What is a healthy diet? What you need to understand about Diet and Nutrition

 

So what is a Diet? Diet is what we eat as food for the body. Such as Vegetarian, Pescetarian, Keto, Low fat, High Fat and so on.. A diet tells us a lot about the food that we consume or leave out.

Nutrition is the value or nutrient value the food we eat brings.

The western system has a guide for age and BMI and most of you have heard about the food pyramid showing exactly what foods to include more or less of from the pyramid in our daily food intake. Note: it does not refer to diet rather gives the guidance on the amounts of nutrients we need from our diet.

This pyramid is a good guide to follow for portions and caloric intake to maintain your body’s nutrition levels as per your age and weight. 

The Healthy Eating Pyramid at Nutrition Australia:

https://nutritionaustralia.org/fact-sheets/healthy-eating-pyramid/

Now, here at STA we talk a lot about Ayurvedic diet being a key pillar to support your good health. Since the birth of natural medicine - Ayurvedic diet and the western diet share a common saying by Hippocrates – “Let food be thy medicine” – so everyone that deals with the science of nutrition believes that Food is fuel for the body, it has chemical components that have the ability to harm or heal us.

Ayurvedic diet looks at prescribing foods according to the person’s individual doshas and imbalances. I’ll soon post a link to my Dosha Imbalance test for you to try. In the meantime visit this link here to find out your Dosha and the foods you should favour and avoid:

Dosha Quiz by Chopra Foundation:

https://chopra.com/dosha-quiz

Ayurvedic philosophy when it comes to diet does not believe in eliminating, rather encouraging inclusivity of foods that are compatible to the individual's dosha.

The diet is not 1 size fits all because it sees each person as a unique organism. It also points out that one could know and eat the best foods for them but if their digestion is compromised then eating even the right foods could be of no use. Most people are eating incompatible foods which then result in poor digestion. 

Doshas are made of 5 elements and are present in all things including food. These Doshas are a categorising system used to find compatibility between us and nature.

Ayurvedic nutrition categorises food in tastes because it sees that tastes have a chemical effect with the chemicals of our body. Without going too deep into the nutrition framework – basic rule is – always consume foods of the 6 tastes in your day to promote feeling satiated without needing to eat extra or less. It is a system and a holistic approach. And it is not limited to the indian culture.

This brings me to my last point:

Let's get clear about what is a cuisine? people forget that cuisines are different to diets. Cuisines have an influence of culture. Example: A vegetarian or a non vegetarian dish can be both cooked as an Indian curry, a Spanish paella, an English roasted or barbecue platter. So commonly speaking cuisines have a bigger focus on presentation and taste than nutritional value.

Ayurvedic cooking can be integrated into all cultures because it focuses on compatibility of foods being combined for the person eating it. You can use spices as what is suitable to the method of cooking. And the method of cooking is also specific to the person eating it. Example: if I am Vata dominant it is best for me to eat a more liquid, gravy or soupy dishes because it would keep the nature of my doshas balanced. Whereas if I am Kapha dominant it means I am in need of a drier kind of dish like baked or broiled so it does not aggravate the water element in me.

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