Explore the ancient perspective on modern diet trends through the lens of Ayurveda. In this blog, we’ll explore how an Ayurvedic diet compares to the paleo, gluten-free, raw, and dairy-free diets. In the process, you’ll discover a new way of viewing food — one that is more gentle and effective at supporting your health and well-being.
How Modern Diets View Food
Our modern society seems to have a love/hate relationship with food. We promote the high calcium levels in milk (which is actually lower than most leafy greens) but quickly turn on it when it appears to cause allergies. We talk about the need for more fiber in our diets but blame grains for making us gain weight and causing inflammation.
Ayurveda is a science that spans more than 5,000 years and has been around as many diet trends have come and gone. As people continuously look for health by restricting or over-analyzing their diets in new ways, Ayurveda remains a simple answer to building a positive relationship with food. In Ayurveda, we recognize ourselves as individuals composed of the same five elements as everything in nature and approach eating as a sacred act.
Why Diets Need to be Personalized
The Ayurvedic perspective is that we’re one-of-a-kind beings with a unique balance of the elements, known as doshas. We digest different foods differently, depending on our state of balance, our environment, and how we eat. Some Ayurvedic principles apply to everyone, such as eating fruit as a separate meal because fruit digests much faster than other foods, but taken as a whole, the guidelines Ayurveda offers are just that — guidelines.
Most modern diet trends offer rules that apply to every person, regardless of their constitution, environment, or lifestyle. Most of these rules are passed down through the internet or books. Few come from a practitioner who spends the time to understand you as the whole, complex being you are.
Even in Ayurveda, many practitioners tell you once you know your dosha you should follow one food list for life. However, a true Ayurvedic approach is to become a student of your body, mind and spirit.
When you pay attention to how your body and mind respond to certain foods, you’ll be empowered to make balancing decisions instead of being swayed by an unending cycle of food fads.
Give yourself the gift of understanding your body and mind on every level by working with a practitioner who takes a holistic approach to healing, as opposed to finding a category in a book that is “close enough.”
Why Modern Diets Work (For Some Time)
When people take on a diet, such as gluten-free or paleo, they will often see a positive initial response. Skin issues clear up, digestion seems easier, and their mental outlook improves. But over time, health effects usually dwindle and people are left with a restrictive and unsatisfying diet which, overtime creates more constriction in the flow of prana, or energy in the body and mind.
This initial improvement can usually be traced back to a poor diet before starting the new diet. If you eat a lot of fast food or junk food, just eliminating those will significantly improve how you feel. When taking on a conscious diet plan, you might stop eating as many prepared foods and add more vegetables, fruits, and whole foods to your plate. These will always bring a positive effect.
But these diets mask underlying issues, or in some cases create a greater imbalance in your body. The imbalances will reassert themselves — sometimes quickly, sometimes in a few years —depending on your unique constitution. You’ll experience lasting change when your eating aligns with nature’s rhythms and accounts for what and how you eat.
The Root Cause of Food Allergies and Indigestion
Food allergies and inflammatory conditions are often what drive people to diets. These issues are becoming more common because the modern diet and lifestyle have wreaked havoc on our digestive tracts. Eating processed food, not chewing adequately, and ignoring digestive ailments at the first sign all contribute to indigestion and related food allergies and illnesses.
Chemicals and processing render indigestible food, while not chewing sends undigested food and inhibits the body’s ability to completely digest it. These foods remain in your small intestine until it has fermented (rotted) enough to pass through to the large intestine. This prevents the proper absorption of nutrients, depletes the body from its full health, and causes gas, bloating, and other symptoms. If your digestion has been in this state for a while, some foods, such as wheat and dairy, may seem to be to blame, when, in fact, the root cause is disturbed digestion.
Instead of adopting a restrictive diet, a well-rounded Ayurvedic approach is to:
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Remove processed foods.
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Be present while eating.
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Engage the senses as you eat.
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Chew thoroughly.
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Avoid television, driving, or reading during meals.
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Tune in to the messages the body sends each day about what brings optimum health and what brings illness.
