Vegetarian Balance

Question: Depuis le mois d’avril, j’ai décidé de devenir végétarien. ….
Cette démarche se fait en douceur, grâce à des lectures (de votre livre entre autres). Cependant, je souffre de plus en plus de ballonnements. J’ai toujours été sujet à ce type de maux, mais ils s’amplifient depuis mon nouveau régime alimentaire. J’ai pourtant réduit mon apport en levure en consommant moins de pain. Par ailleurs, je prends du poids. J’ai lu que cela pouvait être le cas chez certains végétariens… Pourtant j’essaie d’avoir une alimentation équilibrée et je ne mange pas du tout entre les repas…

Réponse: Des ballonnements indiquent souvent que vous ne digérez pas bien ce que vous mangez. Par exemple, si vous avez commencé à manger plus de légumineuses qu’avant, il se peut que votre corps ne soit pas habitué à les digérer. Ajouter des épices comme le cumin, le gingembre, le fenouil  et le curcuma peut vous faciliter la digestion. Pour vous dire plus j’aurais besoin de savoir exactement ce que vous mangez et comment vous mangez.

Pour la prise de poids  j’ai trop peu d’éléments pour vous répondre de façon efficace. Néanmoins, il est vrai que votre corps est en phase de transition. Il peut donc y avoir un côté émotionnel à votre prise du poids.

Dans un premier temps, je vous propose de télécharger la feuille alimentation qui se trouve dans la partie “Ressources” depuis mon site pour noter ce que vous mangez et comment vous vous sentez après un repas. Je vous propose aussi de faire “l’exercice de conscience” dans mon livre “Recettes ayurvédiques faciles“.

Souvent lorsqu’une personne commence à manger végétarien, elle mange plus de produits laitiers qu’avant. Les produits laitiers peuvent provoquer des problèmes digestifs, entre autres des ballonnements, surtout si vous êtes intolérant au lactose. Le fromage dur peut être une exception puisqu’il y a beaucoup moins de lactose que dans d’autres produits laitiers.

According to Ayurveda, a person in good health will not be affected by even the most contagious disease because natural resistance to disease is part of being in good health.

In Ayurveda, immunity is dependant on the digestive fire,  our capacity to digest and assimilate  nutrients. If your body is healthy the immune function is strong and foreign bodies are destroyed and removed so that it can return towards a state of homeostasis. If your body is not healthy, foreign bodies can survive in that environment. Toxins from undigested food also provide a favourable environment for foreign bodies.

So, how can you improve your eating habits and lifestyle choices to enhance digestion. Here are a few dietary, lifestyle and yoga tips to set you on the right track for enhanced immunity this autumn.

Dietary tips to enhance digestion

Be aware of

• how you digest (how do you feel after a meal? light, satisfied?)
• the size of your portions and when you have eaten enough
• the foods you eat – do they suit your constitution ?

In Ayurveda, foods such as milk, ghee or clarified butter and honey  (in moderation) are also considered important for enhancing immunity.

Other suggestions:

• Include many fresh organic fruits, vegetables, nuts, and beans in your diet. To get the nutrients for an enhanced immune function, make sure that there’s always plenty of fresh organic produce around.

• Sip hot water or ginger tea throughout the day but not during mealtimes to enhance your digestive capacity.

• Reduce your sugar intake and alcohol, both of which affect the activity of white blood cells

Lifestyle tips
There are several lifestyle choices that can tip the scales towards either illness or health. Try the following ideas to help boost a healthy immune system:

• Be regular with your mealtimes so that the body is prepared for periods when it will be nourished.
• Maintain a healthy body weight (ideally BMI between 20 -25) Being underweight or overweight places stress on your organs and body functions, thus adversely affecting the immune function.
• Have a good night’s sleep
• Exercise regularly – 3-5 times a week for 30 minutes is the recommended minimum

Yoga tips

• Savasana, the basic relaxation position, can help to reduce stress, lower blood pressure and heart rate, reduce muscular tension, reduce fatigue, improve sleep, and enhance immune response.
• regular meditation e.g. simply sit in a quiet place for a short period each day
• do alternate nostril breathing to balance the mind and body and boost immunity

Many of the practices to support good health and immunity are intertwined. Lowering stress levels can help you to sleep more soundly and choose more nutrious foods. Sleeping more soundly can give you more energy to exercise. Ayurveda’s holistic approach can help you develop a lifestyle that is good for your body and your mind while supporting health and immunity.

Most common health issues such as colds, sinus issues, fatigue, at this time of year are associated with the winter season. In Ayurveda this is the season of Kapha and we have a tendancy to feel sluggishness at all levels. Because of the wet, cold and heavy energy of Kapha it’s a time when many of us feel sluggish and tired.
Good nutrition is only one aspect on the path to achieving fuller health. Cleansing or a detox of the body is also important, especially if you’re feeling tired and drained. Let me share with you 3 longstanding simple strategies that I use on a regular basis to boost vitality and relieve fatigue.

