Ayurveda in your plate

Cookpad is very happy to invite its first guest blog by Mr. Nitin
Sawant , an
Ayurveda Cooking expert. In this article, Nitin talks about Ayurveda and
food psychology.

Here is a brief introduction
about Nitin.

Nitin launched India's first commercial Jain-only kitchen in The
Umbergaon Resort in Gujarat and is presently running his own food
startup where the cuisine is based on Ayurvedic principles. For past few
years, he has been a food consultant to a few resorts, QSRs & hotels.
His first book --- 'Lucifer's Lungi' was a bestseller on Amazon India.

Lemme begin here with a small anecdote.

I was on a road trip for the past whole week & a cousin of mine kept
complaining about joint pains. My advice: eat a couple of Rajgira
(Amaranth) laddoos daily. Result: pain gone. Now how did this happen? Is
Ayurveda that simplistic? Not really... Just that dear ol' cuz was
simply having pangs of the typical middle-age calcium deficiency &
Rajgira happens to be the best source of natural calcium. Better than
even milk... Now I must insist here that you consult a proper Ayurvedic
Doctor for your ailments & not depend of Wikipedia, but this is
generally how Ayurveda works. It's intuitive; it generally uses food as
medicine & it's organically natural...

As per Ayurveda, your body, mind & consciousness are governed by three
dynamic principles called the Tridoshas, which are Vata, Pitta &
Kapha. A healthy body & mind requires all these three doshas in
harmony & balance. Your constitution (prakruti) is a combination of
these three doshas, which is set at your birth. While your prakruti
won't change in your lifetime, there's always the state of your body &
mind 'at this moment' reflecting your current state of health called
vikruti. For excellent health, the proportions of your vikruti
should be the same as your prakruti, and any difference can be
attributed to your current lifestyle, diet, emotions, age, environment
etc. This difference is noted & then corrected by an Ayurvedic doctor,
while restoring your health.

So naturally, every dosha has a set of food groups that aid or hurt
your health, and you can stay hale & hearty, if you closely watch what's
in your plate. Now lemme admit here that whenever I talk about Ayurvedic
cooking, the discussion is not as glamorous as, say, when I talk about
French or Italian cooking. Why? Primarily because here we talk more
about digestion than about feasting or plating... Yeah, Ayurveda
believes that your undigested food can cause a lot of harm to your body.
You see, the digestive fire in your belly is called the Agni. Your
food contains solar energy which can only be utilized by the body via
digestion. Food has to be then transformed into substances that can be
absorbed by the tissues & Agni refers to the enzymes and metabolic
processes that help the transformation. Yes, so anything that cannot be
used up by your body has to be avoided.

Now without going into specifics, let's generally look at foods to
avoid. This list itself is so shocking that it flies in the face of all
that's usually offered by the Big Food chains as a part of their fast
food menu. Let's see; you gotta avoid the nightshade group of
foods --- stuff that don't grow in the sun & hence carry some nasty
alkaloids --- potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers etc. Poof --- there
goes your burgers, fries & pizza's... Then you must avoid maida &
besan, as they've no fibre to get them digested easily.
Voila --- there goes your samosas, cakes, namkeens etc... Also, no white
rice & no wheat --- they've too much starch & gluten... And then, no
white salt & white sugar... Whoah, is there anything left to eat at all?

Plenty, actually... Make your breads or roti's with jowar, bajra,
ragi etc. Have plenty of red / brown rice Or Samaa... When in
doubt, add a dollop of Amaranth floor. Have a plenty of leafy green
veggies that are in season. Then there's always lauki, parwal,
bhindi etc. Replace your white salt with Saindhav or the black
variety. And please get in some jaggery for your sugar, like
yesterday... This is typical of what I do in my Ayurvedic catering
business. I simply make a list of all the avoidable food groups in all
the three doshas & eliminate them from my menu, cooking with
whatever that's healthy for every body type.

We'll go in details & specifics later, but does this sound daunting to
you already? Well, look at it this way: you can start eating healthy now
or you will be forced to compulsorily eat healthy later, when your
disease & doctor forces you to...

Lemme leave you with one more anecdote.

A ramp-walk fashion model who buys my stuff tells me that she eats all
healthy stuff for 5 days a week & has two cheat-days wherein she tucks
into everything sinful that she craves for. But since not all of you are
into modeling, here's my advice to you: eat whatever you want for 5
days, but detox yourself with this Ayurvedic healing cuisine for 2 days
a week, to start with. Fair?

Thank you Nitin for sharing your insights on Ayurveda and its close
relationship with healthy cooking. If you have any questions for Nitin
or would like to know anything in specific, don't forget to reach out to
us on info-in@cookpad.com.

Till then keep sharing recipes, keep cooking. Enjoy Cookpad!