tongue, we can recognize
not only the qualities but also the consequences that a single
food can have on our constitution. The secret is in the flavour:
it reveals the contents of food.
Through the sense of taste we can identify six main flavours
called “rasa”, that are: the sweet, the bitter, the savoury, the
sour, the astringent and the spicy.
Indian medicine maintains that, if we notice a flavour, it means
that there are particular substances, and their contribution
undoubtedly goes to interfere in constitution.
The macrocosm, the microcosm, or the human being himself, comes
from the characteristic mix of the five fundamental elements (bhuta):
earth, water, fire, air, ether. The physical world, for example,
is called terrestrial because the earth is its main component.
The flavour let us notice the presence of these elements so that
we can direct the nourishment in accordance with our
constitution.
Here is an interesting table:
. The sweet comes from the union of earth and water (sweets, pasta, bread, meat, honey, etc.)
. the bitter from air and ether (coffee, bitter vegetables, bitter roots, etc.)
. the savoury from water and fire (sea-salt, soda, sodium nitrates, etc.)
. the sour from earth and fire (yogurt, tomatoes, fermented products, etc.)
. the astringent from earth and air (pomegranate, non-ripe fruits as bananas or persimmon, some vegetable, etc.)
. the spicy from fire and air (red pepper, radish, garlicand onion, etc.)
Constitution, in Indian
medicine, is identified through the principle of Tridosha:
essentially, a dosha is one of the three forces that can animate
the functions of human body: breathing, digestion, excretion,
formation of new structures, etc.
The three forces are: the force of elimination called vata, the
one of combustion called pitta and then the one of assimilation
called kapha. Vata is characterized by the presence of air and
ether, pitta of fire and water, kapha of earth and water. For
example, if we eat sweet food, we increase the contribution of
earth and water into our body, causing a reinforcement of the
force of assimilation kapha. This is why, when we eat sweets,
pasta or bread, we put on weight, and when we eat food of bitter
flavour we increase the force of elimination vata, that helps us
in making thin. The sauvory increase the force of combustion
pitta, but with the other flavours, as you can see, the sour,
the astringent and the spicy, a double growth is primed. We also
must observe that vata is, as we can say, the movement, pitta is
metabolism and kapha is stability, bony structure, skin and
tissues; so, when we increase one of these forces, its
characteristics show with a bigger evidence, physically and
psychologically.
All flavours should be in a good Ayurvedic diet, but the
quantity must change in accordance with the constitutional
characteristics of the subject.
The Indian doctor, through the typical diagnosis of the wrist,
by learning the throbbing vitality of every dosha on three exact
points, can establish what flavours must prevail in the diet of
every subject, because of the lack of balance that the
heart-beat shows.
He learned how much these three forces of nature can interfere
according to the time, season or age: for example, during the
infancy, into the body there is obviously the kapha energy
(assimilation with the aim of growth), in childhood the pitta
force is more evident (combustion and transformation) , but in
old age is the vata (lose of weight and dry).
To follow these principles in a correct way brings to control,
stability and consequently to health’s equilibrium.
by Amadio Bianchi