Antipyretics for children are prescribed by a pediatrician. But there are emergency situations with fever when the child needs to be given medicine immediately. Then the parents take responsibility and use antipyretic drugs. What is allowed to be given to infants? How can you lower the temperature in older children? What medications are the safest?
Products of "Russian Ayurveda"
When asked about the predominant Russian product, the answer will be very simple - meat. At the same time, “traditional Ayurvedologists” may simply lose their senses, since meat is not only not used by classical Ayurveda, but is not even considered. However, the Indians can be understood: if you keep a cow as a sacred animal, you can hardly count on a steak.
A number of works on Ayurveda give the following classification of tastes: virya, rasa, vipaka. It is as difficult for a Russian person to understand this as it is for an Indian to understand the quality of a steak or the delights of stew and potatoes. On the other hand, “the casket always opens simply.” Virya determines the taste effect of food, so translators usually convey this concept as “taste on the tongue” (although it is unclear where else this taste could be present, if not on the tongue). Race is usually not explained at all. However, rasa is the body’s reaction to the digestion of a product in the sense of the energy costs that the body needs for this process. Vipak is simply the final energy value. This can be understood simply: vipak of sugar cools. Therefore, if you give a child sweet water at a temperature, the temperature will drop, since sugar requires a lot of energy for the “decomposition” process. This energy will, as it were, be “pulled away”. Naturally, then it will “give up energy,” but in the form of glucose. Therefore, if you give your patient sweet water with lemon in case of temperature crises, you will not go wrong. The acidity of lemon, its sour taste, tends to warm, so the lemon's flavor counteracts the temperature-lowering effect of sugar. But its main effect - detoxification - will prevail.
Here we come to the most important problem of the applicability of practical Ayurveda. The products as such are rarely consumed. When you cook, it's like you're "creating a recipe." And this is the most difficult, but also the most interesting activity. Let's get back to the meat. As you know, Ayurveda distinguishes “several kingdoms”: the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom. Each next one “eats” the previous one. It is quite clear that the “food” for plants is fertilizers, organic and mineral. By the way, science recently discovered a species of lichen (somewhere in Norway) that eats granite “directly” - without “any food additives.” However, we are interested here not so much in the taste preferences of lichens, but in understanding the fact that when one kingdom “eats” another, “concentration and compaction of energy” occurs.
Thus, instead of one kilogram of meat, to obtain the same energy value, you need to eat the same amount of vegetables as a cow eats hay per “recorded kilogram of weight.” On the other hand, our climate, cold winters and a life full of stress require increased “energy” replenishment of our body. Therefore, if you are carried away by a vegetable diet, and by definition it is “light” and, therefore, provokes the pathogenesis of wind, i.e. Vata pathogenesis sharply increases, we will get exactly this imbalance. Vata imbalance: nervous, mental disorders or mental problems in general. Therefore, any indulgence in light food should be carried out in the complete absence of any hint of stress. Otherwise, neuroses, psychoses and the whole bouquet of accompanying conditions are guaranteed to you.
On the other hand, meat has a high energy concentration. If the immune system is deficient - if the body is weakened - it will cause increased intoxication. As a matter of fact, the creation of the necessary digestive fire for the assimilation of meat - agni - will cause an increased appearance of ash - intoxication. The correspondence scheme here is extremely simple: the more frost in winter, the more often and hotter we heat the stove, the more often it is necessary to remove the ashes. Otherwise, all the chimneys will clog.
An alternative proposal to engage in meditative procedures in this situation on the topic “we feel good and warm without a stove” is left at your discretion.
Thus, the “meat problem” in the version of “Russian Ayurveda” leads us to the need:
- Its use in connection with specific natural and climatic conditions.
- On the other hand, there is a clear need to take measures to enhance the detoxification process, otherwise increased slag formation will lead you to exactly the state that every “American Ayurvedologist” talks about at every corner: intoxication, immunosuppression, a bunch of cardiovascular and other diseases.
Therefore, in order to eat meat, you need to “invent” a certain Ayurvedic compensation.
Firstly, any “frying” that has a dark brown color and rancid odor sharply destabilizes the functioning of the stomach and pancreas. Whether we are talking about fried meat or fried potatoes, you need to know what we are going for. Naturally, anything boiled or steamed is favorable. If we like to eat meat, and not just meat, but well-fried meat, additional stimulation of digestion and slag drainage is required. Digestion is stimulated by fire - the red color or pungent taste. So you should fry meat only with pepper - it to some extent compensates for the problems of indigestibility of fried meat.
