Healing with Food

According to Ayurveda, an illness indicates that one's constitution, or dosha, is out of balance, a condition that can be exacerbated or improved by eating certain foods.

By Lizette Montgomery

More than 5,000 ago, the great seers of ancient India studied the fundamentals of life and organized them into a healing system called Ayurveda. This system—which in Sanskrit means "science of life"—is essentially an operating manual for the body, mind, and spirit, says Cynthia Copple, an Ayurvedic practitioner and president of Lotus Herbs and the Lotus Ayurvedic Center in Capitola, California. This operating manual shows how the body, mind, and spirit are interconnected by providing a map of their characteristics. According to the Ayurvedic system, people are born with a particular constitution (or prakruti) that defines their baseline of health. An individual's constitution is made up of a delicate balance of three vital energies, or doshas, known as vata (air), pitta (fire), and kapha (water). These doshas govern all the psychological, physiological, and patho-physiological functions of mind and body and are the basis for diagnosing illness.

"The three doshas are really three processes," explains Copple. "Vata is the process of movement, and its catabolic energy breaks down matter. Pitta is a process of metabolism that creates heat and energy in much the same way that fire breaks down a log. Kapha is dense, heavy matter that stores energy, like the fat and padding in our bodies."

Foods are also classified as vata, pitta, and kappa, and they either decrease or aggravate a person's doshas. The aggravation of the doshas goes along with ill health, as either cause or result. The healing properties of an Ayurvedic diet can be summarized in three basic principles:

1. Food should have a neutralizing effect on the doshas and not aggravate them.

2. Food affects the body differently depending on when it is eaten.

3. How you eat food is just as important as what you eat.

"If you are late for work, driving in traffic, worrying about getting back on time while you are eating a sandwich, your body is not going to respond the same way to the food as if you were sitting in the backyard looking at the flowers while you were eating," says Copple.

Eating foods that complement your constitution helps to maintain the body's balance. An illness, whether a common cold or a serious disease, indicates that the doshas are out of balance, a condition that is exacerbated by eating foods that clash with your dosha.

According to Ayurveda, you are ingesting more than just food when you eat. Judith H. Morrison, author of The Book of Ayurveda: A Holistic Approach to Health and Longevity, explains it this way: "As you eat, you take into yourself the subtle influences attached to the food and prana as well as the physical form of the food. Even the stages of production to which food is subjected affect its qualities. Food is part of the dynamic dance of life, and its qualities, both obvious and subtle, affect your well-being."

The basic Ayurvedic diet consists of whole, fresh foods in season, with vegetables forming between 20 and 40 percent of the diet. Usually only a quarter of the foods are eaten raw; the rest are cooked. An ideal Ayurvedic diet is different for each person, based on the individual's own blend of vata, pitta, and kapha. The process of constructing a personalized diet is best done under the guidance of a qualified Ayurvedic physician.

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