How to eat in an Ayurvedic way

Try working your way through these guidelines bit by bit and you'll find your digestion and state of mind calm down and function smoothly...

Clean up your diet: reduce chemicals and preservatives, fast foods, fried foods, fermented, frozen, microwaved and leftover food.

Choose organic: Energetically, if the food produced is mistreated or contaminated with chemicals like antibiotics and petroleum-based pesticides, your consumption of them will absorb the negative energy experienced by these plants and animals, as well as the chemicals used.

Eat seasonally: Despite our microclimates of artificially controlled temperatures, indulge in fresh and cooling spring/summer foods in hot weather and warm cooked fall/winter foods in cold weather.

Take your time to eat: make the time to sit down and eat your meal without being disturbed or distracted. Relax and let yourself digest your food.

Eat according to your dosha: Eating foods that pacify your dosha, and avoiding those that aggravate it, will bring health and happiness to your digestion and your overall well-being. Click for your guideline of a Vata, Pitta, and Kapha pacifying diet.

Listen to your hunger: Don't let yourself feel starved before deciding to eat, and also stop eating before you are full. Small, dosha-friendly snacks are good but leave at least 2 hours between eating.

Choose whole, unrefined foods: The more refined grains, fruits and vegetables are, the less life force they have left to feed us wholely. Eliminate white sugar altogether, cook brown rice and bake with whole grain flours.

Small breakfast, big lunch, small dinner: Skipping breakfast throws off a full day's worth of listening to your hunger. Lunchtime is when your digestion is at its strongest, so feed yourself well at midday. A small dinner is easier to digest during the down-time of the evening hours, and gives you an appetite for breakfast the next morning.

Additional guidelines: Do not use honey for baking or cooking, as it should only be consumed raw (unpasteurized); Do not combine dairy and seafood; do not combine hot and cold foods, have one or the other; don't combine foods on your fork, eat one element of your meal at a time; digestion starts in your mouth, so chew slowly and completely; bitter and astringent herbs and foods are excellent tonics and should be consumed often but in small quantities. And soups and stews are the most digestible kinds of foods because ingredients are cooked together and create a harmony of qualities.