One of the reasons I decided to embrace Ayurveda when in my last year of college when I was enchanted by Deepak Chopra’s book, “Ageless Body, Timeless Mind”. When I read the book, I took in its entirety. The handbook for all of the things I loved stirred a fire in me which at the time, I had not quite learned to kindle and stoke yet. I was pulled to making my own food. Embracing the ways my grandmothers had canned food. The way my mother would can, freeze, and preserve food. Saving treasures of the summery days in preserved ways. I would grow to embrace eating the freshest foods and orienting to those ways of freshness.
With my move to Berkeley, I learned all about farm-fresh produce that is intentional for the person eating. A connecting with land-farmer-consumer that I hadn’t experienced during my upbringing in Tennessee. Farming was meant more for the farmer than the consumer where I came from. Despite a disconnect with health, everyone I grew up around at seasonal produce completely and unhinged in way that embraced the weeks of precious strawberries, watermelons, peaches, and tomatoes in their peak. Working so hard to preserve the nature of what was happening in that moment. This, because there wouldn’t be another season of these crops until next summer. In our spot on the planet, we lived in a climate where preserved food was important to our lifestyle. Having it preserved from the land you live and grow it on is extra special.
I am so grateful to my grandmothers and granddad who kept large gardens to feed themselves and always family and neighbors, too. It was a special stewardship, I now understand. To keep large gardens to feed multiple people requires a great deal of dedication, time, energy, expense, and a discourse with the land, weather, and nearby animal friends to keep the plants growing, disease free, alive, and thriving to nourish others.
That was the first bit of holistic health wisdom I would receive was from my family and how the grandmothers, mothers, and aunts would hover around one another looking for the home cure for everything! I remember watching my mom, her friends, and my aunts go through some strange diet fads like minimizing all fat in the diet. Eating mostly carbs. That was very bad diet, as we no know collectively.
The home remedies were always given first to avoid a doctor visit. I think my mom did not always have health insurance for us. Our dad split when we were in grade school and I believe that he did provide medical insurance later on when he was more established. But because of this socio-economic situation, the home remedy was always the most potent medical support we had. There was always some poultice, Vicks Vapor Rub, some homemade cough syrup with horehound candy, whisky, rock candy, and bourbon. These were the medicines of my upbringing.
It’s no wonder, I was a sickly kid. I didn’t really like preserved foods. For me it was the color that always looked dead to me. Uninspiring with the earthy tones of the green beans that I ate which were not the color of green which I identified with that was more of a rainbow kelly green hue that I preferred to see on my plate. However, my family always thought they looked and tasted raw when I have fed them my carefully steamed or sautéed green beans.
It was something I was always oriented to, Ayurveda. Despite some detail, I always loved the home remedies. I did sometimes wonder, maybe I should actually go to the doctor. Then there was a time when I did go to the doctor repeatedly for antibiotics. This was the way of the 1970s. It could but cultural, not sure. However, the trend now is to hold back on antibiotics and to build up the immunity to be potent and healthy in our lifestyle.
I like this trend very much and feel that Ayurveda offers a beautiful opportunity to amplify the partnership with building our immunity and the connections with our local habitat. This is deeply connecting in our bodies when we eat foods from our local area. To tag back to my childhood, despite the risk of botulism in home-preserved canned goods, the local area’s biome bits are part of the summer’s preserved green beans, jams, chow-chow, corn, okra, and every kind of pickle with cucumbers and the aforementioned important crops of the southeast: green beans, okra, corn, and cucumbers. Tomatoes are more jewels of the area which don’t get far from where they were grown before someone will it. You don’t really share tomatoes with friends unless you really really like them or love them.
In a world increasingly aware of the nature of food and how it acts like medicine to our bodies, the importance of a holistic lifestyle using plants, and herbs to elevate our immunity. Seasonal cycles of life have never been more important than now to help us find balance in a world that is increasingly out of balance. In the face of climate changes that seem to move faster and are increasingly unpredictable in patterns and projections from the past. With nature being at the heart of our considerations in a post-modern world, Ayurveda stands out as a time-tested approach to a wellness path.
Known to be a South-Asian philosophy that goes back at least 5,000 years, Ayurveda emphasizes balance, harmony, and the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit with nature. One of its most powerful benefits is its potential to lower inflammation, which is a root cause of many chronic diseases. By adopting an Ayurvedic lifestyle you’re making an investment in your health. Based upon the foods you eat and become, Ayurveda also helps to foster well-being in alignment with our planet.
The Energetics of Ayurveda in Wellness
At the heart of Ayurveda is the concept of “doshas”—the unique energies that govern our physical and mental characteristics. By understanding our personal dosha and its variance from moment to moment, you can tailor your diet, routine, and environment to promote balance. You can innovate your life to leverage lifestyle habits and routines to foster vitality and health. This personalized approach is key to minimizing inflammation in our bodies and also minimizing the earth’s “inflammatory response”. This is appropos considering our internal life is mirroring the ways the environment continues to develop stronger storms and heat waves. In this way, we see the earth is mirroring the “inflammatory response”.
