There is something delicious about hunger. It presents a raw desire we rarely allow ourselves to feel. Like Silence, it offers a deeper insight into ourselves, and takes us to the source of our true nourishment. In this New Year, I … Continue reading
Remember when Grandma would make a home remedy of hot lemon and honey whenever someone was sick? Some grandmothers might have added ginger, others a dash of cinnamon, some a pinch of black pepper, and the bold even added a … Continue reading
I wanted to share with you our Christmas Dinner Menu, in case you are still looking for ideas. Feel free to print out this menu – just double click on it for print version. I have attached links below to … Continue reading
A truly elegant taste is generally accompanied with excellency of heart.
– Henry Fielding
Ayurveda Cooking Class: The Six Tastes
Nature’s evolutionary, self-regulating, nourishing, harmonizing intelligence is conveyed to us through her foods. Each flavor of nature’s bounty expresses a different ray of this intelligence. There is Sweet giving us comfort, strength, fortitude. Salty gives protection, lubrication, stability, and helps us “taste” life. Sour gives courage, clarity and the power of digestion. Pungent gives enthusiasm, adds spice to life and increases metabolism, helping us convert elements and experiences into things useful, beneficial. Astringent helps us pull it together, focus, extract the essential from food and the essence from life. Finally, Bitter gives expansion… but only by helping us let go, release, detoxify, purify.
The six tastes, or Shad Rasas as they are called in Ayurveda, are made up of the five elements. Sweet is Earth and Water. Salty is Water and Fire. Sour is Earth and Fire. Pungent is Fire and Air. Astringent is Earth and Air. Bitter is Air and Space.
When we include all six tastes in a natural, whole food meal, all five elements are fed, so the body is fully nourished. It feels satisfied, so cravings diminish. Most importantly, you build healthy tissue, increase energy, strengthen the immune system, feel light and comfortable in your body, and more clear and concentrated in your mind. When you eat a meal balanced with all six tastes, you feel peace ~ the peace of all that intelligence harmonized within you.
We don’t need to count calories, or measure protein-carbohydrate-fat ratios. We need to taste our way to wellness – remembering that vigorous, vitalized, optimal health is really never more than six flavors away!
Photo by Gregg Weber
Our food brings us the intelligence of the sun through the six rays of taste.
To learn more about the application of Ayurveda’s Six Tastes, read about my adventures Six-Tasting the World: To Russia, With Love: Shchi Soup and Ireland and the Fleeting Beauty of Spring.
Or, get my book for Ayurvedic wisdom of the Six Tastes, the seasons, the doshas, the elements and 108 easy-to-make recipes every day.
At this time of year, between the holiday feasts, plain and simple has special appeal, when I love nothing more than a warm bowl of Kitchari. Kitchari, sometimes spelled Kichidi, is split mung bean and rice cooked long and slow, often with … Continue reading
Shall I not have intelligence with the earth?
Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?
~ Thoreau
The ancient science of Ayurveda is really the art of living wisely, as it empowers people to make choices that nurture and sustain balance, wellness, and vitality. Ayurveda is a nature-based approach to healing that recognizes the unique difference of every individual ~ and, because every one of us is unique, every illness is unique; so, no disease, even if it goes by the same name, can be alike. Therefore, in Ayurveda, we seek to treat not the disease, nor the symptoms of the disease, but the person, the whole person, by attempting to dissolve the underlying cause of suffering and re-establish the fundamental state of wellbeing.
While it is a very personalized system of medicine, there are simple, intuitive and universal guidelines for healthy living. The first principle behind Ayurveda as it relates to food is to eat nature. That may sound simple but walk into an ordinary grocery store and you will be hard-pressed to find real food – i.e., food that is grown by the forces of sun, soil, wind and water. So, start by eating nature’s produce, as fresh and as close to the source as possible so that it retains its living intelligence and energy, what we call Prana or life force.
Look to “eat nature” then, as close to its source as possible. When you eat food that is locally grown, you benefit from the intelligence in nature that sustains seasonal balance. For instance, in Autumn we harvest root vegetables which help build our strength and immunity for winter. In the Spring, bitter and pungent greens sprout to help us detoxify and lighten winter’s load. So the second principle is to eat according to the seasons.
A third principle and important general rule it is to maintain a strong Agni. Agni, meaning digestive fire, is the Sanskrit root for our word ignite. For optimal health you have to have optimal fire in the belly. Heavy foods, too much food, cold food, old food, frozen, canned or processed food, even cold water taken with your meal, contribute to reducing the digestive fire.
Imagine the digestive system as a large fire. If you add too much wood, say Thanksgiving feast, then you will put the fire out. If the wood is too wet, too heavy, or too hard you are likely to extinguish the flame. And if you add artificial materials, as most “food” is these days, you will certainly reduce the flames – or, at least, create a lot of toxic smoke.
Agni is the key to Health
If you feel heavy, lethargic, dull-minded, or you are experiencing mood swings, then you may have a low-burning fire that has resulted in a toxic build-up that in turn is making your whole system sluggishness. To strengthen your digestive fire, try fasting to clear any clogging, sticky toxins. You can simply skip dinner one night weekly, or stick to a liquid diet for a few days. Sipping warm vegetable soups and broths for your three meals not only detoxifies, it fans the abdominal flames.
Drinking lemon and ginger tea throughout the day, and always with your meals, will increase digestive fire and help reduce Ama. Add ginger to your food, too, when cooking. Try to eat fresh, home-cooked meals as much as possible, and consider working with me as your Ayurvedic practitioner to teach you how to eat right for your mind-body type, or click here to take my Dosha Quiz.
Spice tea stokes the inner fires
Nature gives us exactly what we need. For this, we bless our food. We give thanks for the nourishment. Let’s remember that food is what we are made of. Your next breakfast, lunch, dinner will soon become an arm, a nerve, a brain cell, or a heart muscle. Choose wisely and give thanks. It is a miracle, and you are a part of that miracle. Ayurveda is the reminder of that truth: You are a miracle living in a miraculous world! Ultimately there is no end to this elegant, natural and synergistic method of healing. It continues to unfold inner potential, inner intelligence and inner power that motivates and encourages us to greater and greater self-expression. Through Ayurveda we become the master of our own lives, living its wisdom artfully.
Pam’s Tree: Life is beauty, bounty, bliss
If you would like to learn what Ayurveda can do for you, please email me: lauraplumb@san.rr.com or visit my website.
Copyright: This article is my intellectual property. If you would like to reprint it, please contact me for permission. Thank you!
Who doesn’t love Thanksgiving dinner with its feast of flavorful comfort foods? As a vegetarian I have been experimenting with healthy, delicious ways to update this traditional meal for many years now, without wanting to deviate much from its warm, grounding staples. At the … Continue reading