Ayurvedic Cooking - Healing through food

Enjoy Ayurvedic cooking for health, happiness and healing...

Ayurveda says that food plays an essential part in one's health and sense of well-being. The food that we eat impacts the body and mind. While experiences and sense perceptions also feed the mind and also impact health.

Preface: Ayurvedic Cooking for Self-Healing

During and after my internship, I worked as a house physician in the departments of medicine, surgery, gynecology and pediatrics at the Ayurvedic Hospital in Pune. At that time I observed repeatedly how correct diet, combined with proper herbal medicine and lifestyle, can play a vital role in healing. I became increasingly aware that illness provides an 'invitation' to change one’s habitual patterns.

As my awareness grew about the role of food as medicine, I observed that many health problems seemed intertwined with the stresses of daily life. These include worries about one’s job or money, tension and even the stress created by eating the wrong kinds of food and improper food combining. In the last twenty years I have seen many problems, sometimes culminating in serious illness, that were the result of poor food choices and ignorance of the art of proper cooking for oneself and for the family.

In this book you will find simple, practical approaches to food and specific recipes from the Ayurvedic art of cooking to help restore the body’s healthful balance. Though there is much helpful information within these covers, this book is not proposed as a treatment plan for any disease. This, of course, you must obtain from your own doctor.

I met my wife Usha at the Ayurvedic Hospital in Pune where she was a student of Ayurvedic nursing. After we were married, Usha began using her knowledge and love of Ayurveda as her guiding light in preparing our meals. She always brings great love and respect to every stage of food preparation, and she cooks each meal with all of her heart.

My wish is that you will discover in these pages a creative program for better health for yourself and your family. These recipes and healing ways are meant to enter your life as a natural method of healing without any side effects or reactions. Enjoy your Ayurvedic cooking for health, happiness and the healing of family and friends.
God bless you with love and light.
Dr Vasant Lad

Summary

This book mainatins an Ayurvedic approach to food and delicious vegetarian cooking. The recipes are formulated using herbs and spices to help balance the constitution of each person. The effects of the foods on individual constitution is included with every recipe together with the medicinal properties of many of the foods.

The chapters in this book include: the principles of Ayurveda and individual constitution; maintaining one's health, digestion and constitutional balance; the importance of proper food combining for optimal well-being; setting up an Ayurvedic kitchen and planning menus inclusive of every member of your family and more than 100 recipes of delicious Ayurvedic dishes.

The book includes: about 300 simple remedies for everything from the common cold and skin problems to stabilizing blood sugar in diabetics, all using familiar household herbs, fruits and vegetables! A chart for determining your individual constitution. Comprehensive food guidelines for basic constitutional types and a list describing the qualities of foods and their affects on the doshas.

About the Author

Dr. Vasant Lad presently is the Director of The Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico and teaches the Ayurvedic Studies Program and, for more advanced study, the Gurukula Program as well as a program in India each year. Dr. Lad also travels throughout the world, consulting privately and giving seminars on Ayurveda; its history, theory, principles and practical applications.

Dr. Lad brings a wealth of classroom and practical experience to the world. He received the degree of Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine & Surgery from the University of Pune, in Pune, India in 1968 and a Master of Ayurvedic Science from Tilak Ayurved Mahavidyalaya in Pune, India in 1980. For 3 years he served as Medical Director of the Ayurveda Hospital in Pune, India.

Dr. Lad's academic and practical training includes the study of allopathic medicine (Western Medicine) and surgery as well as traditional Ayurveda.

Anisha Sharma