Ayurvedic Tips for Digestion: Eating & Cooking

If you suffer from bloating or indigestion, then this detailed article is for you. It covers Ayurvedic tips on digestion plus full weekly eating plan to help you feel better fast.

If you are suffering from any digestive health issues, then this article will help you greatly. Moreover, the tips shared here will also help you with better mobility, improved energy, better sleep and overall better physical health. 

This article follows in 3 steps - it starts with your Ayurvedic weekly eating plan and then some healthy habits to follow when cooking and eating your meals. These are my exact tips that I follow in all my recipes - try them and see the difference in just one week!

Then, I share with you my Ayurvedic Spiced Tea recipe to help you further with boosting your digestive health and for your overall health. I hope you will try this Ayurvedic weekly eating plan that I designed for you.

Ayurvedic Weekly Eating Plan for Bloating, Stuffiness, Indigestion, Etc. -

1. Have Ragi Porridge for Breakfast - Ragi (finger millet) is a highly nutritious millet and starting your day with a savory, nutrient dense ragi porridge will not only help you with energy but will also help with bloating and in maintaining healthy weight. Moreover, it only takes 10 minutes to make it!

Ragi porridge will also keep you full for a longer time and the fact that it is savory (unlike the sweet breakfasts Americans have or the sugar-spike boosting oatmeal!) will help with stable blood sugar as well.

Recipe - Ragi Porridge

2. Eat Khichdi for Lunch & Dinner - After eating too much for a few days, all that your body needs is a break from digesting heavy foods so you should now focus on eating light meals only. Make some khichdi and have that for lunch and dinner for a few days or possibly a week - this is really what we do in India when we are overstuffed or are sick or even after we have eaten a lot of heavy, fried or outside food like at weddings or other festivities or during festivals. 

Recipe - Khichdi

3. Drink Ayurvedic Takra Once a Day - Takra is a digestive drink and must be made savory and you can take it once or twice per day in between meals. DON'T make this with dairy yogurt - you are trying to heal your gut and reduce bloating, inflammation, etc. so the last thing your body needs is some casein- and hormone-filled dairy! Use a plant based yogurt - the options are many these days and then make this drink. 

Recipe - Takra


4. Sip CCF Tea During the Day - Have some CCF tea during the day but make sure it is warm and you may also add some ginger as well as a pinch of asafoetida (yup! you can add asafoetida to your teas - just a pinch's worth).

Article - CCF Tea

5. Have Ginger & Lemon Salad Before Dinner - All you need to do is chop some ginger, you may boil it in a few spoons of water and then add fresh lemon juice. Let it sit for a few minutes and add the sea salt and spices. Let this beautiful medley sit for 15 mins and then you take it. That is it!

Note - Do not throw the ginger-infused water! It has healing properties of ginger and you can either have it with your salad or drink it later by mixing it with other drinks or your CCF tea.

This ginger-lemon salad needs to be taken 30 minutes prior to your next meal. 

This salad will help you in the following ways -

-helps boost your metabolism and will help with weight loss
-helps with increasing your digestive fire (agni) and stimulates appetite
-creates healthy bile and enzymes 
-stimulates saliva (to prepare the body for incoming food - your next meal)
-keeps gut healthy and keeps inflammation at bay
-will help with aches, stiffness, pains, etc. (healthy gut = NO aches and pains!)

6. Have Healing Cabbage-Radish Recipe with Meals - It is great to add fiber with your meals and what better way than adding two of the best vegetables for digestion - cabbage and radish! Make this recipe and have it daily with your lunch and dinner meals. Cabbage is rich in insoluble fiber which will help with regularity and provide support for the good gut-bacteria. Radish is rich in sulfur which will help prevent any stomach infections, ulcers, diarrhea and constipation. 

