In Ayurveda it is recognised that every health condition starts with incorrect digestion:
When something is not properly digested, undigested food then travels around our channels and lodges in the tissues that are familiar to it.
Let me explain in brief... Every food has it's own elemental constitution and so does each one of our tissues. So if I have a kapha imbalance and am eating a lot of kapha foods (earth and water) for example, such as potato, dairy and refined grains/sugars and my digestive fire is low (due to kapha imbalance) the foods are not properly digested and this undigested substance is then likely to accumulate in our kapha tissues (fat and/or muscle) depending on any other imbalances we may have of course.
Or if I was to eat tomatoes (fire and water) everyday and was under a lot of stress so my digestive fire became too high (I had an excess of pitta - fire and water in my body) these undigested tomatoes would go and lodge in the pitta tissues and sites such as blood, eyes, skin, head and stomach causing things like heartburn, diarrhea, headaches and hot flushes (and eventually leading to more serious health conditions).
There are lots of ways to take out the lodged toxins and re-balance the digestive fire with the help of an Ayurvedic practitioner but it is important to know some foods that will not further aggravate the condition while you are working on recovery.
Pasta sauce is always an easy meal but it tends to be made with tomatoes, like much of our food. Tomatoes are extremely aggravating to an impaired digestive fire so is likely to worsen a problem. Instead this pasta sauce recipe avoids extremely aggravating foods such as tomatoes, raw foods and chilli and focuses on neutral soothing foods like squash and coconut. If you have a particularly aggressive digestive disorder avoid the things with a star next to them and remember that this condition does not have to be for life, Ayurvedic medicine can support your recovery, contact us now to start your treatment.
Pasta sauce recipe:
Nice alternative to tomato sauce
Ingredients:
1/2 of a large squash or cauliflower or a bit of both!
2 tsp coconut oil
2tsp coriander
½ tsp cumin
A pinch of nutmeg
1 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp Himalayan rock salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp cinnamon
½ inch of fresh ginger
*1 garlic clove
1 Packet of silken tofu (can use firm but add more water)
1 can of coconut milk
*1 tbsp of nutritional yeast
1-2 cups of water or more milk depending on preferred consistency
*¼ tsp mustard (optional)
*1 tsp soya sauce (optional)
Broccoli
Peas
Spinach
1. Chop the squash into slices, put the coconut oil on a roasting pan and let it melt in the oven.
2. Put the squash and garlic clove in the roasting pan with the oil and all the spices and mix together and roast at gas mark 6 until soft (about 30 mins).
3. Meanwhile put some boiling water on for the pasta or noodles and follow instructions on the packet. Put in the chopped broccoli, and near the end of the cooking process add the peas and spinach.
5. Blend half the squash and the garlic in the food processor with all other ingredients (except pasta and greens). Make sure you use enough liquid to make the mixture in to a sauce.
6. Drain the pasta and mix everything together including the left over squash.
Enjoy!
Here is list of some foods to choose and what not to have so regularly if you are finding digestion PAINFUL:
Condiments:
Avoid:
Vinegar
Margarine (salted)
Pickles
Ketchup
Mayo
Mustard
Eat:
Small amount of sunflower oil, coconut oil (can cook with this), sesame oil, olive oil
Miso
Pesto
Soya sauce
Preserves
Avoid:
Peanut butter
Cashew butter
Nutella
Marmalade
Marmite