Saturday, August 14, 2010

What is Ayurveda?

I think it only fair to define Ayurveda so you can apply it's valuable concepts to your life. Ayurveda literally means "the science of life." It is a Sanskrit word, derived from two roots: ayus and vid, meaning "life" and "knowledge." This is a holistic, ancient system that teaches that all illnesses affect both the body and the mind. Although Ayurveda is over 3,000 years old, it has changed dramatically with the times, as lifestyle, diet, and the demands placed on the body have morphed. There are many chronic conditions brought about by modern life such as, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Chronic Fatigue that have been successfully treated by Ayurveda when conventional methods (Western Medicine) have failed. I, personally have experienced success with Ayurvedic Medicine with a chronic condition that affected my oldest child that conventional western medicine just exacerbated.

Ayurveda has a rich and varied history with its roots in the East, in particular, in the Charaka Samhita. This remarkable document of internal medicine, which was written more than 2,000 years before the microscope was invented, explains how the body is made up of cells and lists 20 different microscopic organisms which may cause disease. Some experts believe that the earliest Ayurvedic teachings were those contained in the sacred writings of Hinduism, the Vedas, although this can not be proven. Through the centuries afterword, the system of Ayurveda has been adapted in order to help people best at different points of time. Ayurvedic medicine eventually spread from India and became influential in China, Arabia, Persia, and Greece. Traditional Greek medicine was based on an idea of different bodily humors, or constitutions, which can be related to the principle of the three doshas in Ayurveda. Greek medicine was extremely influential in the development of traditional Western medicine.

To Attain True Health

In the Chakra Samhita, Ayurveda's principal text, health is said to coexist when all the following conditions are present:

  • All three doshas (vata, pitta, and kapha) are perfectly balanced.
  • The five senses are functioning naturally.
  • The body, mind and spirit are in harmony.
  • All the tissues of the body (dhaatus) are functioning properly.
  • The three malas (the waste products, urine, feces and sweat) are produced and naturally eliminated.
  • The channels of the body (the equivalent of meridians, known as srotas) are unblocked and flowing with energy.
  • The digestive fore or agni (metabolism in Western terms) is healthy and appetite is working normally.

It is my mission to research ways to apply Ayurveda so that we can attain optimum health according to the above text. Stay posted for more...

Ditch The Microwave Please




Since the 1970's, microwaves have become one of the most used appliances in American Kitchens. We have stopped "cooking" food and have become used to living off of artificially heated and reheated food. Side effects aside, microwaves promote the addition of processed and genetically modified foods such as; frozen snacks and meals, microwave popcorn and a host of other obnoxious things that we are feeding our families. The first step I took in living my life according to Ayurveda was to stop using the microwave. This article explains how microwaves function, the effects on human beings and tips on how to prepare food with out a microwave.
Microwaves, a form of electromagnetic energy, are used in many ways in our modern technological age. Microwaves are good for transmitting information from one place to another because microwave energy can penetrate haze, light rain and snow, clouds, and smoke. But the microwave is most familiar to us as an energy source for cooking food.
A microwave oven produces a spiked wavelength of energy with all of the power going into only one narrow frequency of the energy spectrum. Energy from the sun operates in a wide frequency spectrum.
Microwaves may also cause pathological changes in our bodies. Once the structure of a food is altered, it is unable to perform the desired function in our bodies. Clinical studies have shown that microwave heating of milk or cooking of vegetables is associated with a decline in hemoglobin levels. Will that kill you? Probably not. Is it good for you? I doubt it. These reductions may contribute to anemia, thyroid deficiency, and rheumatism. Sounds like a slow death to me.

A group of scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California discovered that microwaving breast milk at high temperatures (72°C to 98°C) caused a marked decrease in activity of all the tested anti-infective factors. E. coli growth at >98°C was 18 times that of control human milk. Even at 20°C to 25°C, E. coli growth was 5 times that of control human milk. Because microwave radiation leads to a significant loss of the immunological properties of milk, the authors of the study concluded that microwaving is definitely "not a suitable heat treatment modality for breast milk".

Cooking methods and how they are applied in Ayurveda

The vibration of the heat affects the vibrational quality of the food; quick and light cooking creates more dynamic food whilst slow and low heat cooking creates a more mellow and grounded meal.

Generally speaking, more watery food is better for thin and dry vata types and less good for heavy set kapha types; oily food is better for vata and the less good for hot pitta types who are prone to having oily skin and kapha types who carry too much fat, and drier food is better for kapha less good for vata.
These are based on degrees of moistness, oilyness and dryness.

Steam - makes the meal soft and moist and enhances the flavours of the
vegetables. Benefits vata, pitta and kapha.

Water sauté - makes the meal more watery, softer. Benefits vata. Also fine for pitta and kapha.

Stir-fry - adds heat and vitality to a meal. Can aggravate pitta.

Oven cooking - more of a drying and heating effect on foods. Baking, rather than roasting is better for reducing kapha as this is a more drying. Roasting is a bit oily and can aggravate pitta and kapha.

Heat sources for cooking:

Fire - this method is not always practical these days, but when done properly a wood fire gives an excellent even heat for cooking.

Gas - has the great advantage of being able to be quickly turned up or down. It is a good quality of heat.

Electricity - a bit more of an aggressive form of heat, but extremely practical.

Aga/ Range - being slow and steady, this is best form of heat for consistent and even cooking.

Microwave - microwaves work differently to other forms of cooking. The microwaves create a change in polarity within the food molecules which generates a friction that warms the food up. This activity also changes the molecular structure of the food, often forcefully deforming them or tearing them apart. It is this friction and heat which can destroy the fragile structure of vitamins and enzymes in the food and creating unnatural by-products along the way.
Microwaves transform one type of amino acid, L-proline, into a form that can harm the nervous system and kidneys. Microwaves have been banned in Russia since 1976. There are numerous studies showing microwaves cause increased carcinogens in foods, increased free-radicals, low haemoglobin and white blood cell counts. Ayurveda does not recommend using microwaves due to the denaturing of the prana in the food.

Microwave Popcorn - No More

In the time it takes to microwave popcorn, I can pop my own corn on the stove. When the popcorn is "popped", I simply add the desired amount of butter to the pot, place the lid back and let sit for two additional minutes until the butter melts. Viola! movie Theater popcorn! Benefits; No chemicals, no stinky microwave.

Have you ever heated up bread in the microwave? Have you noticed that if you heat it too much that it turns into a rock. Hmmm, could be a change in the molecular structure. Solution; Toast the bread in a toaster or steam it over a pot of boiling water. This method works great for hotdog buns. I simply place a skimmer over the boiling water (can use the same water that the hot dogs are cooking in), the buns on top for two minutes and end up with hotdog stand style buns. My kids love them!

To conclude, the microwave in my kitchen has become a useless appliance. Once I think of a way to get rid of it that does not cause bad Karma, it will be gone! I am open to suggestions.