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Some
foods are considered especially healing in ayurveda.
Since a central dietary teaching of ayurveda is
to eat to provide adequate nutrition for mind and
body without overtaxing the digestive system or
your body's ability to fully absorb and utilize
those nutrients, easy-to-digest foods that are wholesome
and provide multiple health benefits are prized
in ayurveda.
Ayurveda categorizes foods by rasa (taste) as sweet,
sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. The
typical North American diet includes plenty of the
first three tastes and not enough of the last three,
and ideally all six tastes should be included at
each main meal.
Ayurveda also classifies foods according to their
quality--foods are considered dry or unctuous, heavy
or light, warm or cool according to their physical
nature.
Ayurvedic healers recommend including more of those
tastes and qualities that pacify the dosha(s) you
are trying to balance at a given time, and less
of others.
Vegetables and herbs or spices that contribute the
bitter or astringent tastes, whole milk, lassi (a
drink made by blending together fresh yogurt and
water), cooked fruit, chutneys, whole grains, unleavened
fresh breads made with flour that has not been refined,
and mung beans are examples of particularly nourishing
and healing foods that are recommended in ayurveda.
Foods are also classified as sattvic, rajasic and
tamasic according to the quality of the impact they
have on the heart, mind and spirit. Foods that are
particularly nourishing for not just physical, but
mental, emotional and spiritual health, are called
sattvic--foods that impart sattva (purity)--in ayurveda.
Rice, milk, ghee and almonds are examples of sattvic
foods.
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