Dealing with Wrong Food Combinations

Dealing with Wrong Food Combinations

Largely it is more important to stick to consuming healthy foods in the right way (minimize cooking), at the right time and in the right quantity. The combinations going wrong once in a while or not too often are absolutely fine. Exercise in any form is a must.

It helps to have an inborn strong digestive fire. However, according to Dr Lad there a few ways of dealing with wrong food combinations and promoting digestion by -

• judicious use of spices and herbs in cooking;
• alleviating negative effects with antidotes like cardamom in coffee, ghee and black pepper with potatoes;

• eating half a teaspoon of fresh grated ginger with a pinch of rock salt before each meal stimulated digestion;

• taking small sips of warm water during a meal for digestion and absorption of food - iced water slows agni and is too shocking to the system;

• proper chewing of food;
• drinking a cup of lassi or buttermilk with ginger, cumin at the end of a meal to aid digestive process (1 part of curds added to 4 parts of water, churn curds in mixer, remove top layer of fat and serve);
• filling the stomach with one third foods, one third liquid, and keeping one third empty as the ideal way of eating;
• taking Lavan bhaskar churna after each main meal to help digestion; and
• consuming mineral rich water or alkaline water to neutralize the acidity of the stomach.

References:

1. Dr Vasant Lad & Usha Lad. �Ayurvedic Cooking For Self Healing�. The Ayurvedic Institute. Albuquerque, NM, 2003.
2. Dr S.P Kinjawadekar. �Hundred Years of Happy and Healthy Life through Ayurveda and Yoga�, Swami Prakashananda Ayurvedic Reserch Centre, Mumbai, 2002.
3. Dr Pratap Chuhan, Jiva Ayurveda.
4. Sharadini Dahanukar & Urmila Thatte � �Ayurveda Unravelled�2005