Ayurveda’s Turmeric Milk, Skin Salve And Face Wash.

Source Taken From here

Ayurveda’s Turmeric Milk, Skin Salve And Face Wash.

Turmeric: The Multipurpose Super Herb

The curative properties of turmeric have lent it to be used as a spice in Indian recipes and medicine in Ayurveda for thousands of years. The healthy nutrients of milk team up perfectly with the anti-inflammatory qualities of turmeric. Turmeric milk or Haldi ka doodh (haldi means turmeric, doodh means milk) brings this sweet nectar onto the favorite’s list of healing rasāyanas of many traditional yogis and Ayurvedic Consultants.

The 6 Tastes:

In Ayurvedic cooking we want to make sure we deliver all six tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent, and pungent) in every meal.  This balances the doshas which leads to less imbalance and sickness. What I find is that I can eat about 1/3 as much food and feel a sense of satiation when all the tastes are included in my meal. That is such a good thing in this day and age of the giant plate meals. But it also explains why those giant plate meals even exist. In a meal that isn’t well planned to offer all 6 tastes, we continue to eat hoping that we will eventually, if we eat enough, find enough of these tastes and then be satisfied. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t, but either way, we are eating far too many calories.

It is sometimes difficult to get all the tastes into one meal. One of the easiest ways to meet this requirement is to use spices. For instance turmeric supplies the bitter, pungent, and astringent tastes with just one spice. These are sometimes the three harder tastes to add to a meal.  It is a heating spice thought to help in diabetes and also promotes good digestion. Turmeric increases vata and pitta if too much is consumed, and relieves kapha.

Ways to consume Turmeric:

There are many ways you can take turmeric: fresh, dried and grated as a spice, capsule, or pills. If you read my previous blog about turmeric, you know that turmeric is anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiseptic properties offer many benefits.  It can relieve pain and swelling (known in Ayurveda as nature’s aspirin) and can even be applied to small cuts and wounds, helping with blood clotting, preventing infection and healing skin.

Milk is a great delivery system for turmeric whether you are using it internally or externally. Adding turmeric to milk increases milks own antioxidant qualities. Milk fights free radicals that damage skin, making it lose its elasticity and glow. Milk also strengthens bones, which helps with osteoporosis and arthritis (joint inflammation and pain). Consuming the drink twice a day before meals will ease morning stiffness, reduce pain and swelling in the joint. But it’s the anti-inflammatory qualities that make turmeric milk a favorite for soothing sore throats and calming coughs. Raw organic honey is often added not only for taste but for its own powerful anti-oxidant, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties.  Raw honey is known in the Ayurveda world as being a prabhava, a term which means the unexplainable special effect of a substance, that cannot be explained by rasa (taste), virya (the quality of energy released by an herb or food after eating), or vipāka (the final post-digestive effect of food that occurs in the colon and has an action on the excreta.) Being the scientist that I am, this was not a hard concept for me to understand, just a hard one to explain on paper, so thank you Brian Brink, one of my Ayurvedic teachers from Kripalu for that definition.

Here are some recipes for you to try:

Basic Turmeric Milk Recipe

Ingredients:

½” of fresh ginger grated
½ tsp. dried turmeric powder or 1 inch piece fresh turmeric
1 cup whole milk
½ cup filtered water
1 Tbls raw honey, or to taste

Method:

Place all ingredients except honey into a pan and simmer for 20 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes to seep. Rewarm if needed and then add the honey. Once the honey has been stirred in, strain and sip. (www.livebrightandhealthy.com)

Sore Throat Soothing Turmeric Milk Recipe

Ingredients:

½ tsp. dried turmeric powder
1 tsp ginger minced
¼ cup water

Method:

Top off the cup with milk and heat the mixture for a few minutes until the milk almost boils. If you want to add peppercorns, which is thought to improve the absorption of the turmeric you can also add that to the mixture before heating. Other flavors can be achieved by adding a few pods of cardamom (cracked) and a pinch of saffron to the milk/water concoction before boiling.

Cough Turmeric Milk Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
Sugar to taste
½ tsp. ajwain (carom seeds)
¼ tsp. turmeric powder

Method:

Add milk and sugar to pan and heat until sugar dissolves. Set aside. Take ajwain and roast in a non-stick pan for a few minutes until brown. Add to the ajwain mixture the turmeric and stir. Add to the warmed milk, mix well, strain, and sip while warm. (www.turmericforhealth.com)

The Ultimate Turmeric Milk Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh whole milk
½-1 tsp of turmeric powder
2-3 whole peppercorns
2-3 cardamom pods cracked
½ inch ginger, roughly chopped
½ tsp ghee (not if you are experiencing mucus)
Pinch of saffron, optional
Honey or jaggery for taste

Method:

Heat the milk along with the spices for 2-3 minutes or until the milk is almost boiling. Add sweetener to taste, let cool until warm and strain and serve. (www.journeykitchen.com)

Sleepy-time Turmeric

Use the basic turmeric milk recipe and add nutmeg. Nutmeg helps you sleep.

