Eating The Ayurvedic Way: Tips from our Ayurvedic Aesthetician Egle
The Importance of Diet for Beauty
As part of our PA team, we have the wonderful Egle, who is an Ayurvedic Aesthetician. She kindly has shared with us some of her wisdom on food and eating, the Ayurvedic way, and how important it is to eat well in order to have healthy glowing skin.
According to Ayurveda, eating the right foods, in the right amounts, at the right time, in the right way, can be helpful in preventing disease and slowing the aging process more than almost anything else. The proper digestion and assimilation of foods together with regular evacuation of wastes are essential for health and beauty. Together they are responsible for producing clear beautiful skin, a radiant complexion, stamina, and clarity of mind.
Ayurveda says, ''how we digest food is more important than what we eat''. Although proper diet is extremely important in Ayurveda, good digestion is even more essential. The best diet in the world is useless, if poorly digested.
Good digestion is supported by smart food choices, simple preparations of meals, plus a mindful attitude when eating.
Here are General Ayurvedic guidelines for helping digestion:
- Eat only when you are hungry
- When there are any signs of improperly digested food, such as bad breath, heavily coated tongue, gas, or digestive upset, give the body some time to clean and balance itself by skipping a meal until a sense of appetite returns.
- Cook your own food as much as you can.
- Eat quietly alone or with a good company where you can completely relax.
- Drink a 12 oz glass of water 15-20 minutes before each meal
- Sip WARM water with meals.
- Take a teaspoon of finely chopped ginger with a little lemon juice and a pinch of salt to spur the appetite.
- Eat as much as would fit into your two hands cupped together, or usually about ¾ full
- Aim to eat three meals a day without snacks in between. Try to keep regular meal times.
- Eat foods of all six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, astringent. Having all six tastes in a meal will satisfy your taste buds.
- Eat main meal at midday when digestion is the strongest.
- Eat organic, fresh, local seasonal foods wherever possible.
- Oils: Eliminate refined oils completely as they promote inflammation and aging of the body. Use extra virgin organic cold pressed oils to flavor meals. Cook your foods in ghee (clarified butter) for its high smoke quality, high nutritional value and amazing taste it adds to cooked foods.
- Spices: Spice your foods at each meal. To open up a full flavor of spices , sautee them in ghee. To prepare, heat 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee over medium to low heat. First add any seeds (like cumin) and fry gently until golden brown. Then add any of powdered spices. Pour the mix over your soup, veggies, stew, adding fresh herbs such as parsley, or cilantro, and salt at the very end.
Now that we are welcoming the cooler nights, and the brisk morning air, which reminds us that winter is just around the corner. October through February are the cold, dry and windy months, manifestation of cold and windy air element in nature, when dry skin, dryness in intestines, and tendency towards worry and depression are common. These tendencies can be counteracted with balancing measures, including more warm cooked foods, more oils in the diet (organic, of course), a regular routine and an early bed time.