MY TOP FIVE: AYURVEDIC FOOD TO KEEP IN YOUR PANTRY

Ayurveda is an ancient and wholistic system from Indian that sees food as the first medicine to the body and the mind. It can highly help improve health and beauty (internal and external) by providing guidance regarding food and lifestyle choices. The recommandations are specific and they depend on a person’s constitution, which is also called Dosha. Basically, food is the fuel for health in Ayurveda. It establishes optimum digestion. On the contrary, poor nutrition can cause various diseases. Suffice to say that nutrition has to be based on fresh ingredients, a combination of vegetables and fruits, whole grains and spices that will boost energy and provide healing and skin replenishing on a daily basis.

Some ingredients are key to an ayurvedic lifestyle. Those come over and over again and, often than not, can be used for both cooking and beauty regime.

Here are my top five ingredients, indispensable for an ayurvedic pantry.

Ginger

Ginger has to be the star of ayurveda. It’s good for everything and on everything. It is rare that I start a day without a cup of warm ginger-lemon-honey infusion. Based on ancient ayurvedic archives, ginger helps boost digestion ; it also helps with blood circulation. It is quite spicy but incredible in taste once you learn how to incorporate it in your diet. 
Indians, West Indians and Africans use ginger in almost recipe. We put ginger in marinades for barbecues, sauces, stews, salads vinaigrettes…. It is especially good for vata and pitta constitutions because they do need more warmth than kaphas. Though kaphas will also need it to aid digestion. It really is a « universal ingredient » for medecine and beauty. 
Ah, and before I forget, I also use grated ginger sometimes when I do dry rubbing before showering – I mix with with sea salt to create a nice natural scrub. One last use for ginger is, if you need boost with digestion is to take a teaspoon of grated ginger with lemon and salt. I do it sometimes. Though, if, like me, you are a bit sensitive to pungent tastes, this mixture might be a bit spicy for you. But once you get used to the heat, it will make wonders to a particularly weaknened stomach.

Ghee

Ghee is also known as clarified butter. It is widely used in Indian cooking and gives wonderful taste to every meal. The advantages of ghee are numerous. Butter or regular oils can be heavy on the stomach and the hips, and lactose can be especially detrimental for those suffering from respiratory and/or skin allergies (which is my case). With ghee, you keep the creamy butter-like flavor, without all the bad stuff. Ayurveda recommends at least one teaspoon of ghee every day. 

Another use for ghee is that of a massage oil. At room temperature, the liquid hardens and becomes opaque in color. For daily ayurvedic abhyanga massages, simply add a few drops of your favorite essential oils and proceed to rub onto the skin.

Please find my video on how to make ghee from the comfort of your own home. You can’t be more organic than that. Plus, it’s super easy to do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxYQ6DS0WgY&feature=g-upl

Coconut oil

Is it even necessary to introduce this wonderful ingredient, used, once again, for beauty care and for food. The advantage of coconul oil in cooking is that it tolerates high heat, which gives it tremendous versatility. It is also a great anti-oxydant, which helps resist premature aging and degenerative diseases.

In an ayurvedic lifestyle, prefer a consistant yet moderate ingestion of coconut oil, so long as it is extra virgin, cold pressed and unrefined. Personally, my favorite use of coconut oil is for skin and hair care. Indian and Polynesian beauties (Vahinés, as they are called) use it for hair moisture and growth, but also for full body massages. 
I typically use coconut every day to massage my scalp, right before starting my abhy massage (ayurvedic massage). I also use it once a week, again on my hair, to saturate my entire head (scalp and hair length). If I can, I keep it through the night and proceed to my weekly shampoo or co-wash. Speaking for someone who suffered great damage on my hair from pregnancies and heat damage, I have seen tremendous improvement in my hair and incredible growth.

LEMONS

Lemons are body cleansers by excellence.They contain high levels of vitamin C and potassium ; their rind and pulp contain calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. They are good for stimulating gastric juices thus, helping the digestion. Personally, I am a bit stomach sensitive, so I prefer drinking lemon juice in the morning to help me burst with energy but almost never at night ; otherwise it causes fermentation in my stomach, with the gastric gaz’s acidity leaving me with stomach ache, throat irritation, watery eyes and sinus problems. 

When I wake up in the morning, though, I have a cup of warm water, in which I infuse fresh grated ginger, a dash of lemon juice and a squeeze of honey. The lemon and ginger boost immediately my digestive system, while the honey soothes my stomach, in addition to its sweet taste. I also use lemon in my facial masks ; it helps with dark spots caused by past acne scaring. Lemon is a good natural whitener. 

Back to cleansing, lemon is a good detox ingredient. You can have a glass of warm or lukewarm lemon water half an hour before eating. I personnally carry a full bottle of lemon infused-mineral water everywhere I go so I can drink it throughout the day.

Whole grains

Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel. They also retain the bran and germ. The refinement process gives food a finer texture, which helps prolong their shelf life, yet removes important nutrients such as B vitamins, fiber, iron, vitamin E, B, and folic acid. Whole grains are also rich in fiber, which can help you lose weight by making you feel fuller throughout the day and prevent overeating. 

In Ayurveda, the most important meal is lunch, which should be eaten between noon to 2pm. The reason for this is that a good lunch provides the necessary energy to go on with the day’s activities, while providing enough time awake and active to enable proper digestion. 

Overtime, I’ve had to alter my nutritional habits a bit to better suit my lifestyle, and, as much as possible, I try to favor whole grain ingestion during the day, rather than in the evening, before going to bed. Exception being when I plan a night out, which will require stocked energy to stay up and dancing all night long !