Stabilize Your Blood Sugar With Ayurveda

ayurveda snackingIf you're one of the millions of people who suffer from low blood sugar, you probably have been advised to eat frequent, small meals throughout your day.  Believe it or not, this advice is totally the opposite of what traditional Ayurvedic medicine recommends.  As you've likely heard me say a million times, Ayurveda teaches that the root cause of all disease is improper digestion.  So with this focus, you can trust Ayurveda to have a very thorough understanding of what optimal digestion is! What I'm about to explain to you may be contrary to what you've heard, but if you'd like to uncover the underlying cause of your blood sugar instability, check this out.

What Happens When You Eat Frequently

In our society, food is everywhere.  It's almost hard to avoid eating all the time!  Except breakfast, which people tend to skip.  (Click here to read about the importance of breakfast.)  But let's say you eat breakfast, and then around 10 am you have a muffin, or fruit, or nuts.  Healthy snack, right?  Well your digestive fire, your metabolic process, now turns its attention to the new food coming in.  The problem here is that during the 5 or so hours between meals, you are really supposed to be burning fat, not new food.

Fat is our calm, stable, non-emergency fuel. 

Stored in there, too, are all the fat-soluble toxins from the environment.  So fat burning is totally crucial! Not just for weight loss, but to detoxify our bodies and also release the essential fatty acids and stable fuels that regulate our blood sugar levels, and in turn our mood and energy level.  If we're constantly giving our digestion new food to focus on, then we never enter fat-burning mode.

Read more: Stabilize Your Blood Sugar With Ayurveda

Sea Veggie Recipe For Summer

santa fe ayurvedic hijiki Have you ever wanted to make sea vegetables a part of your family's diet but just didn't know how?  Sushi is a common way to get seaweed into a meal, but it can be pretty time consuming.  I love the following recipe because it's really easy to make and totally delicious.  Sea veggies should be a regular part of your diet because they are high in minerals, trace elements, and B vitamins.  The high iodine content in seaweed makes it the ideal choice for anyone with thyroid issues.  And from an Ayurvedic perspective, the cooling energy of vegetables from the sea balance the entire body during the heat of summer.

Seaweed Saute Recipe

The best sea veggies to use in this recipe are hijiki or arame.  They are small and almost the same texture as the noodles they can be served with!

1/2 cup hijiki or arame

3/4 cup grated carrots

3/4 cup diced yellow onion

1 Tbs. coconut oil

1 1/2 tsp. tamari

1 Tbs. raw honey

1/2 tsp. grated ginger

pinch of cayenne

1 tsp. toasted sesame oil

1 Tbs. toasted sesame seeds

1 package of soba, udon, or rice noodles.

Rinse the seaweed with fresh water and then soak for 30 minutes.  Drain and rinse once or twice more. 

Saute the carrots and onions in coconut oil for 3 minutes.  Add seaweed to veggies and toss over heat for 2 minutes.  Add tamari, honey, ginger and cayenne.

Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove cover and simmer away any excess liquid.  Remove from heat and toss with sesame oil and sesame seeds.

Serve over udon, soba or rice noodles.  It's even good cold.  I promise you and your family will love this!

How To Satisfy A Sweet Tooth Without Eating Sweets

ayurveda empty sweetWhat if I told you that there was a way to satisfy your sweet tooth without actually eating anything sweet?  By changing what you think of as sweet, you can really accomplish this.  Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese medicine both emphasize the need to include all six tastes in your daily diet, so we still want to acknowledge the importance of the sweet flavor, just not sugar itself.  Here's a revolutionary way for you honor your sweet cravings without feeding the desire for sugar.

Empty Sweets vs. Full Sweets

Traditional Chinese Medicine makes a beautiful and radical distinction between empty sweets and full sweets.  Empty sweets are treats containing any sweetener.  I'm talking raw sugar, honey, maply syrup, agave, brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup.  You get the picture.  While some sweeteners are certainly healthier than others, the point is that they are still empty sweets.  They are called "empty" because while they momentarily satisfy a sweet craving, they do nothing to nourish our digestion, so we are left wanting it more and more.

Read more: How To Satisfy A Sweet Tooth Without Eating Sweets

The Lazy Cook's Superfood Tostada

natural health superfood tostadaI think a lot of you can relate when I say it can be challenging to figure out what to make for dinner every night. Especially when we're aiming to make something really healthy and tasty, and for the whole family! Recently I got the brilliant idea to throw all my favorite super-nutritious beans and grains in the crockpot and call it chili.  On top of natural corn chips and with lots of fun toppings, this awesome version of a tostada is high in protein, minerals and fiber, and is easy and quick to prepare. This nutrition-packed recipe is sure to become one of your favorites too.

Read more: The Lazy Cook's Superfood Tostada

Ayurvedic Cleansing Diet

ayurvedic kitchariOne of the hardest things about doing any kind of cleanse is feeling deprived and hungry. Ayurveda recommends eating a mono diet of the traditional dish called Kitchari while cleansing. It is nourishing and easy to digest. It allows the digestive fire to focus on  burning off old toxins instead of on the new food coming in. Here's a recipe you'll enjoy anytime, whether you're doing a cleanse, recovering from an illness, or simply giving your digestion a much needed break.

Read more: Ayurvedic Cleansing Diet

Genuine Chai

ayurvedic chaiThe chai recipe I'm famous for is a synthesis of recipes from several ashrams I've lived at. I can thank the Hanuman Temple in Taos, NM and the Ayurvedic Institute for inspiring my love of chai. This recipe was then refined during my time at the Siddha Yoga Ashram in South Fallsburg, NY and at Ananda Ashram in Monroe, NY.

Like many Ayurvedic recipes, the chai ingredients have two purposes - they enhance the flavor and they are medicinal too. The stimulant effect of the caffeine in black tea is mitigated by the digestive benefits of the spices.

I usually just eye it, but I've tried to get more formal here:

Fill a large pot with 3 cups of water. Grate 3 Tbs. of fresh ginger into the water. Toss in 6 cinnamon sticks, 1 Tbs. whole cloves, & 1 1/2 Tbs. cardamom pods. Grate 1/4 tsp. nutmeg into the water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Add 3 cups of whole milk and turn up the heat. Do not walk away from the pot. Just stand by and sing and wait for the chai to froth up to the rim of the pot and then immediately turn off the flame or remove from heat. Now sprinkle loose Indian black tea to cover the entire surface of the chai. Indian Red Label or Taj Mahal is best. Stir and let steep for 5 minutes. Strain into a thermos and sweeten with raw sugar.

Traditional Indian chai is sweet, so to really be authentic, don't be frugal with the sugar. This is the best chai you'll ever have.  Your friends will insist that you make it for parties and brunches. You may find yourself unable to drink store-bought or cafe chai ever again.