Each day, we hear from clients in our Agni Therapy program how they reversed food allergies and intolerances by following the principles we teach. They adjust the foods they’re eating as well as how they eat it, and find they’re able to comfortably eat dairy, wheat, nuts and other foods which previously created debilitating symptoms. We support you step-by-step to heal your digestive tract and experience food freedom in Agni Therapy.
An Ayurvedic Perspective on a Gluten-Free Diet
Gluten-free: Wheat, like all grains, has played an important part in our digestion for thousands of years. Compared to the extractive component of your meal, wheat brings grounding, nourishment for the tissues, and dietary fiber. These grains are heavy and need to be chewed properly to be well-digested.
Though wheat plays an important role in a balanced diet, much of the wheat today is grown from genetically modified grains and sprayed with pesticides, which our bodies don’t recognize as food and needs to be processed as a toxin by your liver.
Furthermore, before most wheat gets to your sandwich, it’s stripped down to white flour and mixed with yeast. Yeast is a common ingredient in raised breads disrupting the natural balance of flora that lives in our digestive tract and causes intestinal distress. One way to make gluten easier to digest is to make unleavened bread with freshly ground whole wheat, such as chapati. Eat it as part of a balanced diet with whole grains, legumes, and vegetables. Chew well and pay attention to the results.
An Ayurvedic Perspective on the Paleo Diet
This diet has grown in popularity in the past decade. It’s built on the concept we’ve moved too far from what our ancestors ate. In that way, the Paleo approach aligns with Ayurvedic principles. However, that’s where the similarities end.
In Ayurveda, we suggest a diet made of sattvic foods whereas a paleo diet focuses on consuming large amounts of tamasic foods such as meat with no grains or legumes. Meat is difficult to digest and takes time to break down in the body, causing constipation and bloating. Instead, legumes eaten with whole grains offer a more balanced way to gain sustenance, while promoting a clear mind and greater connection.
An Ayurvedic Perspective on the Raw Diet
If vegetables are good, then vegetables in their most natural state must be better, right? Actually, the Ayurvedic texts share how lightly cooking food awakens its prana, or life force, and yields a more nutritious food. Gentle cooking starts to break down the food so we better digest it and assimilate the nutrients.
If you eat a solely raw, uncooked diet, you weaken agni by making it harder for your body to digest what you give it. It doesn't matter how many nutrients are in your food if your body is unable to digest them properly. Furthermore, because raw food is dry and crunchy, it aggravates vata dosha, which can cause symptoms such as gas, restlessness, and anxiety.
An Ayurvedic Perspective on a Dairy-Free Diet
The rise in lactose intolerance over the past few decades is linked to the move away from an agricultural lifestyle, where humans consumed raw, unpasteurized milk from cows raised on natural feed and grass. Similar to wheat, lactose intolerance is less about the food itself than the way it’s created and how it's consumed. Dairy laced with pesticides used to grow a cow’s feed and hormones to keep cows in constant production causes a negative reaction to this otherwise wonderful food.
And even when we have the best milk from well-treated cows, drinking it cold right out of the refrigerator causes excess mucous and weakens agni. Dairy, especially raw milk contains unique healing properties like no other “milk alternatives”. It calms vata dosha and helps with anxiety, nervousness and dryness in the body. It’s a cornerstone of an Ayurvedic approach, but it should be consumed in ways that support proper digestion rather than hinder it. We recommend consuming your milk warmed with ghee and spices as we share in our Ayurvedic latte recipe.
Other ways to benefit from dairy (and not experience negative side effects) are to consume it in moderation and to avoid mixing it with incompatible or heavy foods such as bananas, eggs, and meat.
Conclusion
While many modern diets have good intentions, they often keep us stuck in a cycle of imbalance, worry, and disease. Instead of hyper-focusing on singular foods or food groups, we teach our clients how to cook balanced meals rooted in the wisdom of nature. Learn to eat in a way that nourishes you long after these trends have come and gone, and experience improved digestion, hormonal balance, and a clearer mind.