New Years Series (3/5): Stop Eating Bland Food

There’s a saying that you can pour the purest golden nectar into a chalice, but if the cup is dirty on the inside, then the quality of the nectar is irrelevant.

When it comes to food and your body, the same is true. You can eat the freshest, high-quality whole foods but if your digestive system is not in good shape, then your ability to process and assimilate the nutrients from your food is severely compromised. This is a key reason why Ayurveda and most other healing systems place such a strong focus on creating and maintaining a healthy gut.

This week, as many people focus on making changes to what they are eating, I am offering a five-part series on simple ways to boost your digestive capacity so that you can more optimally process the healthy foods you are consuming.

Part 3: Stop Eating Bland Food

In a pinch, roasting or sautéing your food in some olive oil with a little salt in pepper can make for a quick and easy meal, but over time you’re missing out on many opportunities to build your digestive fire (see part 1 for more on this concept).

Spices – particularly those that are slightly warming/heating – are a key ingredient to Ayurvedic cooking. When we spice our food, we are adding bits of kindling to our digestive fire, increasing its potency. And, as an added bonus, our food tastes more delicious! When we include varied tastes in our meals, the brain is stimulated and sends signals to the gut to prepare for the digestive work ahead. The more flavorful our food is, the stronger these signals are.

If you feel unsure of how to combine spices as you cook, consider using pre-mixed blends (like garam masala, curry powders and pastes, etc.) as you become more skilled in making up your own combinations. One of my favorite spice blends is the Moroccan staple ras-el-hanout, which pairs well with just about anything.

If you are hesitant to spice your food while cooking it, or are cooking for children or others who may be spice-averse, consider adding spice as a garnish to your food. In Ayurveda, medicinal spice blends called churnas are used to aid digestion and to help treat other conditions as well. Here is a recipe for an easy digestive churna, which can be made using all ground spices, no grinding needed:

Mix together the following in a small bowl, then keep in a clean, sealed jar:

1 t. ground coriander
1 t. ground fennel
½ t. ground cumin
½ t. turmeric powder

Add a pinch or two of churna to anything and everything – even things like salads, eggs, etc.

Lastly, if you don’t have spices with your food, you can always have them immediately following. Spices teas with cinnamon, clove, ginger and other warming ingredients are good post-meal beverages to keep on hand.

Alternatively, popping some spices directly into your mouth is a great option too! Have you ever noticed that Indian restaurants often have a small bowl of fennel seeds (sometimes candy-coated) available as you exit? This practice stems from Ayurveda. You can keep fennel seeds on hand and chew a few after eating for a digestive boost (added benefit: it freshens your breath too!) Feel free to mix the seed with a small amount of honey if the taste of the fennel alone is overpowering for you.

New Years 2017 Series (2/5): Slow Down

There’s a saying that you can pour the purest golden nectar into a chalice, but if the cup is dirty on the inside, then the quality of the nectar is irrelevant.

When it comes to food and your body, the same is true. You can eat the freshest, high-quality whole foods but if your digestive system is not in good shape, then your ability to process and assimilate the nutrients from your food is severely compromised. This is a key reason why Ayurveda and most other healing systems place such a strong focus on creating and maintaining a healthy gut.

This week, as many people focus on making changes to what they are eating, I am offering a five-part series on simple ways to boost your digestive capacity so that you can more optimally process the healthy foods you are consuming.

Part 2: Slow Down

Today’s tip sounds simple but can be quite hard to enact: slow down while you eat.

The key here is to chew each bite thoroughly. Our mouths are not just receptacles for receiving food, but also the starting place for the digestive process. When we chew food well, we break down cell walls and prepare foods for the journey ahead, where they get broken down even more. As we chew our food, we mix it with our saliva, which is full of enzymes that facilitate digestion. In other words, the more we chew, the more primed our food is to be broken down and absorbed thoroughly.

If you’re prone to eating fast, it can be hard to slow down. The best way to put this tip into action is by committing to putting down your fork/spoon (or setting  down handheld foods) between bites. Many of us have what I call “next bite syndrome,” where we are constantly preparing our next bite on our eating utensil before we’ve even chewed the food in our mouth. When we do this, we are more likely to plop the next bite in before we’ve thoroughly swallowed the previous bite.

If you practice slowing down regularly, you may just find you enjoy your food more too. When we eat mindfully, we have greater opportunity to tune into the unique flavors and textures of our food.

Give it a try at your next meal. And of course, be compassionate with yourself…it’s okay if you fall into normal habits, just commit to slowing down with the next bite. Each bite is a new opportunity to slow down and be mindful.

New Years 2017 Series (1/5): Don't Put Out Your Fire!

There’s a saying that you can pour the purest golden nectar into a chalice, but if the cup is dirty on the inside, then the quality of the nectar is irrelevant.

When it comes to food and your body, the same is true. You can eat the freshest, high-quality whole foods but if your digestive system is not in good shape, then your ability to process and assimilate the nutrients from your food is severely compromised. This is a key reason why Ayurveda and most other healing systems place such a strong focus on creating and maintaining a healthy gut.

This week, as many people focus on making changes to what they are eating, I am offering a five-part series on simple ways to boost your digestive capacity so that you can more optimally process the healthy foods you are consuming.

 

Part 1: Don’t Put Out Your Fire

In Ayurveda, the metabolic process is symbolized by fire (known as agni in Sanskrit). Fire is the energy of transformation, converting our food into absorbable components that the body can then use as sources of energy. If you’ve ever built a fire, you know that there is a delicate balance between not having enough wood/kindling, and having too much. So it goes with our gut.

