Health, the ayurvedic way

The important thing to do in ayurvedic dining is to listen to your body. Balancing ahara (food) and vihara (lifestyle) ensures good health, says Hector Choksi

All over the world hundreds of ayurvedic restaurants have mushroomed in major metros like London, New York and Atlanta and in Indian cities like Mumbai. What is the common factor in these restaurants? Well, in these you are told what is good for you.

In ayurvedic restaurants, order food according to the nature of your digestive system Photo: MF

Everything — including our bodies — is made out of the five elements of air, space, fire, water and earth. The three types of body constitutions, known as doshas in ayurveda, are a combination of the following: vata dosha constitutes air and space, pitta dosha is made up of fire and water, and kapha dosha is water and earth. You have to balance your dosha and your food.

Vata digestion varies and can be delicate. Vatas should favour warm foods with moderately heavy textures. Foods should include salty, sour and sweet tastes.

Pitta digestion is usually strong and intense. Pittas should favour cool or warm, rather than hot, foods, with moderately heavy textures. Foods should include bitter, sweet and astringent tastes.

Kapha digestion is slower and heavier. Kaphas should favour warm, light food. Food should be as dry as possible, cooked without much water. Tastes should be pungent, bitter and astringent. Kaphas prefer spicy food, which promotes better digestion for them.

Another important factor in ordering food in ayurvedic restaurants is according to the nature of your jadaragni or digestive fire or energy. Agni is an ayurvedic term meaning digestive fire. When agni is in good supply, you feel well; your digestion is strong. To increase agni, it is best to eat meals at the same time each day. Breakfast should be light, lunch fairly substantial, and dinner light and eaten early.

Ghee, or clarified cow butter, is great for increasing agni and restoring proper digestion.

Ginger in tea or as a spice is commonly used for poor digestion or to increase digestive fire.

Cloves, cinnamon and black pepper are recommended to aid in digestion.

How does this knowledge help in ordering food? Well, in a good ayurvedic restaurant, the waiter or the chef who takes the orders will ask you a few basic questions.

Therefore, when thinking about food, we must take into consideration a host of things. For example, vata types (air and space) prefer light and dry food; to balance this, one needs oily, moist and heavy foods, with the taste of sweet, sour and salty. In contrast, pitta types (fire, water) need cool and heavy foods to dowse the heat with sweet, bitter and pungent tastes. Kapha types (water, earth) need light food, with the tastes bitter, pungent and astringent — such as thyme, rosemary and mustard. 

In fact, in some of the ayurvedic restaurants, like Swadshakthi at Malad in Mumbai, if you plan to be a frequent visitor, they request you to make an appointment with the " in-house" ayurvedic doctor, so that he can study your constitution per ayurveda. This ensures that the food you order is strictly within your health parameters, making sure the food you eat will enhance your health.

The waiters in some of the ayurveda restaurants are trained to recognise the type of dosha of the guests, by their physical appearance. At one of the cafes in the UK, guests are first presented with a form with various attributes listed out. They are expected to fill this up and thus help to identify their dosha. They can then choose their meals from various groups of food, which are classified according to pitta, vata or kapha elements. For example, a sandwich for a guest with kapha element will be made without butter, as people with predominately kapha temperaments should avoid dairy products.

The masterchef of an ayurvedic restaurant has to say this:

"In ayurveda, foods — like people — are either hot or cold, and should be combined accordingly. Additionally, food can be broken down into six flavours — salty, sweet, sour, bitter, astringent and pungent — that should be balanced with each meal. When I took over, I was given a list of vegetables that could be used for guests who were all following a strict satvic colourless diet – vegetables like gourds pumpkin, parval, tinda etc.

"But to make the food appetising, we needed to serve food, the diners like. How to do this and still retain the ayurvedic nature of the food?

"The solution was to make sure that whatever added, is balanced or counteracted by something else. For example, cauliflower is seen gassy, but if you boil water with ajwain and tamarind and salt, and then blanch the cauliflower in it, that takes care of the problem. You can then even fry it with a little onion and ginger."

With idlis/dosas, the problem is that they are made with a fermented rice and urad dal batter, and ayurveda is against the consumption of fermented products. So the chefs had to invent a substitute. The resultant product is not an exact substitute for the South Indian delicacies, but, nevertheless, very tasty and satisfying.

The important thing to do in ayurvedic dining is to listen to your body. Balancing ahara (food) and vihara (lifestyle) ensures good health. "Eating healthy does not mean denying yourself treats; so if you have a craving of something sweet, indulge yourself, but instead of going for a chocolate, eat a sweet fruit like mango instead," says chef Sumit Kumar of the famous Anand Spa in the Himalayas, who developed a nutritious low-fat menu for the spa and is currently writing a cookbook on ayurvedic cuisine.

Interestingly, ayurveda also`A0focuses a lot on the cooking of food. Stick to steaming, saut`E9ing or blanching. Couple this with the food type that suits your constitution, and you will be truly trotting on the path to wellness, the ayurvedic way! — MF