Doing neti
This is a technique I do practically every morning and one which has been used for a long time by yoga practitioners, particularly to enhance deep breathing.

Benefits of doing neti

* By enhancing breathing capacity, it increases general vitality and prevents fatigue.
* It clears out blockages, for example, during a cold, asthma, thereby relieving breathing difficulties
* It cleanses the sinuses and the mucous membrane of dust and allergens, i.e. pollen.
* It regulates the nasal secretion so that the mucous membrane, important for the immune system, can move out invading particles and micro-organisms.
* It can help to give us breathing space to deal with emotional and psychological issues in our lives.

Benefits of using a neti pot when doing neti

* It is an important tool for cleansing the sinuses, increasing breathing capacity and enhancing general vitality.
* It is easy and safe to use
* It is much more pleasant to pour lukewarm than cold water into your nostrils.
* It’s ecological.
* It’s good value for money

When to use your neti pot
The best time to use it is first thing in the morning shortly after getting up.
You can also use it before going to bed to help prevent snoring and produce a deeper and more relaxing sleep.
However, you can also use it whenever you feel congested and want to breathe more easily.

Skin brushing

This second technique is another favourite of mine which I do primarily in the winter and spring. Let me explain why.
Skin brushing

* can help maintain healthy muscle tone
* stimulates the circulation and the lymphatic system, important for the immune system
* removes dead skin cells for smoother and more radiant skin
* invigorates the body through the massaging strokes of the bristles
* can be used in a cleansing programme. Excess waste moves into the solar plexus area, where the toxic fluid is drained into the intestines and excreted from the body.

What type of brush?
A brush that is good quality and made with a natural fibre. One with a long handle is great to get to those hard-to-reach areas of the back.

When?
The best time to skin brush is in the early morning, before washing and dressing, although any time is fine. For some people it’s too stimulating before bedtime. You’ll feel invigorated and refreshed each day after just five minutes’ skin brushing.

Epsom Salts Bath

This third technique is one I use regularly throughout the year. Some of the benefits include:

* it is inexpensive and easy to buy – from any chemist
* it relaxes the blood vessels and the muscles and, for ladies, it is good for period pains.
* it is a highly alkalizing mineral, so great for a detox programme
* it can help to alleviate stress
* it results in deep refreshing sleep

When?
Do this at night before going to bed. Have a relaxing bath. In morning do skin brushing to remove dead cells from the bath, then take a shower.

These techniques are simple and important first steps if you want to overcome fatigue in 2010. The important thing is to get into a rhythm. And for those of you who want to take faster steps towards fuller health I can help you with this programme.

What next? Fix a time to get the tools you need to start these techniques.
Start doing them. Feel free to post further questions or share your comments below.

With the holiday season most of us would have eaten not only more frequently and more than usual but probably much richer foods so we can easily answer this question for ourselves. However, what can we do when we’re feeling bloated and tired?

The issue of being bloated and tired is one which I teach clients to solve throughout the year. And to help you enjoy the rest of the holiday season, let me share ny 5 favourite solutions from Ayurveda nutrition and yoga:

1. Leave 3-4 hours between meals so that your digestive system has time to rest.
2. Go for a short walk  or sit in the yoga pose, Vajrasana for 10-15 minutes after eating your meal.
3. Drink as little as possible while eating.  If thirsty sip on some warm water or herbal tea.  Add a slice of lemon for your tastebuds and your liver!
4. Take your time to savour each mouthful and to give your stomach time to indicate that it is full to your brain.
5. Spice up each meal to improve digestion and stop you feeling bloated and tired.  If you’re out sprinkle a generous amount of black pepper or ask for the tabasco sauce.

Use these solutions to help you feel less bloated and tired over the holiday period and in the coming New Year. I’d love to know how you get on so please share your comments below.

Do you feel bloated and tired all the time? Are you ready to deal with why you ask yourself “Why am I bloated and tired” to get your 2010 off to a dynamic start?
Sign up to receive the FREE report “5 Nutritional Keys to Vitality in Your Life“.

Growing up I always associated cinnamon with sweet dishes and still like to add it to cooked apple. Apart from its very pleasant flavour, this spice is a strong anticeptic and can be used to sweeten the breath, purify the mouth and throat and strengthen the gums. It is also considered to lower blood sugar levels and ease colds.

Cinnamon is said to originate from the cinnamon tree, a small tree mainly grown in Sri Lanka. However, the dried bark of the cassia tree is native to South India. Cinnamon is one of the oldest spices because it is mentioned in the Egyptian scrolls, sanskrit texts and the Bible.

