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PART ONE

INTRODUCTION TO AYURVEDA

Ayurveda originated in India, beginning around 3000 BC. The fundamental principles of Ayurveda were discovered by ancient Rishis (Sanskrit, “seers of truth”). It was these same Rishis who developed India’s original systems of Yoga and meditation. Collectively, all of these systems are known as Vedic Science. Ayurveda spread with Vedic and Hindu culture to many parts of the world and is thought to have influenced ancient Greek medicine.

Following the discovery of its basic principles, the body of knowledge known as Ayurveda grew as practitioners of the science made very meticulous observations of human beings and the natural world. An enormous amount of information has been collected about various food, plant and mineral substances, physical activities, environmental conditions, cycles of time, and how they affect the health of human beings. This body of information was at first committed to memory and spoken in verse, and eventually was recorded in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit. Ayurveda, as a medical science, is still practiced today in India and other parts of the Eastern world. A recent interest among Western physicians is part of a renewed inquiry into methods of preventative, holistic, cost-effective systems of health care.

THE THREE PILLARS OF LIFE

A central principle of Ayurveda encompasses three fundamental forces that regulate life. They are referred to metaphorically as air, fire and water. These three operating principles, also called the doshas (pronounced doe’shas), are present in all life forms, from a human being to a blade of grass. They are not physical in the sense of having tangible form, but are the very subtle energies present in all matter.

Vata (pronounced vah’-tah) is the Sanskrit word for the air principle. It is the subtle force behind all movement in the body. It is the wind that keeps things in motion, such as the transmission of messages throughout the nervous system. Pitta, (pronounced pit’-tah) is the Sanskrit word for the fire principle. It is the force that underlies the processes of digestion and metabolism, and the fire that burns food to fuel the body. Kapha (pronounced kah’-fah) is the Sanskrit word for the elemental force that upholds both density and fluidity in the body. It is the water that lubricates the body and also brings structure and stability.

The following chart lists some of the characteristics, or qualities, of each dosha. These qualities can have a healthy or unhealthy effect on our bodies and minds, depending upon the proportion of each dosha influencing our physiology at any given time. For instance, if there is too much vata in your body, symptoms associated with coldness and dryness can result. If your vata is balanced, you will not have these symptoms.

THE INDIVIDUAL CONSTITUTION

All three of the doshas must be present in a living organism. Not all organisms, however, have the same ratio of one dosha to the other two. Some organisms have more vata than they have pitta or kapha. Some have more kapha in relation to vata and pitta, and so on. Most of us have a dominant dosha that influences our physical and mental characteristics.

According to Ayurveda, we are each born with our own unique mixture of the three doshas. This is the individual’s constitution, (Prakruti in Sanskrit), which is genetically determined at the time of conception. It is your constitution that determines your physical and mental characteristics such as your body frame, your ideal body weight, the color and texture of your hair and skin, and your temperament. Most of us have a dominant dosha (vata, pitta or kapha) that influences our physical and mental characteristics.

The following self-test will allow you to get a general idea of your individual constitution. Read each statement and circle a number from 0 to 4, depending upon how true each answer is for you. Circle 0 if it is not true at all. Circle 4 if it is very true. Total your score for each dosha by adding the circled numbers. Write down your total for each dosha.

The test is taken from The Healthy Family Handbook, by Louise Taylor and Lisa Marie Nelson, and published by Tuttle Publishing.

VATA	Not True at All	Very True
I don’t like cold weather	0	1	2	3	4
I don’t gain weight easily	0	1	2	3	4
I often become anxious and restless	0	1	2	3	4
My moods change quickly	0	1	2	3	4
I am creative, imaginative	0	1	2	3	4
I walk quickly	0	1	2	3	4
I have difficulty falling or staying asleep	0	1	2	3	4
I tend to make and change friends	0	1	2	3	4
I learn quickly and forget quickly	0	1	2	3	4
I become constipated easily	0	1	2	3	4
Under stress I am easily excited	0	1	2	3	4
I have an irregular appetite	0	1	2	3	4
My skin tends to be dry, rough, especially in winter	0	1	2	3	4
My feet and hands tend to be cold	0	1	2	3	4
My hair tends to be dry	0	1	2	3	4
VATA TOTAL __________

