Know your prakriti. Then determine your Ayurvedic diet.

What is your prakriti? Ask your ayurvedic doctor.

Any qualified ayurvedic doctor can talk with you for an hour or two, and help you to know what your constitution – or your prakriti – is and the implications that it has on your body, your mind, your lifestyle and your food.

The constitution is described by three main doshas or forces: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha – loosely translated as Air, Fire, and Earth, respectively. Each person has all three doshas in his or her constitution, but in unique proportions. Based on the unique proportions, ayurveda believes that there are 7 kinds of constitutions. This is, all human beings can be divided into seven constitutions.

Let us now consider the implications of various constitutions on food choices. Ayurveda always believe that nothing is right for everyone, and everything is right for someone. Ayurveda is in favour of individually tailored food (Ayurvedic food) programmes to meet the needs of individuals, with a proper diet and lifestyle. Ayurveda’s goal is to help each person reach his or her maximum potential – physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Read More: Ayurvedic Food on based your Prakriti

People of VAT Prakriti

• People who have a ‘Vata’ nature are thin, dry, often feel cold, need more grains, oils, salt and a little spice in their diet.
• Those who do not receive enough food are prone to anxiety, constipation and sleeplessness, among many other conditions.
• They need nourishing foods and often have difficulty maintaining a vegetarian diet.
• They should avoid too many salads and fruits as well as beans
• They should take more grains, dairy and nuts.

People of Pitta Prakriti

• They tend to be warm
• They have a more intense and highly focused nature
• They need more raw vegetables
• They need food which is only mildly spiced.
• Hot, spicy food leads to a greater incidence of skin rashes, liver weakness and anger
• Large salads are wonderful for them

People of Kapha Prakriti

• They tend to be overweight or stocky
• They often move and speak very slowly
• They benefit from lighter foods such as vegetables and salads
• They thrive on hot, spicy foods
• If sweet, heavy, oily foods are taken in too much quantity, it can lead to greater mucous accumulation as well as further weight gain and diabetes mellitus.
• They should avoid all sweets, dairy and nuts
• They should avoid most grains such as wheat and rice
• Grains such as quinoa and millet are good for them.

To summarise:

For Vata constitution: Cooked grains, butter, dairy, nuts, cooked vegetables are the best foods to maintain health without any vitamin deficiency.

Raw salads, fruits, beans should be avoided.

For Pitta constitution: Raw Salads, cooked grains, milk, seeds are the best foods to maintain health without any vitamin deficiency. Hot, Spicy foods, sour foods, deep-fried foods, fermented foods such as yogurt and vinegar should be avoided.

For Kaph constitution: Salads, cooked vegetables, spicy foods, quinoa, millet, corn flour and buckwheat are the best foods to maintain health without any vitamin deficiency. Dairy, meat, cheese, nuts, wheat and rice should be avoided.

SEEING OFF:

Dr. Avani Pandya is an Ayurvedic doctor and a certified yoga teacher. She has diverse experience in the field of food therapy and patients receive a special Ayurvedic food list and Ayurvedic food diet schedule suitable for their specific constitution and specific ailments.

Food Therapy is part of the treatments that patients receive while staying at Maharshi Atreya Health Centre, Undera – one of the renowned Panchakarma Centre in Vadodara. The concept of Ayurvedic food and Ayurvedic food combinations is a part of the holistic approach taken by Ayurveda while treating diseases and also maintaining good health to prevent diseases.

and your uniqueness is determined by your Prakriti.

It is your Prakriti (Constitution) that determines your diet!

In Ayurveda, the word ‘Prakriti’ refers to your basic constitution. Your Prakriti refers to the genetically inherited and unwavering physical and emotional qualities that you were born with. It is determined at the moment of conception. It specifically relates to those qualities, characteristics, and tendencies that are stable. For instance, while you may experience temporary changes, like gaining or losing some weight, feeling nervous or irritable, developing a cold or flu, etc., in the natural course of life you will never gain or lose five inches of your height or experience a change of eye color.

Ayurved believes that all kinds of food are not equally suitable – or unsuitable – for one person, and one kind of food is not equally suitable for everyone. Ayurvedic food combination also plays an important role in deciding the ideal diet according to Ayurveda. This is because each person is different from every other person – with differing hormones, enzymes, and neurotransmitters. And even you yourself are different from season to season and place to place!

Your program of nutrition must be individually tailored to be consistent with your Prakriti, and this program will change from season to season and from place to place – as suggested by your Prakriti.

Considering the above, you should be suspicious of the following meaningless, irresponsible and potentially dangerous words and phrases:

Daily recommended dose of vitamins and minerals: This is meaningless because the dose must differ from person to person, from season to season, and from place to place.

Everyone over 75 must take this or that supplement: This is again meaningless, and it can be dangerously misleading. Although physiological and functional changes that occur with aging can alter nutrient needs, not all persons over 75 need to supplement their diet with vitamins. Many healthy, active older adults can obtain all the vitamins and minerals they need by consuming a balanced diet.

