Ayurvedic Insight

January 2008

Publisher: Banyan Botanicals
http://www.banyanbotanicals.com

In This Issue

• Mindful Eating
• Ayurvedic Recipe: Tridoshic Vegetable Curry
• Upcoming Events

Mindful Eating
by Shannon Mooney

In Ayurveda, not only is eating in accordance with your constitutional type important, but developing balanced behavioral tendencies surrounding food can be the most valuable tool to understanding nutrition and controlling weight. Bringing mindfulness to your eating habits improves your relationship with food. The better your relationship with food, the greater the chances are for having a healthy, balanced body and mind.

Last year in our January edition of the Banyan Insight, we explored general diet and lifestyle recommendations to balance excess kapha in the body and move towards weight loss. That article can be found by clicking this link http://www.banyanbotanicals.com/nl/701.html
Now let us explore some of the more subtle characteristics of forming a healthy relationship with food and maintaining an ideal weight.

Today it seems we are bombarded with offerings of not-so-healthy-foods at every turn, from the box of doughnuts at the office to a cookie and coffee station in the bank lobby. We can even find candy isles popping up at checkout lines everywhere from office supply stores to shoe stores. Though it is sometimes difficult to practice self-control, understanding your body’s biological needs, and making a commitment to support those needs through healthy, nourishing foods can help you to say no to unnecessary or toxic food and appreciate a more balanced mind and body.

Having will power and practicing discipline when it comes to food, has everything to do with mindfulness and self-respect. Our bodies are remarkable systems with an innate intelligence for healing and maintaining balance. If we take a few deep breaths and draw our awareness inward several times throughout the day, we can start to notice more about the feeling of hunger, strength of digestion and the role emotions play in our eating habits. The tastes and qualities of different foods become clear and we can begin to understand how they relate to our individual constitutional types.

Being able to identify true hunger is a good first step in developing greater awareness of your body in relationship to food. Many people are conditioned to eat a meal at a particular time each day and never stop to check in to see if they are actually hungry. When a person proceeds to eat food when they are not hungry, chances are, they are lacking the digestive capability to utilize it. Similarly, eating a second meal before the previous one has had sufficient time to digest can lead to indigestion, causing symptoms of bloating, gas, burping, storage of toxins in the tissues, and bad breath. Tuning in to your hunger and cultivating a good appetite is a general way to monitor the strength of your digestive fire or agni. If you are unclear whether you are hungry or not, taking a brisk walk around the neighborhood can help to stimulate the appetite. Or try nibbling on an Ayurvedic “appetizer” of thinly sliced fresh ginger root spritzed with lime juice and a sprinkle of rock salt to get digestive juices flowing.

Cravings are a common complaint that can disrupt our efforts to have a healthy relationship with food. According to Ayurvedic nutrition, cravings can fall into two categories, either a biological need or psychological desire. Generally speaking, in order to differentiate, a biological need is a craving that is for a particular taste, sweet or bitter for example, that may be lacking from a diet. This type of craving sometimes points to a diet that is deficient in a particular nutrient. A psychological need is typically for a specific food, such as M&Ms or French fries. When we can recognize a craving for an unhealthy food as psychological, there are a few options: 1) Satisfy the craving and the body suffers the consequence of formation of toxins. 2) Deny yourself the particular food, causing a mental deprivation that can be traumatic and impair appetite on the psychological level. 3) Choose a healthy substitute. Find a nutritious food that has similar taste and qualities to the food item that is being craved. Examining your cravings without judgment can help you to make a healthful decision and set a new precedence for the establishment of eating habits that serve your needs.

It is clear to see how intricately linked our minds and bodies are when it comes to food. Emotions, a seemingly subtle experience of subjectivity, can actually override a body's natural tendency toward balanced eating and digestion. When a person lacks the skills to deal with certain emotions, overeating is a common outcome. Emotional eating occurs when someone uses food to cope with tension, stress, loneliness, boredom or depression. Eating becomes a way to “fill the void” and temporarily distracts or allows a person to “numb out” and avoid the real situation. Many people turn to food, particularly sweets, when they are lacking the “sweet” quality in their personal relationships. Food becomes a substitute for love, many times leading to excess weight gain. If emotional eating is habitual then it becomes more difficult to differentiate between actual hunger and emotional hunger. Practicing mindfulness as often as you can throughout the day can help to break your dependency on food and deal with emotional needs.

Meditation is an invaluable tool to bring about a calm emotional state and invite relaxation into the body. The digestive system relies on the parasympathetic nervous system to function properly. Once the body is relaxed, food can be digested properly. Taking Stress Ease herbal tablets can also be very beneficial to reduce anxiety and stress in the body.

Keeping a daily food log is one of the simplest ways to bring more attention to what is going into your body. Record every meal, snack, and beverage consumed each day for a week. If overeating is a problem, also note the quantity consumed. It is helpful to also record your energy level and emotional state for each day. Healthful food choices should sustain your energy and impart a calm, pleasant mental state. Many people who are trying to lose weight by combining exercise with healthful food choices find it helpful to add an exercise or activity column to their daily log, noting how much energy is expended or calories burned each day. A food log serves as a reality check for many people who are often too busy or distracted to notice how much or precisely what they are putting into their bodies. Being able to reflect back on food choices from day to day is a good way to shed light on foods that may or may not be nourishing the body and to notice detrimental eating habits.

Meal preparation and the environment in which you enjoy food, has a subtle yet powerful effect on your digestion. Taking the time to prepare your meals and learning to master a couple of healthful dishes will add a tremendous value and appreciation to your meal. Sourcing the freshest and purest ingredients may become part of the experience. Feeling a connection to your food, by growing it yourself, by knowing the farmer who grew it, or by simply appreciating the freshest organic food available can contribute to a more wholesome eating experience. Take the time to reflect on the energy it took to produce your food. Enjoy your meal while sitting down and with little distraction. Eating should be a quiet time to nourish yourself with food that will fuel your body in rebuilding tissues, and sustaining all its systems. The same reverence you bring to the table at mealtime should extend to your herbal regime. If you are taking Trim Support to help with weight loss, take the tablets mindfully noticing their taste and the powerful effect that they have on your body.

Setting an intention for balanced eating can help to reinforce your commitment to good health. Once that intention is clear, it is easier to choose situations and circumstances that will support you in your efforts. Ayurveda teaches that our bodies contain the wisdom to move toward balance. It is our job to support the body’s natural tendency toward health by listening and practicing mindful eating.

"The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

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