Likewise, we all know what happens if we pour a giant bucket of cold water on a campfire. And yet, that is exactly what many of us are doing daily to our belly fire when we consume large amounts of cold liquids right around the time that we eat.

In Ayurveda, it’s recommended to avoid drinking much of anything within half an hour before or after meals. If you need to sip something, warm water is best. Ginger tea can be particularly beneficial for those with slower digestion.

Between meal times, I encourage you to skip ice water entirely. This is often a hard change to make, but one that can quickly be rewarding, not only for its digestive benefits but also for the increased energy you may reclaim. Think about: each time your douse your digestive fire with water, the body has to use energy to rekindle its fire (as well as to simply regulate internal body temperature).

I was never much of an ice water fan, but I did used to drink all my water from a filter pitcher I kept in my refrigerator. Once I switched to drinking only room-temperature water, I noticed some really profound shifts in my energy levels, especially after working out or other strenuous activities.

Every now and then, in the heat of summer or when traveling to a humid tropical locale, I will indulge in a glass of something frosty, but in general my body is much happier when I drink things close to body temperature. I usually lightly heat my water in an electric kettle and sip that throughout the day, often with some sliced lemon (especially in the mornings).

If you’re hooked on ice water, try reducing the amount of ice you use over 5-7 days, eventually omitting it altogether.  Then, stick to room temperature water only for a couple weeks and see how you feel. 

Kitchari & Matzoh: My Foods of Liberation

This week has been a time of deep reflection on both on food, as well as concepts like freedom and liberation. I led my annual spring cleanse and enjoyed a weeklong kitchari and juice fast, in the company of over 40 people who joined me for the journey. The experience always opens up channels of creativity and introspection for me, and leaves me feeling connected to food in a deeper way.

Kitchari, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a delicious (and easy-to-make) stew of spiced rice and mung beans that comes to us from India, where it is a staple food in the country’s ancient healing science, Ayurveda. Kitchari is the food your mother would give you when you’re sick, so it’s basically the Indian equivalent of chicken soup, and every bit as satisfying. It’s also the food that Ayurveda has used for hundreds of years both to help the body detox and to restore healthy digestive functioning.

I first discovered kitchari in 2007, on a visit to Los Angeles before I lived here. I went to a party where it was served and it was pretty much love at first bite. I adored the flavor, as well as the look of kitchari, a rich yellow thanks to ample amounts of turmeric. I returned home to Oakland and proceeded to eat kitchari for the next six weeks, even taking it to Burning Man and re-heating individual portions for my meals at the festival. At the end of that period, I was feeling the best I’d ever felt in my adult life. I knew I had stumbled on to something big.

In the years following, I did several kitchari cleanses, eating only kitchari and some complementary chutneys for flavor. I added different seasonal vegetables to my kitchari and delighted in making my own ghee to drizzle on to each piping hot bowl of the magic yellow porridge. I became a kitchari evangelist and prescribed it to my friends, who did things like break caffeine addictions and cut intense sugar cravings. In my own experience, I found that kitchari not only reduced cravings but also helped me to get really clear in my mind – it lifted my mental fog, which I sometimes did not even realize was present until after indulging in a few days of kitchari.

 In 2011, realizing the transformative power kitchari held, I started offering organized online group cleanses, and have continued to offer kitchari-based cleanses every spring and fall since. I’ve been amazed to hear the stories participants share of the many ways kitchari helps them to be free, including its power to help people lose weight that they thought was impossible to shed. One woman gave up her daily habit of fast food after eating kitchari and has gone two years without it.

Kitchari is truly a liberating food, helping us to transform various eating patterns and dietary choices for the better. Best of all, a kitchari cleanse, unlike a juice or smoothie cleanse, lets us eat comfort food and have a full belly. It was so liberating to me when I first realized that cleansing didn’t have to mean starvation and deprivation (which had been my experience on other cleanses).

This year, it so happened that the tail end of my spring cleanse butted right up against Passover, which is very fitting given that the holiday is a celebration of liberation. Eating kitchari for a week prior to last night’s seder felt like perfect preparation.

During the seder I attended last night, I came to see matzoh, the cracker-like bread that is a staple in Jewish homes during the holiday, in a whole new light. In my experience, it’s very easy to underappreciate matzoh. It is after all pretty bland and seems to always break apart as you bite into it, scattering crumbs in all directions. Growing up, I always saw matzoh as simply the vehicle to usher something more delicious into my mouth, whether it was charoset (an apple and walnut salad that is part of the seder) or my childhood favorite – cream cheese and raspberry jelly.

The story we all learn about matzoh is that at the time when the Jews had to flee Egypt in order to gain their liberation from the pharaoh who has enslaved them, they hit the road with pretty short notice, meaning there was no time for the women to let the dough rise for their daily bread. The story goes that the Jews brought the dough with them, and during their journey in the hot desert climate, it baked quickly into a crunchy flatbread. And so we eat it today in recognition of their efforts to provide us with freedom today.

Last night, I learned a new interpretation of matzoh’s symbolism, one that I love and that has redefined matzoh for me as another food of freedom. A guest at our seder shared that some people see matzoh’s flat quality as a reminder to not inflate our egos, to be humble. During the eight days of Passover, we can liberate ourselves from the grips of the ego, and each bite of matzoh is a reminder of that.

Happy pesach to those who are celebrating! And congratulations to everyone who is taking part in the spring cleanse who is nearly at the end of our weeklong journey. I’d love to know what foods inspire a sense of liberation for you – let me know in the comments below.