I am so excited to share another video with my beloved Ayurveda teacher, Dr. Jay! Since we are in the middle of winter and it is cold (very cold!) in many different parts of the country, we wanted to share some ways to adapt your diet for the season according to Ayurvedic principles.
As always your diet is very important, and especially important in this season. Ayurveda says that everything cools down around your body this time of year, because the outside environment is very cold. Due to this cooling of your environment, your body’s ability to produce heat has to increase to keep the balance. This creates the constant need to burn some calories to maintain your ideal body temperature.
If we don’t eat well in this season, our body can auto-catalyze its own tissues, which can cause you to lose muscle. Increasing the heat in your body can help you lose body fat, which is a great effect. This is why it is important to continue to exercise and be active in the winter to ensure you are creating heat in your body on a regular basis.
Also, this is a time of year more than others that toxicity can build within your body. This can happen due to the shift in the weather, as you may tend to want to eat heavier foods, which may end up being congestive in the body. It is important to nourish your body with foods that are heavier but also easily digestible as well.
What are the tastes for this winter season?
Dr. Jay suggests that the important dominant tastes for this season to incorporate are more sour, sweet and salty tastes into your diet to help sustain your health.
Sour Foods
A great example of sour foods to incorporate into your diet are fermented foods like raw sauerkraut (like my Probiotic & Enzyme Salad or Raw Beauty Slaw). You can incorporate some gluten-free sourdough bread into your diet as another option for a fermented, sour food as something that can be grounding (if you can source it).
You can also include fermented tofu, also know as tempeh. I love cooking with tempeh as it has a neutral taste that you can flavor to your liking with various spices and seasonings. It’s also an easy base to make super easy with- in under 5 minutes or so. Raw apple cider vinegar is also another great choice as a sour food and can be used in a salad dressing. Kombucha is another sour option. Kombucha is a black or green tea beverage that is fermented and lightly effervescent. Look for organic, low sugar varieties.
As a reminder, yogurt is a Beauty Detox no-no. You want to make sure you stay clear of all dairy products as dairy is a congestive food (not created or intended for human consumption). You can try coconut or almond milk-based yogurt though if you like! :)
Sweet Foods
When it comes to adding in some sweet foods this time of year, you can incorporate some brown rice. This may sound a little funny. Brown rice? Many of us may not think of rice as being a sweet, but upon digestion it actually is sweet forming. Brown rice also produces more heat for digestion as well. You can also use another Beauty Detox favorite: quinoa. Quinoa is another amazing grain you can have this time of year that is super simple and easy to make in large batches for the week.
As you can see, we are talking about the vipaka, or the post-digestive qualities of foods that produce madhura, or sweetness that can be nourishing. We are not talking about candies and cookies!!
Salty Foods
Seaweed is an amazing salty-tasting food that you can add into your rotation! It is actually pretty low in sodium however, and high in iodine and minerals. Sea vegetables like dulse, nori and hijiki are all great additions in moderation to add into your diet and lifestyle. You can temper the flavors of these sea veggies by eating them with other foods like quinoa. If you eat it by itself, it may be feel too salty for your gut, which can sometimes upset or aggravate your stomach.
Organic celery is a great source of organic sodium, or sodium contained within a whole food, which can add some natural saltiness to different dishes.
These are some great sweet, sour and salty choices for this season. Hope you guys had fun reading about them today!
Dr. Jay, thank you so much. We’ll bring you back soon for more wonderful Ayurvedic wisdom!
I hope you enjoyed these tips today beauties! Let me know in the comments below how you try adding in any of these tastes for the season. :)
Namaste,
Kimberly
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