Ayurveda teaches us that our gut health is a determining factor of our overall health, and it’s important to learn how to keep our agni, or digestive fire, strong and efficient. Our agni is a big soup of acid, bile, and enzymes that help transform food into usable energy. Maintaining a balanced agni translates into better digestion, elimination, and immune function.

The saying “You are what you eat” takes on increased importance in Ayurveda, which teaches that food affects you both physiologically and psychologically. To be more Ayurvedic, we can modify this saying to “You are as healthy as the tastes you consume.” Everything you eat has a certain taste and that taste has specific actions on the body and mind.

Removing wheat from the diet may offer only a temporary fix for a more complex problem—a compromised digestive system. I’ve seen decades of patients telling me they felt better initially without wheat, but within a few weeks or months, the digestive distress, bloat, weight, fatigue, and brain fog would all come back. It is time we stop treating the symptoms and address the cause. It is time we stop treating the symptoms and address the cause.

Has gluten been found guilty without a fair trial? Is it possible that we have wrongfully given gluten the boot as well, along with dairy and other commonly allergenic foods such as eggs, soy, corn, fish, and nuts?

When the mind is functioning optimally, you have a keen sense of awareness, a sharpness of focus and attention, good memory recall, and decisiveness. According to Ayurveda, most memory problems are related to kapha dosha, with its dense qualities, thick, soft, and sticky qualities.

Unbalanced blood sugar is a concern for modern medicine today, and was a familiar subject to the Ayurvedic sages of the past. Ayurveda may offer some support or relief to the person.

Monica B is throwing an Ayurvedic pizza party and invites three guests; vata, pitta, and kapha. How will they build their plates?

In Ayurveda, strengthening digestion is crucial to achieving and maintaining your ideal weight. Digestion has been strengthened for thousands of years with great success through the use of herbs, yoga postures, breathing techniques, and diet. Here are ten basic tips to help you improve your digestion.

Ayurvedic healers believe that our levels of stress are directly connected to our diet. They hold out the promise that if we improve our diet, we can reduce our stress. At the heart of this conviction is the critical principle of Ayurvedic medicine that many diseases can originate in the digestive system. This means that your diet is of the utmost importance to keeping you healthy. Indeed, you may even find yourself in a double bind.

According to Ayurvedic principles, the sweet taste should come first. In fact it’s important to try to get all six tastes into our diet each day—sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. 

If your lunch is usually a stressful scramble to find something to eat, it's time for a reset. Here's how to avoid the common pitfalls and make your lunchtime awesome.

In Ayurveda, every food can be considered medicine, neutral, or poison, depending on how it affects agni, or our digestive capacity. Eating more slowly can help you become aware of your food allies—or discover those that are not.  Here are a few suggestions.

Ayurveda and Yoga, given as sister sciences thousands of years ago, help us find balance in our lives, bodies and minds. In modern times, when we are pulled from one urgent task to the next, find relief in “vegging out” and eat for convenience, these ancient teachings of balance have never been more relevant.

Learn why cucumber lemonade is not the perfect drink to cool off with. According to Ayurvedic food combining, there is an even better summer tonic option.

I remember the day I got the lowdown on leftovers from one of my Ayurveda teachers. “They’re a no-no”, he said, if we want optimal digestion. And let’s face it, Ayurveda is all about digestion.

Truth be told, I already knew this. I just didn't want to believe it.

This still makes me a little sad. Reheated lasagna or pizza for lunch or dinner back in the day used to be a treat. No meal planning or cooking meant less time in the kitchen, which is always fine with me.

Unfortunately, once food has been cooked, cooled and then re-heated, the prana (life force) has left the food, and our bodies have to work much harder to digest it.

Caprese salad is one of those things that I just fell in love with, especially during the summer. It’s cool and savory, combined with the sweet burst of juice from the tomatoes. But, then I started to notice that it did not settle as well as it tasted. The effects were subtle—a little bit of indigestion, just a touch of cramping. These were slight enough that I barely took note of it.

Summer is finally here! That means it is time for beach trips, pool parties, picnics, and barbeques! Finally we get to fulfill that yearlong desire to just bask in the sun. But rarely will you see any summer gathering without the summer time favorite fruit—a nice, round, juicy watermelon is likely waiting for you. 

Whether it’s a bottle of wine shared with friends at dinner, or a glass of wine by yourself, Ayurveda has insight to share on just "when" to wine.

One of the concerns that people often share is that living an Ayurvedic lifestyle will not allow them to enjoy their favorite foods. Nothing could be further from the truth! 

Urad dal is sweet, heavy, unctuous, and slightly heating. This is an excellent choice for vata or anyone who needs a grounding meal.