Home >

Ayurvedic Insight

Issue #4, January 2002

In this Issue

Losing Weight During Kapha Season
A Yummy Vegetable Barley Soup Recipe
We Have a New Home

An Easy and Healthy Way to Lose Weight During Kapha Season

It’s that time of year again. The celebrations are over, the guests have gone home, and the fruitcake and Christmas cookies have vanished. Not so mysteriously, the disappearance of these seasonal sweets has coincided with the appearance of a new, bigger version of your body. Your list of New Year’s resolutions has been made and at the top is a perennial favorite, “This year I am going to lose that excess weight.”

Sound familiar? If it does, you are not alone. The average American gains 8 pounds between mid-November and New Year’s Day. Each year, millions go on diets, only to find themselves heavier at the same time next year. In fact, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, 22.4% of the U.S. population over twenty years old is obese. The number has steadily increased since 1997, when it was only 19.4%.

By now, we all know the basics – eat less and exercise more. So, why is something that seems so simple, so difficult to do? Well, when we are out of balance, our innate wisdom is corrupted and this fosters poor dietary and lifestyle decisions. As we further pervert our natural state, our cravings tend to favor the imbalance rather than our state of health and well-being. In Ayurveda, this is understood as “a crime against one’s own wisdom.” And because of it, we usually become miserable, sick, or at least uncomfortable. Thus arises a need for change, for resolution.

In this article, you will find some practical Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle tips to help you honor those resolutions, restore your balance, and discover the necessary alternatives to help you healthfully and successfully lose weight.

As you develop and employ your Ayurvedic wisdom, it may be helpful to know that in the West, what we understand as a condition of overweight will generally be understood as an excess kapha condition in an Ayurvedic framework. So, for starters, you can replace the common “I am so fat,” with a more innocuous: “my kapha is out of balance,” and then take prescribed actions to correct the imbalance.

In balance, kapha can be understood as the body’s builder and maintainer. Some of the healthy characteristics of kapha are skeletal and muscular strength, vitality and stamina, strong immunity, mental stability, healthy joints and a strong memory. Kapha helps us feel stable, grounded and secure, and it is associated with the emotions of love, compassion and peace.

Contrarily, an imbalance of kapha can lead to obesity or excessive weight gain, too much of a good thing, so to speak. It is usually the result of a combination of factors such as: slow metabolism, poor digestion, overeating, eating kapha-aggravating foods (dairy products; greasy, fatty, processed foods; and heavy sweets) and leading a lifestyle that facilitates kapha accumulation (taking naps of longer than ½ hour during the day, resisting exercise, hanging on to emotions of attachment or greed). Climate and other environmental factors may also contribute.

Kapha naturally tends to accumulate from mid-winter through early spring, a time of year that favors its anabolic nature. Since winter shares many of kapha’s qualities (heavy, damp, cold, slow, stable, cloudy), it is particularly easy to become imbalanced at this time of year.

You can make the shift into kapha season less taxing on the body and avoid gaining too much weight by introducing some opposite qualities of kapha into your diet and lifestyle. The opposing qualities include: light, hot, fast, dry, mobile and clear. So you can choose foods like lightly spiced steamed vegetables and lightly sautéed dishes, select activities that get you moving, and engage in stimulating activities for the mind that naturally combat the characteristic dullness of kapha.

Here are some practical kapha-balancing tips. They can be useful if you are trying to lose weight or just trying to stay healthy.

Simple dietary adjustments to balance kapha:

1. Drink warm water

Replace iced or cold beverages with warm water and herbal teas. This will help enkindle the digestive fire making it easier for you to completely digest your food. When food is properly digested, your body feels more nourished and satisfied. This satisfaction eliminates cravings for sweets and other foods that increase kapha. Ayurvedic literature suggests that 5 glasses of water per day is sufficient for kapha types.

2. Eat warm, fresh foods

Cooked foods, served warm, balance the cold quality of kapha and are easier to digest than cold, leftover, or raw foods. When possible, favor fresh foods over frozen. Even when cooked, frozen foods are cold energetically, and lack the vitality and sustenance (prana) of fresh food.

3. Keep it light

Favor light foods like bitter vegetables (spinach, broccoli and kale) and beans (yellow split peas, red lentils, garbanzo and pinto) over heavier foods like red meat and potatoes. Also, stay light by stopping your meals short of feeling stuffed.

4. Minimize the use of dairy products

Dairy products increase kapha, so try to minimize your intake. If you must indulge, use the Ayurvedic wisdom of energetics to minimize the impact through the addition of spices. The proper blend of spices can act as an antidote and neutralize the harmful effects of certain foods. For example, instead of having a bowl of ice cream, which is a double-whammy for kapha because it is both cold and heavy, choose a warm cup of milk with heating spices like cinnamon and cardamom.