PITTA	Not True at All	Very True
I don’t like hot weather	0	1	2	3	4
My weight is average for my build	0	1	2	3	4
I tend to become intense, irritable	0	1	2	3	4
My moods are intense and change slowly	0	1	2	3	4
I am intelligent, efficient, a perfectionist	0	1	2	3	4
I have a determined walk	0	1	2	3	4
I sleep well, for an average length of time	0	1	2	3	4
Most of my friends are work-related	0	1	2	3	4
I have a good general memory	0	1	2	3	4
I have regular bowel habits	0	1	2	3	4
Under stress, I am easily angered, critical	0	1	2	3	4
I am uncomfortable skipping meals	0	1	2	3	4
My skin is soft, ruddy	0	1	2	3	4
I like cold foods and drinks	0	1	2	3	4
My hair is fine, thin, reddish, or prematurely gray	0	1	2	3	4
PITTA TOTAL __________

KAPHA	Not True at All	Very True
I don’t like damp, cool weather	0	1	2	3	4
I gain weight easily	0	1	2	3	4
I can be slow or depressed	0	1	2	3	4
My moods are mostly steady	0	1	2	3	4
My mind is calm, steady, stable	0	1	2	3	4
My walk is slow and steady	0	1	2	3	4
I generally sleep long and soundly	0	1	2	3	4
My friendships are longlasting, sincere	0	1	2	3	4
I have a good longterm memory	0	1	2	3	4
I eat and digest slowly	0	1	2	3	4
I am stubborn, not easily ruffled	0	1	2	3	4
I can skip meals easily	0	1	2	3	4
My skin is oily, moist	0	1	2	3	4
I have good stamina, steady energy level	0	1	2	3	4
KAPHA TOTAL __________

COMPARATIVE TOTALS

VATA__________

PITTA__________

KAPHA__________

Your highest-scoring dosha is your dominant dosha. For example, if you scored 42 for vata, 30 for pitta and 21 for kapha, your individual constitution is vata. Many people have two high-scoring doshas, which means both doshas dominate. I score lowest for vata and score nearly the same for pitta and kapha, with kapha a few points ahead of pitta. My constitution, therefore, is kapha-pitta. In my constitution, kapha leads, but not by much. If all three doshas have about the same score, you are tri-doshic. This is rare, however.

BALANCE AND IMBALANCE

Ayurveda teaches that a perfect balance will maintain the same proportion of the three doshas with which you were born. Your inborn constitution represents your balanced state of health. If your present ratio of doshas does not match your constitution, you are out of balance and are likely to be experiencing some degree of poor health.

Most of us recognize when we are in good health. During daily activities we feel alert, energetic and physically comfortable. We get enough deep sleep and wake up refreshed. When there is a lack of energy, physical discomfort, irritability or sleeplessness, something is “out of whack.” This something is likely to be one (or more) of the doshas.

What causes the imbalance? Ayurveda suggests that, by the principle of resonance, like increases like. A hot summer day will increase pitta (fire) in the body. By the same token, a cold day will decrease pitta. Since kapha (water) is cold and wet, a cold and rainy day will increase kapha. Environmental conditions influence the balance of the doshas and come in the form of climate, food, odors, noises or any outside influence on the body. Emotional states are also considered environmental conditions. The emotion of anger, for instance, will elevate pitta, the fire principle.

To illustrate how environmental conditions can upset the balance of the doshas, I’ll use two examples from my own situation. I can’t tolerate direct air from an air conditioner. My constitution is kapha-pitta. Since one of the qualities of kapha is coldness, I tend to become cold easily. The warming quality of pitta moderates this tendency somewhat, but not enough to eliminate it. Direct flow from an air conditioner throws me out of balance and can result in sinus congestion and sneezing, which are typical signs of a kapha imbalance. Low, indirect air conditioning or a slow-running fan work just fine in my case.

Another example concerns a pitta imbalance that occurs in the summertime. I love spicy food and have no problem digesting it most of the year. But in the summer, spicy food gives me heartburn. So, I avoid spicy food and instead, eat foods that are cooling. No more heartburn!