If we want to stew meat in foil, the most best recipe- add a good amount of garlic to it. The action of garlic: hot, spicy. It perfectly activates the digestion of meat stewed in foil. Accordingly, all broths and soups must contain the appropriate flavor components - spices. But their taste orientation is determined by your Ayurvedic constitution.
So, for example, if the complexity of living conditions causes increased stress, we are dealing with a clear destabilization of “vata”. This can be compensated for by increasing mucus. Broth is always slimy, so without flavorings - spices - it will have a bright soothing effect along the line of reducing fire. However, such “calming” will increase mucus in the body and reduce the fire of agni, which can cause increased intoxication. Therefore, in cases of acute mental instability, the broth is good in its pure form. In a “normal” state - if you do not experience any mental ailments - the excess “mucilage” of the broth can be easily compensated for by adding spices to it. On the other hand, increased stress and the need for meat food, one way or another, lead to intoxication. Therefore, once every three months you should carry out Ayurvedic cleansing (without offering cleansing enemas, massages, etc. as usual, which has a very beneficial effect on reducing intoxication) - eat buckwheat porridge for at least 10 days.
It should be borne in mind that fasting times are always associated with reduced energy activity of the body, therefore, during these periods, eating meat leads to “massive” intoxication. Therefore, during these periods you should consider either increased detoxification measures or simply fasting. In any case, as studies by nutritionists and therapists who use fasting in their practice show, it is during these periods, periods of fasting, that any cleansing procedures, including fasting, act most favorably - brightly, i.e. powerful, but gentle - do not cause exacerbations. As you know, at least 40 percent of patients have to stop fasting on the third day due to the onset of “collapse” intoxication.
Recipe for "Professor Preobrazhensky"
The professor, as everyone knows from the film “Heart of a Dog,” “used,” and not just “used,” but only “in cooking,” i.e. the product is natural, and not just natural, but “like the best Moscow snack.” The best snack from an Ayurvedic point of view is one that compensates for the main pathogenesis of the “product”. For vodka, the main pathogenesis is fire with water. Thus, drinking vodka sharply increases fire: it stimulates digestion, increases metabolic processes, and leads to hyperactivity of the “fire system”: heart-small intestine. The "water" component - black in color - stimulates the kidneys and bladder, which, when overstimulated, leads to fatigue of the corresponding system.
“Fatigue” of the water system is its hypofunction, or the pathogenesis of “dryness,” which many may have noted after excessive consumption of this food product. How is “morning dryness” compensated? To normalize kidney activity, liver activity should be activated. The liver activates everything green and everything sour (liver stimulants - green color and sour taste). Therefore, the recipe for cabbage or cucumber brine is quite justified from an Ayurvedic point of view. Brine is always sour, and since it is not young cabbage that is fermented, but mature cabbage, it has a green color. There's no point in mentioning cucumbers - they're just green. Therefore, the effect of the corresponding “drug” will be “sour and green”. Which optimally compensates for the pathogenesis of dryness.
At this point, anyone might think that something wrong is happening to the author. To which the answer is the well-known proverb: “Force a fool to pray to God, he will bruise his forehead.” Here you need to know that vodka first appeared in Rus' in the Sovereign Pharmacy, located on the site of the current Historical Museum. Alcohol infusion of herbs in those days was used only for medicinal purposes. The ability of the Russian people to “aggravate” is now a national tradition.
However, of all alcohol-containing “products” it is worth highlighting: vodka, cognac, whiskey.
Vodka in a volume of 30 g at lunch can perfectly compensate for the problems associated with eating meat. The order in which these “products” are listed corresponds to how they should be used for various systemic conditions, so that, for asthma, diabetes, oncology, these drugs are advisable to use 30g daily at bedtime (Madame Thatcher’s recipe). It is important to remember:
- Their value corresponds to the specified order. Those. cognac is better than vodka, whiskey is better than cognac.
- Vodka itself increases fire, stimulates cardiac activity, burns sugar, but provokes increased intoxication. Intoxication is always a consequence of acidity, and it can be normalized by a bland astringent taste, which determines the alkaline basis of the drug’s action.
