With origins in India, the Ayurvedic diet touts every root as medicinal and claims to formulate menus that induce proper digestion and facilitate maximum nutrient absorption. The Ayurvedic method, among the world's oldest medicinal systems, recommends eating a minimal amount of raw foods, learning about the medicinal properties of herbs before consumption and avoiding food combinations deemed antagonistic. Cumin, turmeric and ginger represent some common spices used in Ayurvedic recipes.
Tastes
The Ayurvedic diet consists of six primary tastes corresponding to locations on the tongue. Sweet promotes strength and nourishment of your body's tissues. Sour and pungent tastes improve digestion. A salty taste maintains your water electrolyte balance. An astringent taste aids in nutrient absorption and bitter stimulates all other tastes.
Characteristics
Practioners of the Ayurvedic dietary and medicinal system recognize food as having four basic qualities. Ras means taste, while virya is the potency. Vipak is the effect after digestion and prabhav represents the foods pharmacological effect.
Considerations
Your dosa, or body constitution, influences many decisions regarding your personalized Ayurvedic diet, including the portions and frequency with which you should eat. It's recommended that a person with a pitta dosa eat her largest meal at noon, while a kapha should skip breakfast and vata's should eat smaller more frequent meals.
Features
The Ayurvedic diet recognizes water as a necessary part of nutrition and sustaining life. In this way of eating, water is not prohibited under any circumstance, but restrictions may apply depending on your health condition. During meals, those on an Ayurvedic diet should consume only small quantities of water so as not to interfere with digestive juices.
Treatment
Your treatment may include a personalized diet formulated by an Ayurvedic practitioner. You may be asked to avoid certain items such as spicy, fried or fermented foods and add others such as carrots or buttermilk, according to the Center for Spirituality & Healing and the Life Science Foundation of the University of Minnesota. The foundation provides information on alternative health issues such as integrative health care and guidance for creating a healthy lifestyle.
Preventative
Ayurvedic practitioners say the diet can treat disease and address genetic conditions and unhealthy choices such as cigarette smoking. The International Society for Ayurveda and Health at the University of Connecticut also touts it as a natural preventative approach to aging.
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