Ayurvedic Nutrition Principles
Lesson 4
*We had trouble with the audio the first 18 minutes of the video below. If you find that you cannot understand, you can skip to 18:00. You’ll find the sound is much better then.
Course Objectives
Ayurveda is unlike a fad diet. Ayurvedic dietary practices encourage conscious living. Ayurveda is a way of embracing food as life-giving energy, and a way of understanding how your individual nature and the influences around you determine how well your food will serve you. Ayurveda explains that your dietary needs and your digestion are affected by the rhythms of nature and the changes that occur in your life. Living an Ayurvedic lifestyle is to make food choices that are based not only on your original Dosha but according to the quality of the food, the current season and your location. Example: the influence of a hot, heavy, humid, Florida summer day can be balanced by a cool, light, dry, leafy-green salad.
The time of day also has its influence according to Ayurveda. 10 am to 2 pm is the period dominated by Pitta (fire and water) and is considered the best time of day to eat your largest and most complex meal as your digestive fire or Agni is strongest. The cycle of life is yet another determining factor in conscious eating. As we grow older we enter the Vata (air and ether) time of our lives, Agni may weaken and vital tissues become dryer. By eating smaller, more frequent, warm, moist and nutrient-rich meals, like hearty soups, you can maintain a balanced state of health.
As a practice based on science and spirit, Ayurveda encourages you to prepare and eat your food in a peaceful, loving and pleasant environment; and to greet your food with reverence, acknowledging its source with gratitude.
The enduring principles of Ayurveda beautifully express the essential nature of eating mindfully and gratefully as a path to living healthfully and happily.
In today’s lesson, you are going to explore the amazing world of Ayurvedic Nutrition.
- Listen to the Video Lesson
- Complete the Homework / Journal Assignment
- Complete the Case Study Practical Exercise
Lesson Downloads
Case Study Practical Exercise
In Ayurveda, perfect health is defined as “a balance between body, mind, spirit, and social wellbeing.” In fact, the twin concepts of balance and connectedness echo throughout Ayurvedic texts, thought, and practice.
Nothing is right for everyone, everything is right for someone. Ayurveda avoids the “everybody must” dogma in favor individually tailored food programs to meet the needs of individuals. With a proper diet and lifestyle, Ayurveda’s goal is to help each person reach their maximum potential, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Assess a friend, family member or client and design a protocol using everything you have learned up to this point and include Ayurvedic Nutrition principals.
Homework
For this module, Ayurvedic Nutrition, all of your homework assignments (excluding the final exam) are journal exercises and therefore you do not need to submit your assignments to Yoga Veda Institute. They are for your own records.
In your journal, answer the following questions:
1. Create an Ayurvedic meal plan designed to pacify Vata Dosha. Include recipes + ingredients for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 1 day.
2. Create an Ayurvedic meal plan to balance Pitta Dosha {please include recipes + ingredients for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 1 day}. Include recipes + ingredients for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 1 day.
3. Create an Ayurvedic meal plan to balance Kapha Dosha. Include recipes + ingredients for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 1 day.
4. Create an Ayurvedic meal plan to balance a dual dosha (you choose which 2 doshas you’ll pacify). Include recipes + ingredients for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 1 day
5. Case Study Assignment Practical Exercise (see above)
Bonus Resources