- Consequently, cognac, which contains tannins, causes less intoxication due to its alkaline components than vodka. Consequently, it is more favorable to use (as everyone remembers: “better, of course, five stars”). Naturally, taking into account the quality of the product. Imported cognacs used for dessert have a reduced quality of the “alkaline base” and increased aromatization. Therefore, they are practically inapplicable for medicinal purposes. According to their medicinal properties, they are arranged as follows: Georgian, Armenian, Moldavian and all others. At the same time, all the others are, as a rule, inapplicable. So, for example, Greek cognacs, despite having a good initial basis, have recently “become strongly influenced by Paris”. The use of flavorings and the sharp drop in quality make it practically impossible to talk about their beneficial effects.
- Whiskey, in terms of medicinal properties, always better than cognacs. Cognac, being made from wine alcohols, always contains fructose components, etc. and has side effects. Therefore, Madame Thatcher's recipe: 30g of whiskey at night. Whiskey, which is simply alcohol infused in oak barrels, contains alcohol and tannins in their pure form and has no additional by-products. It is important to remember: what the first glass improves, the second and all subsequent ones sharply worsen. With the exception of one recipe: for increased fatigue, stress, etc. (recipe from Mr. Shevchik - a good specialist in traditional oriental medicine) you should immediately drink 100g (half a glass) of good cognac and immediately go to bed. This recipe assumes a certain impact of action, the consequence of which will be a sharp elimination of toxins in the peripheral cellular level. The next morning your health will improve. If you try to drink the same dose step by step, glass by glass, the consequences will be completely opposite.
It must be borne in mind that the stress component in relation to vodka, although quite understandable in our lives, sharply limits the possibilities of therapy (especially in women) for many conditions. In this case, you can use tinctures. All components (herbs) are always pre-dried in a cool, dry place, shaded from sunlight. It is best to infuse herbs directly in vodka (preferably homemade) for two months, until the characteristic color of the tincture appears. It is better to use tinctures in the form of drops at night (30-60 drops), but with increased stress, 30g is also good.
The effect of the tincture is determined by the components that are included in its composition:
- Dill, tarragon (tarragon), anise are wet preparations. They are indicated for the pathogenesis of dryness: hypoactivity of the genitourinary system, the kidney-bladder system gallbladder, as well as with all the hypoactive orientation of the body as a whole (hypotonicity, hypoacidity, etc.). At the same time, dill tinctures are indicated for “dry ladies” who are underweight - the pathogenesis of vata. And tarragon and anise are indicated for “overweight ladies” - the pathogenesis of kapha. With the same pathogenesis of water deficiency, the second case requires the addition of spicy substances to the composition to compensate. Therefore, in case of hypotonicity, it is better to use dried young dill in tinctures. For weight loss, i.e. for kapha imbalance, it is better to use spicy ingredients, i.e. make a tincture, for example, with dill seeds.
- Of course, tinctures can be made on everything. At the same time, our “eastern friends” use snakes and all sorts of other things. This exoticism, of course, is of no use to us. When used in tinctures of St. John's wort, celandine, etc. there is a simple way to determine their final effect: the yellow-green color of the tincture, the color of “hay” or “straw” indicates the “wet” action of the drug - it increases the tonicity of the genitourinary system, therefore, it is indicated for degenerative conditions (organophases) or fatigue (functional load) of these systems. Therefore, if we are talking about nephrosis, urinary and cholelithiasis, arthrosis, etc., this particular group is indicated - the humidity should be increased. Preparations that have a final color from bright yellow, “ripe,” to brown, on the contrary, have the effect of increasing dryness, therefore, are indicated for any forms of hyperactivity - hypertonicity, hyperacidity, nephritis (instead of nephrosis), arthritis (instead of arthrosis). So, we wish you health, but “without aggravation”!
Ayurvedic culinary workshop
As we already know, there are two applications of Ayurvedic science: diet and nutrition system. Diet implies a certain therapeutic effect on the human body. Therefore, all “dietary recipes” are formed from products that have a healing effect. Cooking recipes in this case, they cannot be given, since everyone’s health is the same, but their illnesses are different, or let’s say, “everyone has their own.” But it is quite possible to give a number of general recommendations:
Point one - when creating a diet, the first thing you should do is evaluate which foods and flavors are “harmful.” If we are talking about a disease in the compensation stage, when you have already been diagnosed, but in general you feel good, and this disease does not bother you, it is better to focus on evaluating products according to the Ayurvedic constitution, that is, according to dosha. We already have a “plate” that determines the “harmfulness and usefulness” of various products for Ayurvedic constitutions. So, based on this table (Table “Recommendations for choosing foods for tridosha”), you simply eliminate from your diet those foods that “harm” your constitution.