Recipe - Healing Cabbage & Radish Vegetable Recipe

7. Finish Your Day with Warm Turmeric Milk or my Ayurvedic Spiced Almond Milk - Have this early in the evening and not too late at night as you never want to drink or eat anything too close to your bedtime. You can have either the warm turmeric milk with cardamom or my Ayurvedic warm milk with spices - both are light and will help you with digesting the food better as well as further increasing your digestive fire due to the presence of digestive spices like cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric and many more!

Check out the recipes and then make these in a plant-based milk of your choice. 

Recipe - Turmeric Milk with Spices

Recipe - Ayurvedic Spiced Warm Almond Milk

So, there is your weekly eating plan - the true Ayurvedic way but what about other Ayurvedic self care tips that can greatly enhance your overall well-being like proper breathing and oil massages?

Here I will give you my best Ayurvedic self care tips - apply these to your daily self care routine along with your weekly eating plan and see the difference. 

Along with these tips, here are some healthy rules to follow when cooking and eating that might help you too.

5 Healthy Habits to Follow for Healthy Eating & Cooking - 

1. Enjoy Healthy Fats Everyday - As you may know by now, I am a HUGE fan of healthy fats both in the form of healthy oils and nuts and seeds. These are crucial for brain health, skin and hair, healthy joints, energy as well as for digestion. So, enjoy some spoons of coconut oil or olive oil with your meals or in morning coffee and take some nuts and seeds as well.

Recipe - Bulletproof Coffee 

2. Have Nuts & Seeds in Cooked Recipes - Another thing I do is I use nuts and seeds in cooked recipes - again, another topic we have recently talked about via various recipes that have been featured in the past newsletters (soak them overnight, then make a paste and add to curries, etc.). Check out the 'Recipes' page for recipes like these. 

3. Never Wash Your Organic Produce - Also, I NEVER wash my organic produce - never! You need that soil from the Earth IF you want healthy digestion and robust immunity with the exception for vegetables like leeks & beets that have way too much soil in them. 

4. Add Greens Only at the End - I never ever add any greens to my recipes early on in the process. Watch any of my recipe videos and you will see time and time again that I always add greens at the end of the recipe cooking process - even then, I wait good 20 minutes or so after the recipe is fully cooked and the stove if off, then I add greens, just enough to wilt them but NOT to cook them!

5. Add Organic Apple Cider Vinegar or Lemon Juice at the End - After you have finished cooking your food and added the greens, add some organic apple cider vinegar or lemon juice or both when the food has almost cooled down. This will add some probiotics due to apple cider vinegar and both apple cider vinegar and lemon will help with better food digestion. 

I follow these tips each and every time I cook. Watch my recipe videos, make the recipes and let it become your way of cooking - you will see the benefits...:) 

Here is a special Ayurvedic spiced tea to help you more with digestion and overall health. 

Ayurvedic Spiced Tea Recipe -

If you are feeling sluggish, bloated, have gas or constipation issues, try this Ayurvedic inspired spiced tea -

Ingredients - 
​
Cloves - 4 whole cloves or 1/3rd Teaspoon clove powder

Asafetida (Hing) - Pinch's worth

Ginger or ginger powder - About 1 Teaspoon

Cumin powder or seeds - 1 Teaspoon

Fennel or powder - 1.5 Teaspoons

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 to 1 Teaspoon (it will be bitter so depends on your tolerance level)

Carom seeds (ajwain) - 1/2 Teaspoon to 1 Teaspoon

Steps - 

Water - About 3 to 4 big cups of water or less if you really have issues and need it to be more concentrated. You can also add some green tea leaves to make it more healthier.

Have this 'tea' about two times a day in between meals. Do NOT drink it cold - no. You take out a little bit at a time (about 4 to 6 oz.), warm it and then drink it.

This is also great for those who have weak immune systems or weak circulation so it is really a great tea to incorporate in your daily health regimen especially during the winter months as it is warming.

I hope all these tips help you with better overall health but especially better and much improved digestion, mobility, healthy weight and improved energy. 

-Somyata

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