Turmeric Honey

Ingredients:

9 Tsp dried turmeric powder
½ Tsp freshly ground black pepper (grind it finely)
½ Tsp dried ginger powder
Raw organic honey

Method:

Mix turmeric, pepper and ginger thoroughly.  Start adding a liquid honey into the powder.  It helps to warm the honey (not cook, just warm) which allows it to absorb better.  Whipped versions of honey or old honey that has begun to crystallize will not work, the honey needs to be runny.  Stir, slowly adding the honey until all the powder is dissolved and you have a thick paste.  The amount will vary depending on the moisture content of the honey.  Store turmeric honey in an airtight jar.

Turmeric Milk (Non Dairy)

Ingredients:

8 ounces almond or coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2-inch wide round slice of ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
Dash of cayenne pepper
1/2 – 1 teaspoon honey (or molasses as suggested by my dear friend and yoga teacher Shari)
Optional additions: a tsp ghee, cinnamon, cardamom

Method:
Gently warm the almond or coconut milk on the stove. In a mug, combine the remaining ingredients. Drizzle a teaspoon of the warmed milk into the mug and mix until the liquid is smooth with no lumps. Add the rest of the milk and mix well. You can leave the pieces of ginger in the tea, or strain it out before drinking. (www.marksdailyapple.com)

External Use of Turmeric

Turmeric Paste

Turmeric Paste for Psoriasis

Turmeric is now gaining attention in the Western scientific community for the treatment of various conditions, including psoriasis. According to the journal Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology,curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric responsible for inhibiting skin growth factors that lead to psoriasis scales.  It has also been used in face wash and face mask concoctions for years to help with acne.

Turmeric Paste Recipe

Ingredients:

¼ cup of turmeric powder
2 ½ cups of water.

Method:

To make turmeric paste, stir and bring to a boil. Simmer over medium–high heat and stir constantly until it reaches a thick honey-like paste consistency. If it gets too dry while cooking add some water. Once cool, transfer the contents into an airtight glass container or jar. It can be stored in the refrigerator up to about a month.

To use, spread a thin layer of turmeric paste onto the psoriasis-affected areas of skin, before bedtime. Use enough paste so that you cannot see the underlying skin, but not so much that the paste is falling off. Wrap a piece of gauze around the skin treated with turmeric paste to keep the paste in place. Leave the turmeric paste on your skin, covered with the gauze, overnight. Remove the gauze and wash the turmeric paste off of your skin using warm water.

Turmeric permanently stains porous surfaces, such as plastic and clothing. It temporarily stains the skin, giving it a light yellow to orange color. Stains on the skin gradually fade over a few days’ time.

Turmeric Face Wash and Mask

India’s brides have been using this recipe for years to give them beautiful radiant skin on their wedding day. But you don’t have to be walking down the aisle to gain the benefits from this face mask. It not only will brighten the skin, but will also help with acne and age spots.

Turmeric Face Wash Recipe

Ingredients:

¼ teaspoon of turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon of neem
A few drops of coconut oil

Method:

To make this recipe, place the turmeric and neem in a small bowl and mix well. Then place a small amount in the palm of your hand and add coconut oil, drop by drop until you reach the desired consistency. Apply the turmeric paste onto your face and neck beginning at the forehead and moving down, making sure to avoid the eye area. For face wash, gently massage over face for about 30 seconds.  It is a little gritty so be gentle.  Rinse face with cool water.  To use as a mask, let the paste dry, it takes about 20 minutes. Wash off the mask with warm water and then after all paste has been removed, splash your face with cold water. Gently dry with a soft, clean towel.

I am sure this is not the last word on turmeric. But for now, hopefully this information will give you a way to invite turmeric into your lives. My mission always is that you live healthy and happy every day, and if anything that you have learned from me helps you do that, then well I have done my job.

Please feel free to share my blogs with your friends and family and thanks for reading.

SLEEP ON THE LEFT SIDE IS GOOD FOR HEALTH

Source Taken from here

Not everyone knows that the position that we take when we sleep has a significant influence on own digestion. It is no coincidence that, in ancient times, the monks decided to lie down after each meal just for ten minutes, and this served to make the entire digestive lighter.