Use spices to bring kapha into balance:

1. Cook with spices

We generally think of using spices to enhance the flavor of food, but they can also be used to improve digestion, to reduce kapha, and to promote weight loss.

2. Make use of heating spices

Kapha imbalances can be diminished by the addition of warming spices to winter meals. You can use black pepper, cayenne, ginger and even onions and garlic.

3. Spice up your digestion

Other tasty spices that enkindle the digestive fire and decrease kapha include: turmeric, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, hing, basil, bay leaf and nutmeg.

4. Drink ginger tea

Add a few slices of fresh ginger to hot water and let it steep. Enjoy this perfect antidote for kapha as it enkindles the digestive fire and helps the body metabolize fat.

5. Use honey to satisfy cravings for sweet

If you are craving sweet, try a warm glass of water with a spoonful of RAW honey. In ancient Ayurvedic texts, raw honey is documented to scrape fat from the tissues when taken this way.

Activities and exercises for bringing kapha into balance:

1. Move

The inherent stability of kapha can make it more difficult to lose weight. So movement is an essential component of a successful kapha-reducing regimen. Walk, run, bike, jump rope - basically do just about anything to get off your couch and move in the opposite direction of your refrigerator. The more vigorous and heating the routine, the better the results.

2. Break habits and patterns

Patterns and routines can aggravate kapha’s stable quality. So vary your activities and the times that you do them. Shifts in routines will help create greater healing.

3. Enjoy a sauna

If you have access to a sauna, take advantage of it - dry heat can help counterbalance both the cold and wet qualities of kapha.

4. Give yourself an oil massage

Heat a warming oil such as mustard or sesame. Apply a thin coat to the skin. Massage vigorously for about ten minutes. Try to use upward strokes to help aid circulation. Follow with a warm shower or bath. Then, dry off vigorously, or use a dusting powder to remove the excess oil and effectively exfoliate the skin.

5. Try yoga

An energetic yoga practice that is vigorous, stimulating and heating is best for kapha.

Herbal formulas for bringing kapha into balance:

1. Trikatu

Trikatu tablets contain ginger, black pepper and pippali. This formula is often taken before meals to enkindle the digestive fire. If your appetite is already strong, you may opt to use it after meals to support digestion. Either way, it acts to support the metabolism of fat, reduce toxins and decrease kapha. http://www.banyanbotanicals.com/ck/trikatu_insight.html

2. Trim Support

You can reduce kapha and help control your weight with Trim Support. This herbal formula combines the most potent kapha reducing herbs in the Ayurvedic pharmacopoeia. Trim Support detoxifies the G.I. tract and promotes proper digestion and elimination. Along with proper diet and exercise, it is a highly effective addition to any weight loss program. http://www.banyanbotanicals.com/ck/trim_insight.html

Remember that “like increases like,” so if you want to lose weight, try to avoid inundating yourself with kapha foods and activities, especially in the winter season. Keep your meals light and warm. Try to engage in stimulating activities. If you have a daily routine, make sure that it includes exercise. Be open to change and vary your activities. Use herbal supplements that support your new regimen.

Once you begin to recover your natural balance, your innate wisdom will be restored, and you will find it easier to make the proper choices to maintain optimum health.

Recipe: Vegetable Barley Soup

¾ cup barley, uncooked
1 tablespoon of sunflower or olive oil
2 teaspoons whole cumin seed
½ medium onion, red or yellow, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped (omit for Pitta)
3 stalks celery, chopped
7 cups water
1 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
3 new potatoes, in ½ inch cubes
1 large carrot, halved lengthwise then sliced
¼ bunch fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup string beans, in ½ inch slices
3 large shitake mushrooms, dried
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black peppercorns
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt

Warm oil in large saucepan. Add whole cumin, gently browning. Add onion, garlic and celery and sauté 3 to 4 minutes, until tender. Add water, bring to a boil. Wash and chop vegetables. When water is boiling, put in barley and vegetables (if you are using frozen peas, do not add them until the soup is nearly done). Crumble dried mushrooms in small bits into the soup for flavor. Cover and reduce heat to low, simmer for one hour or until barley and vegetables are tender. This will make a thick soup; you can add more water if you prefer a thinner broth. When barley is tender, add frozen peas, ground cumin and salt. Simmer 5 more minutes. Serve with a teaspoon of ghee in each bowl of soup if you like.

Universal Prayer for Peace

May all beings find happiness.
May all be free of disease.
May all see what is auspicious.
May no one suffer.
Om. Peace. Peace. Peace.

Return to newsletter index.