The thing that I have learned through becoming an Ayurveda Digestive Health Counselor is that fortifying our diet and using the canvas of herbs, teas, vegetables, fruits, offers a range of micronutrients, vitamins, protien, and fiber that helps our body to not just be healthy but to thrive and do magnificent immunity building connectivity with your body’s rhythms and unique languages.
When we consider the outcome of adding herbs, greens, root vegetables, and each of the tastes during each meal: bitter, sour, pungent, astringent, salty, and sweet… when we do this, we create balance in our bodies with an ancestral symphony of stimulation that fosters vitality in the body when done in alignment with the scope of a healthy body’s lifestyle activities.
Key Principles of an Anti-Inflammatory Ayurvedic Lifestyle:
- Dietary Choices: Ayurveda highlights a plant-based diet rich in whole foods, spices, and herbs that possess anti-inflammatory properties. Incorporating foods like turmeric, ginger, and garlic can significantly reduce inflammation markers in the body.
- Mindful Eating: Ayurveda encourages mindfulness in eating—savoring each bite, understanding your body’s signals, and eating in a calm environment. This practice aids digestion and helps prevent overeating, which can contribute to inflammation.
- Daily Routines (Dinacharya): Establishing a daily routine helps regulate bodily functions and reduce stress, a significant contributor to inflammation. Simple practices such as yoga, meditation, and regular sleep patterns can enhance your overall wellness.
- Seasonal Eating (Ritucharya): Ayurveda teaches us to eat according to the seasons, selecting foods that are in harmony with nature’s rhythms. This not only supports local agriculture but also optimizes nutrition and digestion, keeping inflammation at bay.
The Power of Plant-Based Nourishment
When you adopt a plant-based diet, you become part of a growing group who are aligning with the power of plants. You can even buy a vertical garden to cultivate and nurture your own plant based nourishment in your personal space! A sustainable lifestyle choice like this that aligns perfectly with Ayurvedic principles, bring fiber and a wide array of nutrients from a varied and diverse diet.. Plant-based foods are inherently rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that combat oxidative stress and inflammation. This is the main reason I have adapted to a mostly plant-based lifestyle.
Benefits of Plant-Based Nourishment:
- Nutrient Density: Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds are packed with essential nutrients while being low in calories, making them excellent choices for maintaining a healthy weight—crucial for managing inflammation.
- Fiber Content: A plant-based diet is high in dietary fiber, which is vital for optimal digestion. Fiber promotes gut health, enhances nutrient absorption, and helps regulate blood sugar levels.
The Role of Inulin in Digestion and Skin Health
One of the key components of plant-based diets is inulin, a type of soluble fiber found in many plants, particularly garlic, asparagus, dandelion greens, onion, jicama, burdock root, globe artichokes.
How Inulin Supports Digestion
- Prebiotic Benefits: Inulin is a soluble dietary fiber and prebiotic that can help with weight loss, regulate blood sugar, and improve constipation
- Regulating Bowel Movements: The soluble fiber in inulin helps to regulate bowel movements, preventing constipation and promoting a healthy digestive tract.
Inulin is used to help with weight loss, regulate blood sugar, and improve constipation.
Inulin and Skin Clarity
In addition to its digestive benefits, inulin also contributes to clear smooth skin. By promoting a healthy gut, inulin helps reduce the likelihood of inflammation-related skin issues such as acne and eczema. When you have a balanced microbiome we can better support the body in detoxification, which clarifies the blood in our body which nourishes and sustains our health and vitality. In turn, this leads to a more radiant and glowing complexion.
A Lifestyle investment in health is an investment in health security.
Adopting an Ayurvedic lifestyle is more than a diet, it is a holistic energetic approach to health and well-being. A lifestyle supporting your healthscape can help you embrace plant based nourishment adding key details like inulin. You are setting the foundation for an anti-inflammatory lifestyle by investing in your health today so you can create a ripple effect that enhances your quality of life tomorrow. Like compounded interest, you embody the teachings of Ayurveda, and see the long-term benefits of vital digestion and glowing skin and energy. With each mindful choice, you’re not only reducing inflammation but also nurturing a life filled with vitality and balance.
Far too often, bad health habits manifest into disease that needs intervention. It can happen to anyone. Taking the steps to be intentional and dedicated to a daily health practice, you will find depth in your connection to how you feel!
Angela Rosoff holds certifications in yoga, face yoga, and Ayurveda Digestive Health. Holistic support for women is her focus. She is also a content creator for local and international media outlets and has been featured in the Sun.uk, Sun.us, and The New York Post. Angela teaches weekly yoga and face yoga classes, as well has hosts online courses to help women and yoga teachers beautify from the inside out! As a Healthstyle Emporium Wellness Coach, Angela shares an affordable way to work 1:1 to bring more health into the world. Check out her website: Beautify Face Yoga to learn more!