Nor is it a coincidence that the most ancient tradition of oriental medicine (ayurvedic) as well as the Indian suggest you go to sleep lying down on his left side. But what is the reason? For that reason it is necessary to follow this precaution? Quite simply, our lymphatic system relies on the left side of our body, which means that both the stomach that the liver, but also the bladder and the pancreas, are able to dispose of waste products and they drain to the sidedigestion and produce at the same time the enzymes that the body needs by neutralizing fatty acids and without pressure.

This means that finally digestion there is no need of two or three hours, but ten or fifteen minutes at most: after this period, after lying down on the left side, you will feel immediately lighter. By adopting this simple measure, in essence, the body acquires the whole of the energy of digestion; when it digests normally, however, we tend to feel heavier, precisely because the digestion involves a consumption of energy.

Obviously, this does not mean that you can eat anything and everything, without careful grease, fried and greasy toppings too, in the absence of concerns. The restraint and moderation are important, but using the trick of rest on the left sideyou will no doubt have the opportunity to benefit from a greater calm and a more pleasant serenity, even over time.

17 Reasons Why Ghee Is The Ultimate Ayurvedic Superfood

Source Taken from here

Modern science has finally gotten around to proving the physical and mental health benefits of eating ghee that our ancestors figured out centuries ago. There is an ancient proverb in Sindhi that goes “Jeko kare ghee, so na kare ma-pii!” Translated, it means – what ghee can do for you, even your mother and father can’t! You may not believe us now, but by the end of this article you’ll know what we mean.  

What exactly is ghee?

Also known as clarified butter, ghee is formed when butter is boiled and the milk solids are removed, leaving a concentrated residue of pure fats. Like butter, it can be dangerous to your health if consumed in large quantities because of the high concentration of fat, but in small quantities it can do wonders. 

Check out the health benefits of ghee:

1. Enables weight loss

via Suddenlyslimmer

Like olive oil and coconut oil, ghee contains healthy fats that help you burn fat and lose weight. 

2. Provides energy

via Markmorillo

Ghee contains medium chain fatty acids which the liver can absorb directly and burn immediately, making it a healthier source of energy than most of the carbs we eat today.

3. Reduces the risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes

via Thinkpharmacy

Ghee is rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid that protects against plaque, cancer and diabetes. 

4. Lowers cholesterol

via Shutterstock

Ghee is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which lower cholesterol and boost heart health.

5. Boosts digestion 

via Yatan-ayur

Ghee is packed with butyric acid, a short chain fatty acid that has several benefits, one of which is better digestion. Our bodies actually convert fibre into butyric acid, so eating it makes the body’s job easier. Butyric acid helps heal the digestive tract and keeps it healthy. 

6. Improves immunity

via Zeroways

The butyric acid in ghee also promotes immunity, by increasing the production of killer T cells in the gut.

7. Fights inflammation

via Wikihow

Doctors are now using butyrate supplements to treat inflammatory conditions, soghee is a better option, since it is natural.

8. Increases appetite

via Amazonaws

Ghee triggers the release of gastric acid, which results in better digestion and increased appetite. 

9. Promotes flexibility

via Purityhealthandwellness

It’s no wonder that yogis cooked their food in ghee; it lubricates the joints and connective tissues and promotes flexibility.  

10. Improves eye health

via Photography-tips-forum

Ghee is rich in Vitamin A, which prevents macular degeneration and cataract development.

11. Gives you beautiful babies

via Mdspa

Loaded with Vitamin K2, ghee plays an important role in the development of the baby’s facial features and teeth. 

12. Promotes positivity

via Wordsmith

According to Ayurveda, ghee is considered a satvic food. Satvic foods promote good health, positivity and personal growth.

13. Removes emotional toxins

via Webantino

Research is showing that negative emotions have a chemical composition, and that these chemicals get stored in unhealthy fats. Ghee is a healthy fat that does not harbour these emotions; instead it can be used to flush them out. 

14. Absorbs the nutrients in herbs and spices

via Iptcindia

Indian food contains several herbs and spices, each of which is loaded with numerous nutrients. Ghee absorbs these nutrients and helps them reach the correct part of the body, where they are most required.

15. Does not break down into free radicals

via Shutterstock

Many oils have a low smoke point, at which they break down and form free radicals. Free radicals are harmful agents that cause all sorts of disease and deterioration in the body, right from ageing to cancer. Ghee has a high smoke point (250 °C), so it doesn’t break down into free radicals while cooking.

16. Can be stored without refrigeration

via Justhomemade

The milk solids from the butter are removed during the clarification process, and since only pure fat remains, it can be stored without refrigeration for years at a time without going bad. 

