Food Sadhana

AYUVEDIC TIP:
Autumn is a season of deficiency and change, provoking higher stress levels. As leaves fall, nourishing seasonal foods like pumpkin and nutmeg to soothe the nervous system help us weather the change. Cooked pumpkins are soft and comforting. Both sedatives, pumpkin and nutmeg together reduce stress. According to Ayurveda, keeping the nervous system stable through fall is our number one tool for maintaining strong immunity and staying healthy. In fall when the temperature starts to drop, the body scrambles to protect itself from heat loss. Nourishing foods seem all the more enticing while helping refortify deficient tissue, thicken the skin, and insulate from the cold. Pumpkins, ghee, almonds and sugar all build ojas in time for the coming winter. Ojas is Ayurveda's word for a nourishment. In addition to nourishing tissue, pumpkin chai is also a rasayana (meaning tonic). Pumpkins are orange because of beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A. Beta-carotene, also in carrots, encourages healing through rejuvenation and regeneration of tissue. Orange foods with beta-carotene are generally liver tonics that clear any residue of high pitta from the summer. They also purify the blood and soothe the eyes. The cooling demulcent and laxative properties of pumpkin soothe the GI tract.
From Ayurvedic expert John Joseph Immel, Founder of Joyful Belly