07/02/2024
Summer is here! You may enjoy hot summer days or wilt and groan in the sun! According to Ayurveda, this is partly because of your constitution (Prakriti) or imbalance (vikrati). Summer is Pitta Season (the principle of fire and water) and is normally a time to go on vacation, swim, barbeque, play outdoors, sip cool drinks, and meet up with friends!
Here are five simple tips to help you beat the heat with Ayurveda
Eat Pitta pacifying foods, hydrate enough, and avoid hot drinks. Cut back on spicy, sour, salty, and heated foods, fried food and processed food, vinegar, and too much alcohol or red meat. Favor astringent, sweet, and bitter tastes that palliate pitta. Try cooking in the morning instead of in a hot kitchen during midday. Have light or moderately heavy, cool, and bland food, sweet fruits and salads; vegetables like leafy greens, summer squashes, cauliflower, and cucumber; grains like basmati rice, oats, quinoa, and barley; legumes like mung beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, and split pea; water-rich and sweet fruits such as melons, grapes, berries, peaches and pears; cooling spices like cilantro, mint, dill, fennel, and coriander; oils like coconut, avocado oil and ghee and all unrefined sweeteners in moderation (except honey and molasses).
Stay hydrated! Replace (sour) lemon juice with (bitter) lime. Other refreshing drinks are milk, rose water (sherbet) or rose milk, coconut water, buttermilk, pomegranate juice, lemonade, and hibiscus-mint herbal tea. Avoid hot water or drinks that are too hot. Lukewarm or cool tea is better than coffee.
Eat at regular meal times to avoid pitta accumulation (acidity, headaches, heat rashes, inflammation, and irritability)
Recipe: Ayurvedic Buttermilk (Takra)
Combine one cup of organic homemade or Greek yogurt and two cups of water in a blender. Add Β½ tsp of roasted cumin and ΒΌ tsp of Himalayan Salt (or to taste and a pinch of dry ginger is optional). Garnish with coriander or mint leaves and serve at room temperature. Packed with probiotics and electrolytes, Takra is a refreshing drink useful in many health conditions, particularly digestive disorders.
Health and wellness