17. Does not trigger lactose intolerance

via Hailmerry

Since the milk solids have been removed, ghee usually doesn’t bother people who are lactose intolerant.

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Eating With Our Fingers

Taken from Facebook page Wellness Space

Why should we eat with our fingers?

Eating with fingers has been lately been looked down upon -considered not very sophisticated or suave. Esp. at restaurants people even eat pizzas with a fork and knife!! However, eating with the fingers has multiple benefits - some very obvious and some not very obvious.

1. Our bodies are made up of 5 elements/pranas - so is everything in Universe - these are - Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Ether/Space. They are represented by the 5 fingers (see image below). It is believed that these five elements energize the food, cleansing it of any negative vibes and preparing it for us to eat. These elements ensure the food we eat is becomes healthy for the body and keeps our pranas well balanced. These are the representations of the elements:
• Thumb: Fire
• Index finger: Air
• Middle finger: Space/Ether
• Ring finger: Earth
• Little finger: Water
The prana coming from our fingers mixes with the food making it easier to digest and acceptable to our body

2. The fingers, when touch the food, send signal to the brain and digestive system about the texture of the food – the hardness, softness, consistency etc and thus the system prepares itself to digest the food accordingly. The required type of digestive juices and enzymes are released. When we eat with spoon or fork this messaging is lost – the body is not prepared for what is going to come in!

3. Our hands also act as a very effective temperature sensor. When we touch food it is easy for us to gauge how hot it actually is, and we are less likely to put food that is too hot into our mouth – effectively preventing us from scalding our tongue.

4. Promotes mindful eating. When we eat with our hands, we focus on the quantity of food and we are more aware of how much food we are putting in our mouths and thus we enjoy the food and the process of eating much more vs eating with cutlery. Mindless eating is a huge problem and one of the biggest cause of overweight, obesity, indigestion etc.

Traditionally even daals and sambhars were eaten with fingers (I wonder how, since I have also grown up having liquid foods with spoon!) However now I try to use the fingers as far as possible and even when we lived out of India, we made sure we ate with our fingers at restaurants and felt proud about it Eating food with fingers makes it tastier and much more palatable. So forget fashion, think of health! Eat with your fingers!

Ririi Trivedi

3 REASONS TO AVOID GREEN SMOOTHIES

Taken from here

Green smoothies are all the rage, particularly here in Byron Bay, and are promoted as one of the best things you can do for your health. In case you’re one of the rare few who has never had one, green smoothies are usually made up of about 40% leafy greens, 60% fruit and sometimes contain a bunch of other goodies to make them tastier or more nutritious such as chia or flax seeds, maca or camu powder, cacao nibs, hemp protein, spirulina or coconut oil…

At first glance, the power-packed hit of vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and fibre you get from a green smoothie seems indisputably healthy… so why on earth would you avoid them? Well the Ayurvedic view is never just about NUTRIENTS… it is always about QUALITIES and these seemingly super-smoothies have some qualities that can have a negative effect if consumed regularly over a long period of time.

So here we go, three reasons to avoid smoothies (or at least not overdo your intake of them), from an Ayurvedic perspective:

1. THEY AGGRAVATE VATA

Green smoothie recipes sometimes call for chilled water or the addition of ice cubes. On top of this, the majority of the fruits and veggies added to them are cold in quality (they have a cooling post-digestive effect). Even if you’re adding some warming ginger to your smoothie the overall quality of smoothies is still usually COLD. Leafy greens like kale, chard, spinach and cabbage; veggies like broccoli and celery; as well as a number of fruits are also DRY and ROUGH in quality.

The Vata (Air/Ether) dosha in our bodies has the qualities of dry, rough, cold, mobile and changeable. Foods that are COLD, DRY and ROUGH, therefore, directly aggravate Vata. Like increases like. When our Vata is aggravated it causes increased dryness, roughness, coldness, mobility and variability in the body/mind. This can be experienced as variable appetite; gas or pain after eating; dry constipation or loose motions (increased mobility); dry/rough skin and hair; variable energy; poor circulation and pain or cracking in the joints.

From a mental perspective, aggravated Vata is associated with increased mental agitation, restlessness, flightiness, grasping, anxiety, poor concentration, poor memory, changeable moods and insomnia. Vata has a strong association with the nervous, endocrine and excretory systems so excess Vata is most inclined to affect these systems and…. according to Ayurveda, the majority of all diseases are related to aggravated Vata dosha.

2. THEY DEPLETE OJAS

Long-term aggravated Vata is also associated with catabolism or the breaking down of tissues. This is one of the reasons why people often feel very energetic when initially getting into green smoothies (and raw food generally) – because when a cell breaks down a huge amount of energy is released!