Point two - then it is advisable to make a list of products that are acceptable for your constitution and, using this list, more carefully evaluate these products using a table that gives a description of each product separately. So the first table, “Recommendations for choosing products for tridosha” (Table 4), is given for initial orientation, and the table describing the qualities of products (Table 5) is given for refined selection and preparation of specific diets.
Point three. If your disease bothers you and, moreover, you are taking some kind of treatment as prescribed by a doctor, the evaluation of products should be done even more carefully. The main thing here is to look at which foods have a negative effect on your “sick organs”. Here it is better to focus on the color and taste of the products, since, oddly enough, it is these two qualities that determine their effect on organs and systems. For example, a diet selected according to the constitution is always “softer”; for the most part it affects the entire body as a whole, normalizing metabolic processes. And its striking influence on individual organs is not assessed. This means that in general “you are healthy.” If you have a disease, and even in a severe form, then more interest should be shown specifically in the diseased organs and systems, which are more influenced by therapeutic factors, and these are, first of all, taste and color.
Here we can say that taste and color have a rather weak effect on a healthy person, since the adaptation system of our body - the immune system - compensates for this effect. If you and I are sick, our immunity is weakened, so the influence of taste and color will be much stronger. Well, that is, their influence as a whole will, of course, remain the same, it’s just that our “sick organs” will react much more vividly.
Finally, point four. There is a possibility, as you already know, of creating a purely therapeutic diet, which can have a very strong healing effect on our body. Even with conditions such as psoriasis, asthma and diabetes, it can not only “help”, but also be the main therapeutic factor - practically cure.
Therefore, for any disease, our recommendations are as follows: first, carry out a cleanse - “a course of buckwheat porridge”, and then “eat according to your constitution.” This option has a mild therapeutic effect and practically works flawlessly. Even the information presented in this work allows you to achieve a good effect.
So all culinary advice and recipes will be given for the purpose of “harmonization”; the recipes will be compiled in such a way as not to upset the balance of the tridoshas, but, on the contrary, to promote their balance when using a wide variety of products. In this sense, Ayurvedic cooking is the knowledge of how to use all possible products not only without harm to health, but also for the benefit of the “eater”.
It goes without saying that we will talk not so much about recipes as about cooking rules, since the main task that the author sets for himself in this section is to help make familiar dishes more healthy, or rather “less dangerous.” And since every housewife always has her own recipes, we will consider the rules of compatibility and combination of products and tastes.
Salads
(Ayurvedic concept of salad preparation)
Salads, as you know, have a special appeal, especially among that group of the population for which they are not at all indicated - women with an “element of thinness” (always a Vata imbalance).
We are, of course, not talking about “Moscow salad” - this is a “total tavern” from an Ayurvedic point of view, and no mechanisms of taste correction will change this, but about normal “green” salads based on fresh herbs and vegetables. To begin with, you and I will have to experience a feeling of slight disappointment. Along with meat, tomatoes are also included in the list of Ayurvedic “poisons”. The mention of “Moscow salad” is associated with the need, when choosing dishes, to decide what you and I want - “to be treated” or “to be poisoned”. Because not everything tasty is healthy. The idea, so beloved in Rus', that you can do both at once, is not very realistic. Unfortunately, in all respects, both taste and action pattern, tomatoes always provoke increased acidity and autointoxication. Unlike ghee, which “improves all constitutions” - vata, pitta, kapha, tomatoes worsen all these constitutions.
Now we can talk about the good. At the beginning about “national inclinations”. Features of the “national character” lead to the fact that every nation has a tendency to one or another type of pathogenesis, which is associated with place of residence, natural conditions, etc. As you and I already know, the predominant pathogenesis of Indians is kapha imbalance. All of them have a fairly calm, even character; a national feature is a tendency to excess weight and, accordingly, intoxication. The East in this sense is a “delicate matter” or, in fact, a “complete” one, with a prevailing pathogenesis along the liver-gallbladder line. Which, in general, determines the decrease in agni and the tendency to intoxication. Unlike Indians, the French are more prone to vata pathogenesis. Excessive emotionality, and, as a result, neuroticism, are signs of vata - an imbalance that always determines the redundancy of mental processes. The national peculiarity of the inhabitants of the Central Russian Upland is rather an imbalance of pitta, hyperactivity as a consequence of the need to counteract difficult climatic conditions. Hyperactive liver (unlike India where the liver-gallbladder system is hypoactive).