The following chart lists the common symptoms that result when each of the doshas is elevated to the point of causing an imbalance in the body.

AYURVEDA AND FOOD

According to Ayurveda, all life is regulated by the three doshas. Our food comes from living organisms, so food, like our bodies, also has the three doshas within it. Like us, each kind of food has its own combination of air, fire and water. For example, bananas, being sweet, wet and sticky, have the qualities of kapha.

Since bananas have a high proportion of kapha, eating one is likely to elevate your own level of kapha. So, if you have sinus congestion (a typical symptom of having too much kapha), eating a banana may worsen the condition. Eating an apple, however, would be a good idea. Apples have an astringent (drying) quality, a characteristic of vata (air). The apple might help to alleviate your sinus condition because its drying quality would reduce the mucus and congestion.

Eating foods that have qualities opposite to the dosha that is out of balance can help eventually balance the dosha and clear up the symptoms. The beneficial results of eating foods that balance a particular dosha will probably be gradual, taking a few hours or even days, depending upon the extensiveness of the imbalance. A sniffle, for instance, may clear up in a few hours after eating a spicy, kapha-balancing meal. The alleviation of an advanced case of sinus congestion, however, may require a week or more of kapha-balancing meals.

During the 5000 years of Ayurveda’s development, all types of foods have been analyzed for their affect on the balance of our doshas. It has been found that the way a food influences our doshas is largely a matter of its taste. Ayurveda categorizes tastes into the following six types:

• Sweet (bread, honey and milk)

• Sour (vinegar, grapefruit)

• Salty (table salt, soy sauce)

• Bitter (black coffee, mustard greens)

• Pungent (hot spices, garlic)

• Astringent (dry and mealy, as in lima beans and apples)

Vata (air) is elevated by foods that taste bitter, pungent or astringent. Vata is lowered by foods that taste sweet, sour or salty.

Pitta (fire) is elevated by foods that taste sour, salty or pungent. Pitta is lowered by foods that taste sweet, bitter or astringent.

Kapha (water) is elevated by foods that taste sweet, sour or salty. Kapha is lowered by foods that taste bitter, pungent or astringent.

To maintain balanced doshas and therefore health, Ayurveda recommends including at least a little of all six tastes in your daily food intake. In order to include all six tastes, you must eat from a wide variety of foods, thus ensuring that you will be eating a varied and well-balanced diet. Even if you are trying to bring one of the doshas back into balance by eating foods with tastes that balance that dosha, you should still try to include the other tastes in your daily meals.

Besides taste, there are other qualities that should be considered when choosing what to eat. Lightness, heaviness, wetness, dryness and temperature are some of these other qualities. Choose foods that have qualities least like the qualities of the dosha you are trying to balance. For instance, ice cream is sweet, cold and wet. Since kapha dosha has these same three qualities, eating ice cream to balance kapha would not work. However, eating spinach, which is light, bitter and essentially dry, would help balance the kapha.

It is not only what we eat that affects the doshas, but also how, when and where we eat. The following is a list of poor eating habits that can affect our doshic balance.

• Eating at irregular intervals. According to Ayurveda, the body loves regular schedules. Eating your meals at consistent times every day is best.

• Eating too much of anything.

• Not eating enough or going on a starvation diet.

• Constantly favoring one or two tastes to the exclusion of others. Many people prefer sweet and salty foods and therefore don’t eat a balanced diet. Junk foods and fast foods are predominantly sweet and salty.

• Eating foods that increase the effects of weather conditions. For example, eating a spicy Mexican meal on a hot summer day.

• Eating any of the following foods too often: red meat, fried foods, alcoholic beverages and foods made with lots of refined sugar. These foods should be eaten very seldom (if at all) since they easily throw the doshas out of balance.

• Eating hurriedly, in an unsettled environment, or while watching television, reading or listening to loud music.

Part Two of this book is a guide to the types of foods to increase or reduce, alleviating symptoms of imbalance for each dosha. Recipes are offered that emphasize foods and cooking methods that help balance each dosha. But this section need only be used when there is an imbalance, and not all the time. The basic rule of eating according to Ayurveda is that when you feel healthy and energetic, have good digestion and no pain, eat whatever healthful foods you prefer as long as you continue to feel healthy.