Ayurveda Advice

In Ayurveda it is good for Kapha and Vata because it is heating. Cinnamon has the sweet, pungent and astringent tastes. It helps to promote digestion and eases flatulence and indigestion. Useful for those of a weak constituion, it can be used with chamomile for stomach upsets.

Tip: Once bought store your cinnamon sticks in the dark in an air-tight jar. The taste of cinnamon powder is stronger but its flavour fades more quickly.

Recipe Time! – Spice Tea Muffins

2 handfuls dried fruit e.g. raisins, apricots, dates, figs (soaked – overnight if possible – and cut into pieces)
125 mls non-refine olive oil
125 grs unrefine cane sugar
200 mls Rooiboish tea
300 grs spelt/kamut flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1.      Pre-heat the oven at Gas Mark 4 (350-375°F,180 – 190°C).
2.      Put individual paper muffin cases in a muffin tin.
3.      Put all the dry ingredients – flour, cinnamon, cardamom, bicarbonate of soda – (except the sugar) into one bowl and mix.
4.      Put the wet/moist ingredients – soaked dried fruit, oil, water,  – and the sugar into another bowl and mix.
5.      Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl containing the wet ingredients.
6.      Mix well. The mixture will fall easily from the spoon.
7.      Pour the mixture into the baking tin.
8.      Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes. You will be able to smell the muffins when they are ready.

What’s next?

1. Go shopping for the ingredients you don’t have – organic if possible.
2. Make and start enjoying the cake and share your experiences with us.

Cumin is a popular spice in Indian and Caribbean cooking, where it is also known as jeera/gheera. It is typically used with other spices such as ginger and turmeric to make a curry – a mixture of spices.

When consumed cumin has a heating effect in the body. It is pungent and bitter in taste and is suitable for easing stomach disorders, flatulence, colic and indigestion. It also stimulates the appetite, increases digestion and absorption and is a blood purifier.

Originally it came from the Mediterranean and its seeds are often confused with those of its relative caraway. The black cumin used in Indian or Caribbean cooking is smaller and stronger in flavour and grows wild in the Himalayas.

Uses in Ayurveda

In Ayurveda cumin is typically used in a simple dish called kitcharee (see “Spice up Your Life – II) that is part of a cleansing diet. Its energy is fine for all body types.

Tip: Buy cumin seeds whole because they have more flavour and keep for longer. When you need cumin powder you can dryroast ehm and grind them into powder.

Recipe Time! – Red lentil dahl (taken from “Recipes for Autumn” booklet)

150 gr red lentils
½ litre water
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp cumin powder
Fresh ginger, cut into fine slices
Sesame oil
Salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper

Wash the lentils until the water is clear.

Put them in a pot with the water and turmeric.

Bring to the boil and leave boiling for 10 to 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes add the salt, fresh ginger and the spices and a generous quantity of sesame oil.

Cover and leave to simmer for approximately 10 more minutes.

What next?

1. Go shopping for lentils and cumin – organic if possible.
2. Start enjoying the dahl soup and share your experiences with us here.

Turmeric is one spice which has received a lot of good press, particularly for its role in helping to beat cancer. In his book “Anti-cancer“, the doctor David Servan-Schreiber indicates that turmeric is
« a spice with astonishing properties … one of the most common ingredients used in Ayurvedic medicine for its anti-inflammatory properties. »

Turmeric has a heating action on the body but it also cleans the blood and stimulates the formation of new blood tissue. It is good for hyperacidity and helps heal stomach ulcers.

This root spice probably came from Indonesia and Malaysia where it has been consumed for thousands of years. Arab traders then brought it to Europe.

It is sold in powder form after being cooked and dryed. With the balancing effect it has on all, turmeric enhances digestion, especially of proteins, and increases the metabolism. Black pepper improves turmeric’s action to help it pass through the intestinal wall and thus be much easier to assimilate into the body.

Advice in Ayurveda

In Ayurveda, it has long been know that turmeric has many healing properties which include antiseptic, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory especially for arthritis and skin disorders. It is pungent and bitter in taste and can ease liver and stomach complaints and improve intestinal flora. A pinch of turmeric is also said to make it easier to digest milk.

Tip: Once you have bought turmeric it’s best to store it in the dark.

Recipe Time!

- Simple kitcharee (or rice & lentils)

(adapted from my book “Plans for dinner?”)

Serves 4 (as side dish)

100 grams basmati rice
100 grams red lentils
pinch salt
water (2x the amount of rice and lentils)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1. Wash the rice and the lentils until the water is clear (at least 4 times).
2. Put the rice, lentils, salt, turmeric and water into a pot and stir well.
3. Bring everything to the boil and keep boiling for 5 minutes.
4. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Cover, turn off the heat and leave to rest.
6. Serve with sautéed vegetables or salad for a simple meal.

