Keeping the Digestive Fire Burning

Yep, it’s getting colder outside.  But have you noticed any changes inside? The cold and dryness outside means we need to create our own heat inside, and within ourselves. In Ayurveda, the inner heat that transforms our thoughts, perceptions and, yes, food, is called agni.

Strong, healthy agni means food is broken down and utilized efficiently. Hand-in-hand with strong digestion is strong elimination (you know what I mean). Ideally, what we take in as food is broken down, absorbed, assimilated, and the balance eliminated. 

But what if our agni is poor and our digestion and elimination is sluggish? During the colder, less active time of year, this may be an issue. Sure, we may feel a little uncomfortable, but is it really important? 

Yes. According to the ancient health science of Ayurveda, much, if not most, of disease begins in the digestive system. The toxic product of poorly digested food, ama, is sort of like an undesirable neighbor. It originates in our digestive system and then travels our body searching for a home, eventually settling in the areas not strong enough to keep it out: our bodies weakest tissues. Our lifestyle and/or heredity can determine what these weak tissues are. Heart, lungs, skin, joints...ama will find a hangout where there is a vacancy shingle. And once it settles in, there goes the neighborhood; disease is soon to follow.

Many of us aren’t really in-tune with our inner workings. Our digestive system may have the pizzaz and gusto of a snail and we wouldn’t notice. But clearly, we want to keep the neighborhood safe and happy...so it’s worth getting a little sensitive to what’s going on. What are the tell-tail signs of poor digestion?

• Lack of appetite
• Over-fullness after eating
• Tiredness after eating
• Bloating and/or gas
• Irregular (less than once a day) bowel movements
• Small, hard or otherwise constipated BMs

Any of these sound uncomfortably familiar? This is such an important topic that we will be offering more on the subject in future blogs. In addition, I will be offering a workshop, Cultivating Healthy Digestion with Ayurveda on Wednesday, 11/14 at 1:00pm. We will discuss ama and ways to reduce it, and tips to keep digestion strong. Register here.

A Grounding Seasonal Dessert

I tend to dislike raw food, and according to Ayurveda, vattas like myself should cook their food. Fruits and vegetables should be warm and cooked, especially this time of year, when the weather gets cooler and drier. If you find your vatta imbalanced (think scattered, energy swings, lack of focus, feeling overly cold and dry) your food should be cooked, warm, and comforting.

So, when our resident culinary yogi Theresa Mikuls sent me this recipe using seasonal apples, I was excited!! This is a way to eat local, seasonal fruit, and still feel that warm, happy, yummy feeling.

Remember, scroll down to the bottom of the recipe for more Ayurvedic tidbits about the ingredients.


Honey Crisp Apple Cobbler with Almonds

Gluten Free serves 6

5 large Honey Crisp Apples (or your favorite apple)
1 cup rice flour (brown rice flour has more nutrients)                                    
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar                  
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon or more of extra virgin olive oil          
¼ cup coconut oil                                  
¼ cup Almond Paste (not almond filling)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
¼ cup ground flax seed
1 teaspoon of lemon zest (the yellow rind only)
1 large egg beaten
3 teaspoons water or apple juice

Method 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a mixing bowl add rice flour, baking powder, salt, coconut oil, almond paste, lemon zest, ground flax seed, cinnamon and allspice. Mix these ingredients together with a pastry cutter or use a fork. The clobber mixture will have a pea shaped consistency.

Beat egg in a separate bowl and add water or juice.  Add liquid to dry mixture and stir with a fork to lightly combine.

Peel, core and cut the apples into slices. Add one teaspoon of olive oil to a skillet over medium heat. Add I tablespoon of sugar add the apple chunks. Slightly caramelize the apples to brown the natural juices  to bring up the flavor.

Add topping and bake at 350 degree until the apples are soft and the topping starts to brown slightly.
Serve with fresh cream or gluten-free ice cream (if you're avoiding gluten).

Apples: As mentioned above, Vattas should consume these cooked, but Pittas and Kaphas can enjoy raw as well.

Almonds: They have a sweet and warming effect. The heat and heaviness is great for Vattas, but not so great for the Pitta and Kaphas amongst us.

Allspice: Pungent and heating, good for Vatta and Kapha, but Pittas may want to skip this. Stimulates agni, the fire of digestion (great in winter!)

Cinnamon: All around good spice, safe even for Pittas and Kaphas. Warming and sweet, stimulates digestion, relieves congestion and coughs, detoxifying.

(If the Vatta, Pitta, and Kapha references make you scratch your head, consider our Ayurveda 101 online video...available till 11/12. Click here to access. )

What else can you do with a pumpkin?

I remember talking to a vegetable-phobic friend several years ago in the spring, when I was planting my garden. I asked him what he would suggest I put in and he thought about it, then answered "pumpkins". I said, "Why? You don't eat pumpkins?" He just nodded and took another sip from his beer.

Well, a few years after that I decided to figure out just what culinarily could be done with a pumpkin. Besides pie. And, do it from an actual pumpkin, not from a can.

Thank goodness I went on that quest, because otherwise I may not have found the below recipe.

The first thing that may give pause is that it involved chunking up an actual pumpkin. This may seem difficult, until you think of it as a funny-looking cantaloup. Treat it similarly. Here are some steps.

1. Use a clean, smaller, baking pumpkin. You will probably get about twice as much ingredient from this as you really need. Pop the rest of the chunks in a plastic bag and into the freezer. Label, so you don't confuse it with fruit (blahgh.)