Moreover, if someone tells you that all these constitutions are “just nonsense,” he will not be so wrong, since the correct understanding of the term “constitution” is a disease or pathogenic process. Any “healthy” person carries all three constitutions - vata - pitta - kapha or psyche, functions of organs and systems, metabolic processes. If any disease is observed, it can always be defined in terms of constitutions. For example, an increased psycho-emotional status, easily leading to neuroses, is defined as “excess vata.” Hyperactivity of the functions of organs and systems, for example, the cardiovascular system, hypertension, arthritis, etc. are defined as pitta - imbalance. Excess weight, decreased functions of the endocrine system, genitourinary system are defined as kapha - imbalance. Diagnostics consists of the fact that at the mere mention of these conditions, it is important to try to observe the entire symptom complex contained in the description of the constitution. Therefore, the description of the constitution is nothing more than a description of the pathogenic process of the corresponding orientation. And the corresponding methods of “leveling the tridosha balance” are methods of compensatory therapy.
Let's continue our study of "salads". For a pitta constitution (strong or masculine constitution) it is required to “throw more wood into the stove.” As we understand it, meat is needed here. Therefore, if a man (meaning the traditionally male nature of pathogenesis: brightness, strength, “stubbornness,” “stupidity”) does not receive meat on time, then the fire burning inside him will cause a sharp exacerbation of pathogenesis in the direction of not the best qualities: when burned, firewood becomes " lighter", therefore the pathogenesis of lightness, or vata - pathogenesis, will prevail. Accordingly, we will be dealing with vivid mental states, such as rage, jealousy, anger with the desire to smash and destroy everything around us. From which it follows that when trying to “transfer the male part of the population of the Central Russian Upland to pasture - salads,” you should think carefully about whether you want to observe the corresponding manifestations. Or it is better to think through mechanisms for compensating for hyperintoxication that will arise as a result of eating meat products. On the other hand, “when trying to have a good drink with friends,” we will be dealing with the pathogenesis of fire, which destabilizes the psyche. We have already considered the scheme of action of mental destabilization. So, here too you should not forget about meat snacks. It is absolutely clear that such elements of our life belong to the category of “poisoning” and not “treating”. However, since you and I will have to treat, it is better to minimize the pathogenic influence of these factors by compensating. As they say, “I don’t care about fat, I wish I was alive.” The last aphorism is a diagram of any clinical recommendations in acute conditions, when we are trying to minimize only the damage caused to health, and the problem of recovery arises further, after the patient leaves the acute state.
Unlike men, whose predominant pathogenesis is defined as pitta pathogenesis, women have a predominant tendency to vata pathogenesis. Moreover, if we are talking about a “purely Russian woman” who will “stop a galloping horse,” we have a mixed pathogenesis: vata + pitta (problems of both the kidneys and liver). If a lady has a more “ghostly” constitution (underweight), we only have vata - an imbalance.
As a result, the conversations of some “specialists in Ayurvedic sciences” about the problems of “compatibility of constitutions” are very interesting, since when mixing constitutions, and, as we understand, this is just a disease, or a picture of pathogenesis, we simply have the addition of two diseases with a sharp deterioration in the patient’s condition due to their mutual action on each other. Thus, “sick kidneys” simply “worsen the condition of the liver” (vata pathogenesis), and if the liver is also sick, then in addition, it significantly “worsens the condition of the kidneys” (pathogenesis scheme: vata + pitta). If at the same time there is a constitutional tendency to disrupt metabolic processes, then in this case the lady will not only “not stop a galloping horse,” but will also walk through the door “sideways.” In this case, there will be a sharp, “landslide” increase in weight, a sharp drop in the function of the endocrine system, leading to the most severe conditions (pathogenesis vata + pitta + kapha). All this, of course, is quite crude. But what can we do, you and I, as they say, will have to heal, and we should maintain emotional stability.