The good news is your fat tissue gets broken down…. but the bad news is your other tissues do too including the deeper tissues of bone, marrow, nerve and sexual reproductive tissue. Depletion of these important deep tissues is never a good thing – we’re talking weaker teeth, weaker bones, compromised nerve conduction and communication, hormone issues and infertility.

Also, these deeper tissues are responsible for directly nourishing the foundation of our immune system, known as ‘Ojas’ in Ayurveda. If they become depleted, Ojas also becomes depleted and as a result, we can become susceptible to auto-immune problems, chronic fatigue and other diseases of depletion.

3. THEY ARE DIFFICULT TO DIGEST
Although many of the ingredients in a green smoothie are actually light, the sheer quantity of ingredients can make them very dense and therefore heavy. If you’re adding a bunch of superfoods to the mix, your smoothie is going to be even heavier. And heavy food, although satisfying to one’s hunger, is difficult to digest.

Green smoothies are also very complex. Our digestive fire (‘Agni’ in Sanskrit) likes simplicity. For example, our Agni has no problem digesting a few veggies that have been cooked with mung daal, rice and spices to aid digestion. Foods cooked together in a single pot have time to get to know each other, to combine their qualities and be transformed from several individual ingredients to a single meal with a particular character. In contrast, smoothies contain a multitude of ingredients with very different qualities combined raw in a blender. Raw food prepared in this way may be delicious, but it doesn’t allow for this subtle transformation and marrying of qualities. As a result, the meal remains very complex which is difficult for the body to digest.

From an Ayurvedic perspective, green smoothies also contain the number one food combination no-no. Ayurveda teaches that fresh fruit should never be combined with any other foods. As we know, green smoothies combine fresh fruit with leafy greens, veggies and sometimes superfoods. Although somewhat pre-digested thanks to the blending process, the smoothies still stay in our stomachs for as long as the most difficult food contained within them takes to digest. As a result the fresh fruit (which is light and easy to digest in comparison to all other foods) generally stays in the stomach for too long and ferments – causing over-digested food wastes (or ‘Ama’ in Sanskrit).

In the short term, green smoothies may be cleansing, due to their high fibre content but they tend to put a strain on the digestive fire – which most people experience as a sensation of lasting ‘fullness’ (and think this is a good thing!). In the long run, the aggravation of Vata can lead to an imbalanced digestive fire of the ‘Variable’ kind (like a candle blowing in the wind). Variable digestion is associated with pain, bloating, flatulence, burping and also leads to the under-cooking of foods or undigested food wastes (‘Ama’). This is where the ‘cleansing’ benefit can be reversed. Undigested wastes accumulate in the digestive tract and eventually overflow and relocate into the deeper channels and tissues of the body where they can wreck havoc with cellular nutrition and waste disposal and can become the root cause of all disease… according to Ayurveda.

MAKING GREEN SMOOTHIES ‘HEALTHIER’

So there you have it! Some pretty good reasons to reconsider the green smoothie trend…. aggravated Vata, depleted tissues, depleted Ojas, imbalanced Agni and accumulating Ama!

Having said all that, it should be noted that if you have a robust Pitta or Pitta/Kapha constitution with a super strong digestive fire and a body in need of a little cooling, you’ll be able to handle green smoothies better than most. On the other hand, if you have a strong influence of Vata in your constitution, you should not overdo them.

If you’re already addicted to green smoothies and are determined to keep having them for whatever reason, try the following adjustments to make them slightly more Ayurvedically-friendly:

• add a pinch of turmeric and ginger and a squeeze of lemon to the mix to aid digestion

• have them at room temperature, not cold… or even add a little hot water

• keep the ingredients to a minimum, keep it simple and less dense – less is more!

• add a little coconut oil to offset the dry/rough qualities of the veggies

• try them without fruit

• avoid the addition of superfoods – they make them even heavier

• only have them a couple of times a week, not daily.

I hope this helps! Or better still, you can just make a green veggie soup instead!

PLEASE NOTE: If you are in any doubt, it is a great idea to see an Ayurvedic Practitioner for specific recommendations.

REFERENCES
“Ayurveda for Self-Healing” by Vasant Lad
http://www.movenourishbelieve.com/recipes/lorna-janes-super-green-smoothie/
http://www.rawblend.com.au/green-smoothies.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalate
http://simplegreensmoothies.com/green-smoothie-superfoods
http://www.rawfamily.com/recipes
“Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human”, Prof Richard Wrangham
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9831783
http://www.uni-giessen.de/fbr09/nutr-ecol/veroe_lomalinda2_e.php

Buy Organic Turmeric to Improve Your Green Smoothies