What next?
1. Enjoy this dish and share your experiences with us below.

In Ayurveda spices and herbs play a special role in maintaining health because they enhance digestion, and thus our ability to absorb nutrients and energy from our food.

As we move towards a cooler season, ginger is an excellent spice to include in our diets. Not only is it a spice that most people enjoy in one form or another – fresh, dried, in power form, crystallised – it is also versatile. It stimulates the appetite and also provides relief for allergies and other respiratory complaints. And its heating effect on the body helps to improve circulation.

Ginger originally comes from South-East Asia but is now grown in most tropical countries. For centuries this root has been well known for its aromatic and medicinal properties, which include relief from flatulence and, when in the form of a herbal tea, relief from colds or coughs.

It works on all the tissues, enhances protein digestion and reduces the effect of uric acid after eating proteins. It aids digestion by promoting the secretion of gastric juices and eases swelling, rhematic pain and migraine headaches.

Advice in Ayurveda

Fresh ginger root is considered better for Vata and the dried root better for Kapha because the increased heat in the dried form helps to stimulate the inertia and dry the cool. Ginger has the pungent and neutral/sweet tastes and is considered good for all body types – (use very modestly for Pitta). It is useful to have handy when travelling since it provides relief from travel sickness and nausea, jet lag and general weakness.

Tip: When you are buying ginger look for a firm root that is not fibrous. Store in the fridge.

It’s Recipe Time!
Ginger & lemon tea
This is a cleansing and refreshing drink that can be drunk hot or at room temperature. It is best drunk approximately one hour before or after eating.

Juice of one lemon
3-4 cm fresh ginger root

1. Peel the ginger
2. Put it into approximately 2 litres water.
3. Boil for 15-20 minutes.
4. Add the lemon juice and serve.

What’s  next?

1. Go shopping for fresh ginger and lemons – organic if possible.
2. Start enjoying the tea and share your experiences with us below.

With the summer season, we often go for juices as a simple and healthy option. In Ayurveda it is considered preferable to consume the whole fruit or vegetable, but during the summer season and as part of a balanced diet, it could be useful for you to juice rather that eat fruit and vegetables whole.

Let me share with you 3 reasons why.

1.Each of us needs raw foods every day, and juicing is an excellent way to make certain you receive large quantities of such raw foods, probably more than you normally would otherwise.
2.Many of us have relatively compromised intestines as a result of poor food choices over many years. This limits our bodies’ ability to absorb all the nutrients from fruits and vegetables. Juicing tends to facilitate this absorption.
3.A few glasses of fresh juice each day is a great way to increase the nutrient density of our diets. There aren’t too many people who manage to eat a pound of raw carrots a day. But anyone can squeeze in an eight-ounce glass of juice.
Fruit juicing is certainly good for you, but it has one disadvantage over vegetable juicing: fruit juice tends to increase insulin levels when consumed. Carrot or beet juice function similarly to fruit juice.

So now you’re ready to have more juice, remember the following:

Avoid store-bought juices

Processed juices bear very little resemblance to fresh juice, either nutritionally or aesthetically. Store-bought juices tend to be pasteurized, a process that involves heating the juice at very high temperatures to maximize shelf life. While pasteurization is necessary to prevent spoiling, it destroys many of the juice’s fragile vitamins.

Drink juice as fresh as possible

Juice is best drunk freshly juiced. Vegetable juice is one of the most perishable foods there is and ideally it would be best to drink all of your juice immediately. Within a half-hour is best. Juices stored in the refrigerator lose their nutritional value rather quickly. As soon as a fruit or vegetable is processed in your juicer, the natural enzymes in the juice begin to break down the other nutrients.

Go for variety

It is very important to not have the same vegetables every day. The chances are quite high that if you keep juicing the same vegetables for any significant length of time you will become allergic to them. Variety is king.

Exercise:

1. Start the day with a freshly squeezed juice or a glass of fresh almond milk for the next 3 weeks.
2. Share your comments and experiences below.

I started out as a student vegetarian, admittedly because it was cheaper but also because a college friend of mine was vegetarian and her food was always delicious and interesting. I spent my early vegetarian days eating a lot of lentils and dairy products and a certain amount of soy-based products like many who transition from a meat-based diet. At that time my main reason for being a vegetarian was my dislike of how animals are kept and killed.

Moving to Switzerland saw a new start to my vegetarian phase. I soon took the decision to become a lacto-vegetarian, someone who eats dairy products (one fondue a year is a must, even though my mucus levels increase afterwards!) . However, most of my food is now plant-based, so closer to that of a vegan. My reasons have also changed. One of main reasons I now choose to be vegetarian is simply because of how good I feel and the amount of energy I have when I eat this way.