Let’s say you woke up this morning with your skin being dry and feeling somewhat restless. For lunch you can choose either a salad with broccoli, endive and apple or sweet potato soup with beets and a slice of ginger... What would you choose?

In the West we often pick our meals without thinking. Mostly driven by cravings, influenced by artificial taste enhancers and refined sugars in the food.

An opportunity lost, because taking a moment to consciously choose what you will nourish your body and senses with, can make a huge difference in the way you will feel after the meal, short-term and long-term. For centuries, Ayurveda has been considered food as a tool one can use to promote physical, mental and spiritual health.

We also often assume that certain products are either good, or bad for everyone, instead of looking at what is best suited for you as unique individual. However, what can be the perfect meal for your neighbor might completely disrupt you.

So how will you know what suits you? Don’t worry, I will help you with that during consultations. And for now I will explain some general principles, to give you a few  basics to start from.

Ayurvedic nutrition starts with gaining insight in your current dominant Doshas, your personal metabolism and digestive capacity. All of this will be revealed during consultations. With this information we can decide which food fits best, by looking at the features of each product.  Ayurveda has several angles to approach food: the six tastes with their own therapeutic actions each, the energy of a product (heating or cooling), the effect-after-digestion, and potentially special effects (on a certain organ or disease for instance).

Nutrition is mainly selected based on its taste (Rasa) and effect-after-digestion (Vipaka). That’s why I will go a little deeper into these two concepts. Virya (energy) often determines the choice of (culinary) herbs and Prabhava (special effect) is an important reason for using an herb therapeutically.

If seeing all the exotic terms makes you a little worried by the way, thinking you can only eat Indian curries from now on, fear not! They can just as well be applied to, let’s say, smashed potatoes, or an apple, or even a dandelion, just to name a few. By gaining some insight into how to approach food, you can skill yourself in the art of preparing tailor-made meals. The smashed potatoes for example… By adding the right ingredients (or contrary, by deleting some elements) you can turn this dish into a balanced Ayurvedic meal. Kapha for example can add an extra pinch of pepper (sharp taste, sharp Vipaka). Vata does well on adding some extra almond milk and fat (both sweet with sweet Vipaka) to potatoes, while bitter green leaves as addition to this meal is a good choice for Pitta – that’s how easy it can be!

Ayurveda distinguishes six tastes (sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent), each with its own set of qualities and therapeutic actions. If you're not experiencing any health issues, advice is to include all tastes in your meal as a preventive tool. For each taste has its own task to perform in the body and influences the mind in an unique way. However, not all the tastes are to be taken in the same proportion. (Read more..)

Besides having a direct effect on the body through the sense of taste, food also has its specific action after being digested. An action that is mainly expressed when a certain product is used for a longer time. This is the concept of Vipaka, the effect-after-digestion. Ayurveda differentiates three types of Vipaka, I will illustrate them briefly. (Read more..)

All in all a lot of factors play a role in customizing a meal, because besides above aspects you also have to consider time of day, season, method of preparation, food combinations and more for the final effect. This may sound a bit overwhelming and complicated, but with a little help and insight into the different concepts, it becomes more and more logical soon. Thus enabling you to eventually adjust your food in a playful manner according to how you want to feel. Let your creativity run free and make cooking an art. Have fun!

PS: Hopefully not long from now you decisively choose the moisturizing and grounding soup, next time you’re experiencing dry skin and restlessness!