2.  Twist off the stem, or if that's tough, use a large cleaver to slice off the top of the pumpkin with the stem.

3.  Stand upright, and cut in halve, top to bottom.

4.  Scoop out the seeds. If you can, save them for roasting. Don't worry about scraping the inside perfectly clean. We will come back to that later.

5.  Lay half cut side up and slice into thin wedges. Then, cut them in half the narrow way so they form pie-shapes.

6. With a paring knife, skim off the slimy gut leftovers. Then, slice the thin outer skin off, as though you were slicing the rind off a cantaloup.

7. Chunk.

There is a little up-front work, yes, but this will make a good amount of soup, can be frozen, and is so healthy and good, it's well worth the effort. Scroll down to the bottom to see the benefits of some of the ingredients. My thanks to Dr. Oz for providing this great recipe.


Dr. Oz Indian Roasted Pumpkin Soup

2 cups pie pumpkin, chopped
4 shallots
2 carrots, chopped
1 Granny Smith Apple, pealed and sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. turmeric
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup coconut milk

Preheat oven to 425F
Toss together: pumpkin, shallots, carrots, apple, onion, garlic olive oil, coriander, cumin and turmeric
Spread mixture into 18″ X 12″ pan
Roast for about 30 minutes until vegetables are tender
(I often do the above the day before, cool, and reheat after blending as below)
Transfer mixture to blender
Add broth and coconut milk to it
Close blender cover, with center part removed
Season with 1/4 tsp. each, salt and pepper
Makes 5 cups or 6 servings

Pumpkin is balancing to vata and pitta dosha.
Coconut milk helps balance pitta.
Cumin, turmeric and coriander improve digestion.
Turmeric and garlic helps soothe coughs and congestion.
Turmeric is anti-inflammatory.

What's so wonderful about Ayurveda?

Answer: The way it makes you feel.

Ayurveda does not accept that it is normal to feel poorly, even in little ways. If you are in balance, you feel energetic, alert, calm, and content.

We each have our own personal "balance", our own unique constitution. This constitution is made up of varying amounts of the five basic elements. (We are natural creatures, of the earth, remember?) These elements are air, ether, earth, fire and water. Once we learn which elements are dominant in us, we can develop lifestyle rhythms that support our own unique balance.

For example, say you fill out an Ayurvedic questionnaire about your physical and mental tendencies, and find you have a lot of fire in your constitution. In life you may notice your negative feelings include stress, impatience or frustration, and your illnesses are frequently rashes, fever and overly quick digestion. Using this new awareness, you notice when you're becoming imbalanced and have an arsenal of cooling foods and techniques to attend to this before it becomes a larger issue or even progress to a disease.

There is a lot of history to back up this approach. Ayurveda is one of the earliest practices of medicine. It was first organized in the ancient scriptures, the Vedas, best guess around 2000 BC.  Ayurveda is a sanskrit word. "Ayur" translates to "life" and "veda" translates to "knowledge". Therefore, we can say that Ayurveda is "knowledge for life".

While Ayurveda is a system of medicine, it's based on some logical foundational concepts that we all can practice. There are certainly times to visit an Ayurvedic or western doctor, but if you understand some basic concepts, you can apply them to many simple conditions yourself. In addition to the idea that we all are composed of unique blends of the elements, here are a few more concepts to chew on:

Red flags are raised much earlier in Ayurveda than in western medicine. As westerners, we often accept lethargy, poor digestion, poor sleep, skin conditions, joint aches, anxiety, and stress as unfortunate, but normal conditions in todays life. In Ayurveda, these are the very first clues that deeper issues are developing. These clues tell us that there is an imbalance that will eventually  settle in a particular weak area, becoming disease. Ayurveda does not wait until full blown disease develops to suggest treatment. We should all be navigating life with energy, focus, and vibrancy, and anything less is a cause for concern.

Daily routines are one key to health. Developing healthy habits and routines will make life feel simpler, and support our feeling vibrant every day. Go to bed, wake up and eat meals at about the same time each day. Select some Ayurvedic practices such as self-massage, neti (nasal cleansing), breathing exercises and meditation and treat them as daily routines, not as choices. You'll begin to find a natural rhythm that feels grounding, comforting and balancing.

Good digestion is another key to health. If digestion is poor, there can be a toxic leftover called "ama" that can settle in weak areas, becoming disease. Ayurveda looks at the quality of our digestion as one clue as to how things are going with our health. The types of foods, herbs and spices, exercise, and the daily routines we incorporate are key. (Hint: yoga is great!!)

While Ayurveda may focus on seemingly less severe conditions, the treatments can seem more challenging. That is because the very first tier of treatment is lifestyle and diet. It makes a heck of a lot of sense, but that doesn't make it easier. In Ayurveda, if the digestion is strong, healthy routines are in place and the diet suits the individual, most diseases will be headed off before developing. But, that requires self-discipline and consistency, always a challenge.

But, a simple Ayurvedic treatment can have a far reaching effect. Say you notice your digestion is a little "irritable" and you have some eczema on your arms. You adjust your diet, practice self-massage with cooling oils and practice daily alternate nostril breathing to sooth the nervous system. Your digestion calms, the skin begins to clear. But, lo and behold, you also begin to feel more patient and even tempered! You may not even have noticed your irritability with your family and co-workers (although they sure did!) Ayurveda is like that; it treats the whole person, mind and body. You find that as your temperament evens, so does your digestion, and your skin remains clear and healthy. Who woulda thunk?

If something in the above sparks interest, know that Focus Yoga will continue to offer information on Ayurvedic approaches to good health. As a matter of fact, we are offering an Ayurveda 101 workshop Wednesday, October 10. Click here for more information.