Ayurvedic seasonal regimen
ayurvedic seasonal regimen
“seasonal regimen.” Simply eating the recipes from the
seasonal chapters will get you started on this aspect of the Ayurvedic lifestyle.
Changing your foods with the weather keeps you well
Traditionally, Ayurveda recognized six seasons, because the weather of the srilanka and all
Indian subcontinent sees varying levels of heat, cold, and moisture, including
monsoons. For our purposes in the europ, we identify four seasons, this way:
SPRING: Cool and damp
SUMMER: Hot and humid
FALL: Cooling and increasingly dry
WINTER: Cold and dry
In spring, the environment is cool. The tastes that balance spring are pungent, bitter, and astringent. Pungency
warms, melts, and mobilizes; bitter and astringent tastes lighten and reduce
excess moisture. Reduce building foods, be sure to exercise, and eat only when
Hungry
In the winter, dry and cold qualities accumulate. The increase of building
qualities (dense, oily, warm, smooth, and so forth) protects the body from the
cold, and you will experience an increase and thickening of the mucous
membranes (in the sinuses, lungs, and intestines) to protect your system from the
dry quality, which will only increase until the thaw in spring. A reaction to the
combination of cold and dry could look like constipation, brittle or stiff feelings
in the joints or bones, anxiety, and/or weight gain.
make seasonal food
choices, and observe a bit of lifestyle routine, you will lower your risk of getting
sick at the change of seasons. Think about it: spring and fall, the major junctures
in weather changes, are the times when many people become ill with colds, flus,
and allergies.
spring season the body’s release of accumulated Ama and the melting of Kapha.
Ayurveda considers spring to be the ideal time to detox
Foods with bitter taste: kale, chard, collards, dandelion, bitter gourd, broccoli rabe, turmeric, fenugreek, curry leaf
Foods with pungent taste: arugula, leek, radish, turnip, scallion, ginger, black pepper, cumin, bay leaf, mustard, hing, rosemary, basil
Foods with astringent taste: beans, lentils, spinach, watercress, parsley, winter squashes, pumpkin, artichoke, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, millet, amaranth, barley, quinoa, buckwheat
Reduce foods with sweet, sour, and salty tastes.
Reduced heavy or sour fruits
Reduce heavy or watery vegetables
Increase lighter foods that are easy to digest, such as fruit and fresh vegetables.
Eat plenty of freshly cooked vegetables and a variety of lentils and beans
Support the process of opening up and detoxifying your body channels by drinking hot water and herbal teas.
Eat only when you are hungry
For this reason, ayurveda always emphasizes the importance of kindling the digestive fire with warm food and drinks. In spring especially, when the digestive fire has weakened and the coldness of kapha influences the body, we should avoid eating or drinking anything which is cold.
warm water or ginger tea. This will help keep the digestive fire strong.
Try to all six tastes in every meal: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent. That’s not so easy to do, but we should at least eat all six tastes each day. Of these, the bitter, pungent, and astringent tastes balance kapha. The sweet, sour, and salty tastes increase kapha. While we should continue to eat all six tastes in spring, we should reduce sweet, sour, and salty, and give more emphasis to bitter, pungent, and astringent.
Reference
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