I recently became certified as a Ayurvedic Nutritionist. When I began sharing this accomplishment with others I quickly learned that most people have NO idea what this is. My attempts to describe Ayurvedic Nutrition in a simple way and explain how it may benefit your health left me feeling like I was not providing a comprehensive and straightforward explanation. I have spent years studying Ayurveda and I have learned how to apply the principals to my diet, lifestyle and nutrition. However, I never learned how to share this information with others in a simple, usable way. Hopefully, this post will provide you with a very basic description of what Ayurvedic Nutrition is. So you will be able to decide if it is something you would like to further explore or implement into your life.
Common Misconceptions
People often see Ayurvedic Nutrition as an Indian Based Diet consisting mostly of highly spiced Indian Recipes. Many people see it as a very limiting diet where you can only eat certain foods, cooked in a certain way. And many people even believe it is a Vegan ( no animal products ) diet. They associate Ayurveda as an ancient Indian religious practice and don’t see how it can be relevant in their current lives.
Part of the reason for all of this misconception is that Ayurvedic Nutrition isn’t easily defined. It isn’t even in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Ayurveda is listed and the Merriam-Webster definition is
Ayurveda- a form of alternative medicine that is the traditional system of medicine of India and seeks to treat and integrate body, mind, and spirit using a comprehensive holistic approach especially by emphasizing diet, herbal remedies, exercise, meditation, breathing, and physical therapy.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
If that definition leaves you feeling a bit shorted and completely unclear, then you are not alone.
Many people believe that in order to benefit from an Ayurvedic Diet one needs to conform to the entire Ayurveda lifestyle. This may be the greatest reason people dismiss this way of eating without exploring it further.
It isn’t ALL or NOTHING
I am here to tell you that you do not need to adopt ALL of the Ayurveda practices to benefit from Ayurvedic Nutrition. There are many great Ayurveda practices addressing sleep, breathing, movement/yoga, stress, meditation, cleansing/detox and herbal remedies. However, you do not even need to explore them if you do not want to. You can focus just on Nutrition and what and how you eat to see amazing results.
The Ayurvedic Diet is also not ALL or NOTHING. It is not as limiting as you think and you do not need to only eat “Indian Food”. Many of YOUR traditional foods may be eaten in an Ayurvedic way. You can eat from all of the traditional “food groups”, limiting processed foods as much as you can. All “diets” should limit processed foods. If they don’t they are not a very healthy diet.
What an Ayurvedic Diet is
So far I have only described what an Ayurvedic Diet isn’t, now I will try my best to describe what an Ayurvedic Diet IS. An Ayurvedic Diet is a way of eating that best supports what “your” body needs during any given time.
Have you ever met a person who seems to be able to eat anything they want and never gain a single pound? While if you are more like me, just looking at a fattening food for too long will have you gain five pounds in a single day. We often blame this phenomenon on metabolism and accept that the person who doesn’t gain the weight must have an amazing metabolism. This leaves most of us always looking for ways to increase our metabolism so that we can eat more and not gain weight.
This explanation and strategy is only partly correct. Yes metabolism does play a role in how well you are able to burn the calories you eat. And there is ways to increase your metabolism such as building muscle, getting proper rest, etc. However, you are only able to increase it minimally. You will most likely never be able to eat like they do without gaining weight or feeling awful.
Our metabolism, the way we digest foods and the nutrients our bodies need are different for different people. This is why some people feel amazing eating a diet with no animal products and others feel like they might eat their neighbor if they had to give up meat. This may be the number one reason that there are currently thousands of “diets” out there claiming to be the “best” way to eat. They often completely contradict each other, such as “no carbs”, “whole grains”, “no animal products”, “high protein”, etc. and yet they all seem to work for many people. If they are all so different then which one is correct?
They may ALL be! Ayurvedic Nutrition teaches you that every “body” is different and because of this needs a different “diet” or way of eating to best support it.
Doshas
In Ayurveda everything is made up of five different elements. These elements are earth, water, fire, air and ether. The combination of these elements make up our Doshas or constitution. Everything and everybody has a slightly different combination of these elements or dosha however, to keep things a little more straightforward and to allow for us to adapt certain principles, Ayurveda has developed three main doshas. These doshas are Kapha, Pitta and Vata.
Keep in mind that everyone contains all of the doshas, like we contain all of the elements. We just seem to have a slightly different amount of each one and tend to have a more dominant dosha that we can identify with.
Your dosha is what determines what foods you body needs to feel it’s best. For example a person with a strong Vata dosha may seem to have a “greater” metabolism. They seem to always have an abundance of energy, are usually very thin and sometimes struggle with keeping weight on. While someone with a strong Kapha dosha seems to lack a metabolism, often has a larger frame, has less energy and struggles with losing or maintaining their weight. These two very different type of people would respond very differently if given the same diet.
Keeping your Dosha balanced
Not only are people made up of doshas. Food is made up of doshas as well. In fact, like I said earlier EVERYTHING is made up of doshas. The goal in Ayurvedic Nutrition is to balance your dosha. When it comes to balancing your doshas, the goal is not to bring all three elements into equal balance. However, it is to find the combination of the three doshas that allow you to operate at your best self. When we eat to balance our dosha our bodies get all of the nutrition they need, are most supported and feel their best. However, we rarely pay attention to choosing the foods we eat in an ayurvedic way. We usually choose our diet based on cost, convenience and taste. Even when we are trying to make “healthy” choices we are left feeling unsure of what we really should be eating. In Ayurvedic Nutrition you learn to identify the foods that are best suited for your dosha and what you should be consuming more of or limiting from your diet.
Time
You also will learn about how often and when you should be eating as well. Time is also made up of doshas so it also is a very important factor in our success. This is why some people need three square meals a day with snacks in between and others are very successful with eating once or twice a day. Some people seem to never get hungry, while others get “hangry” if they miss a meal. By learning what your dosha needs, you are best able to support it. The different times of day have a dosha and your body digests foods much more affectively during Pitta times than it does during Kapha times. You want to consume most of your food when digestion is at it greatest.
Seasons
Seasons also play a major factor in our diet. The seasons are also made up of doshas and determine what foods we should be eating to get all of the nutrition our bodies needs. The seasons can affect our dosha and cause it to be more unbalanced. For example during the hot summer season Pitta is dominate. So a person with a more Pitta dosha may feel a little more unbalanced since the season has increased the Pitta within them. If they then were to eat a diet high in Pitta inducing foods such as hot and spicy foods they would increase their Pitta even more and be more unbalanced. Instead they would want to find more cooling foods and eat more Kapha and Veta inducing foods to find more balance. By learning to eat with the seasons you are best able to maintain balance while getting all of the nutrition your body needs.
In conclusion
I hope I was able to give you a general idea on what Ayurvedic Nutrition is all about. It may sound all very complicated. However, once you learn some basic guidelines and develop some basic principles the diet really isn’t all that complicated. If you are interested in learning more there are two ways I can help you can do that. You can sign up for one of my Ayurvedic Nutrition Virtual Workshops where you can learn the basics of Ayurvedic Nutrition or sign up for my Personal Ayurvedic Nutrition Services where I will personally help you find ways to balance your doshas and eat in an Ayurvedic manner. Please be sure to check out these resources on my Home Page and under my Services/Workshops Page.