Guidelines about daily intake of fruits, vegetables, etc.: The guidelines are again meaningless because they are based on statistical models for the ‘average person’ – and there is no average person. Just imagine a shirt stitched for a person of average size. It will be large for some, small for others, and fit no one exactly.

It is certainly not the case that all nutritionists want to offer irresponsible advice. The problem arises because much of the modern food industry concerns itself with statistical models and recommendations for the average person, when in fact the average person does not exist anywhere on this planet. When the common person, the individual, is bombarded with this data – without being warned that it is not individually tailored to his or her Prakriti – then this person can in effect be dangerously misled.

The basis of an ayurvedic food and nutrition plan is very, very simple. You only need to understand your Prakriti – your constitution.

In the next blog, we will see how you – as an individual person – can arrive at the best nutrition program for yourself (Diet according to Ayurveda). Whatever advice we offer can be put into practice by you and your family, in your family kitchen. No exotic ingredients. No fancy rules. And very tasty too.

A tailor-made shirt does not need rocket science.

The same is true for a tailor-made nutrition plan.

Be your own nutritionist. Eat to live well. And enjoy the food.

SEEING OFF:

Dr. Avani Pandya is an Ayurvedic doctor and a certified yoga teacher. She has diverse experience in the field of food therapy and patients receive a special Ayurvedic food list and Ayurvedic food diet schedule suitable for their specific constitution and specific ailments.

Food Therapy is part of the treatments that patients receive while staying at Maharshi Atreya Health Centre, Undera – one of the renowned Panchakarma Centre in Vadodara. The concept of Ayurvedic food and Ayurvedic food combinations is a part of the holistic approach taken by Ayurveda while treating diseases and also maintaining good health to prevent diseases.

You are one in a billion.

Therefore, the food that you eat must be unique too!

A billion unique persons must not follow the same diet.

Every single thing that exists in this universe – every creature, every plant, every acre of earth – has its own unique characteristics. There is no single rule which applies to all. One size does not fit all. Even ready-made dresses need to be custom-altered.

This reality applies to you and your food also:

There are few Ayurvedic Food Concepts which tend to prove our food as medicine! That is each person has unique food list to follow.

• The foods available to you are unique.
• You and your body and your mind are unique
• The combo of you and your food is unique.
• Your location is unique.
• The prevailing weather and season are unique.
• Your current circumstances are unique.

If there are a billion such unique combos, how can there be one common diet that is suitable for every unique combo? If we consider Food as a Therapy, of course it has to be unique for each one of us!

Yet, the westernised food industry, a few misguided doctors and thousands of so-called nutrition specialists deploy vast amounts of marketing muscle and advertising money to brainwash people into believing that there is something called the average person and something called the average diet suitable for the average person. This thought creates the wrong impression of Food as a therapy for everyone and thus misleads the crowd for their own profit of marketing!

Just think: if the average height of one million persons is 165 cms, there will be very few persons who are exactly 165 cms; the variation may, for instance, be anything from 130 cms to 180 cms. The average is a helpful and indicative statistical concept to measure and evaluate the totality, but it does not uniquely fit or apply to any one person.

So, if there is no such thing as the average person, there is no such thing as the average diet. As you have often heard, one person’s food can be another person’s poison. Food Therapies should not be taken lightly always! As much it is beneficial, it can prove destructive too.

Ayurvedic Diet says that the only diet rule that you should follow is the one that is suitable for you. It has to be tailor-made for you and your circumstances, thus if that food heals us in some circumstances then we can call it Food as a medicine Ayurveda!. That is, it has to be tailor-made for the unique combo that you are. The tailor-made diet is easy to design, and you can design it yourself. It is very practical because it exactly matches the unique combo that you are.

If you eat to live, you will live well, and you will love your food too. Your diet should be as special as you are. This is the ayurvedic approach to food – “Ayurvedic Food” uniquely enjoyable while being uniquely therapeutic. 

We can help you to understand the unique combo that you are. We can even help you to design a unique and practical diet plan – Ayurvedic food combinations.

Seeing Off:

Dr. Avani Pandya is an Ayurvedic doctor and a certified yoga teacher. She has diverse experience in the field of food therapy and patients receive a special Ayurvedic food list and Ayurvedic food diet schedule suitable for their specific constitution and specific ailments. 

Food Therapy is part of the treatments that patients receive while staying at Maharshi Atreya Health Centre, Undera – one of the renowned Panchakarma Centre in Vadodara. The concept of Ayurvedic food and Ayurvedic food combinations is a part of the holistic approach taken by Ayurveda while treating diseases and also maintaining good health to prevent diseases.  

Seeing Off:

Dr. Avani Pandya is an Ayurvedic doctor and a certified yoga teacher. She has diverse experience in the field of food therapy and patients receive a special Ayurvedic food list and Ayurvedic food diet schedule suitable for their specific constitution and specific ailments.

Food Therapy is part of the treatments that patients receive while staying at Maharshi Atreya Health Centre, Undera – one of the renowned Panchakarma Centre in Vadodara. The concept of Ayurvedic food and Ayurvedic food combinations is a part of the holistic approach taken by Ayurveda while treating diseases and also maintaining good health to prevent diseases.

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