All this consideration is connected only with the fact that any woman ultimately has a tendency, to one degree or another, to vata pathogenesis (female image: impressionability, fatigue, tenderness, etc.). No salads are shown in this case. It should be borne in mind that the problem of “feeding a woman salad” is only slightly simpler than “feeding a man meat.” In the first case, we have the problem of intoxication, in the second, for the “salad”, we have the problem of liver hyperactivity - due to the green color with corresponding hyperacidity, increased blood pressure, heartburn, etc., mental hyperactivity, up to the observation of elements of neuroses, psychoses and hysteria. It is worth noting here that in the presence of migraine, we can confidently talk about " good neurosis on a hysterical basis."
The main problem of salads, or the scheme of their pathogenesis, is that they are excessively “green” and “light”. As you and I already know, green is poorly absorbed by the stomach. Therefore, to increase digestibility, the salad must be “yellowed” by adding a yellow component, for example, vegetable oil. Since you know from the product description table that vegetable oil is a “heavy” product, the salad acquires the necessary “heaviness”. Thus, eating greens in their pure form without oil sharply increases the vata component, but a salad dressed with vegetable oil becomes more neutral with regard to pathogenesis. Here the question arises that this is, in general, how it is usually done. But “born vatas” (the French) always add garlic to this recipe. Oil, “weighting” the salad, compensates for the negative effect of greens, introducing, however, excess heaviness due to its own qualities. The problem with vegetable oil is that it is difficult to digest. And, accordingly, to compensate for it, it is necessary to increase the fire of agni - to stimulate digestion. Agni fire is stimulated “according to science” by the use of hot and spicy ingredients. Here we can state with surprise that the French have “Ayurveda in their blood”, since the active quality of garlic is spicy-hot (unlike onions, whose qualities are pungent and bitter). The simplest recommendations for producing any type of green salad: add a little garlic to the usual recipe. Garlic here is not a food agent, but a taste agent. And it should create only the necessary taste, like an ordinary spice. So, to make your green salad not only tasty, nutritious, but also a safe dish, you need to add no more than half a medium clove of garlic to it.
There is another way. To make your salad more original, you can prepare special garlic oil for the salad. To do this, add 2 cloves of garlic to sunflower oil (per 1 liter) and heat it in a metal bowl without bringing it to a boil. Once cooled, the garlic can be removed and discarded, and your garlic butter will be the perfect addition to any green salads.
As a means of rehabilitation and, hoping for forgiveness for “discussing alcoholic beverages,” we note that with regard to the tomatoes we love so much, their main negative quality is acid. It's not just about acid. In particular, if you sprinkle your salad with a little more lemon, it will be no worse, but better, since citric acid is easily absorbed. And, by the way, with pitta imbalance (liver, intoxication, excess weight, arthritis, neurodermatitis, psoriasis, asthma, etc.) it is the only food acid, the use of which not only does not worsen the situation, but significantly improves it. Therefore, the problem with tomatoes, unfortunately, is that tomato acid is fundamentally harmful to the body, which “only acidifies and nothing more.” And in its effect on the body it is very similar to nitrogen. But “Ayurvedic need for invention is cunning”: if you want to eat, know how to heal. Compensation for the pathogenic effects of sour is always hot and spicy. Therefore, you can easily surprise your guests by adding more ground spices, such as cloves, cinnamon, etc., to your salad along with vegetable oil - let’s take care of the mucous membrane. in accordance with the recommendations: “rash, rash, don’t be sorry.” Culinary connoisseurs will correctly assume that you and I can create “medicinal oil for tomatoes,” which is absolutely true. Unlike the previous case, when preparing such oil (based on sunflower or any other), pour more spices into it (according to the scheme already given), boil thoroughly (5-10 minutes) and let it brew for a day. Naturally, it is better to add green cucumbers to such a salad - green and fresh (lye) as opposed to red and sour, and, accordingly, green or yellow sweet peppers. Naturally, in this case, it is not advisable to use red pepper in a salad with tomatoes. In this version of preparation, your salad will be eaten with pleasure by a patient for whom it is not indicated at all, for example, with gastritis. Naturally, you shouldn’t get carried away with this.
Salads come in different varieties. We have looked in some detail at “green” salads, or the rules for “handling greens”. Very healthy and also fashionable lately are salads “from everything” that is eaten fresh. When preparing them, the rule of Ayurvedic compensation should also be taken into account. So, for example, if you and I want to prepare a salad from “heavy” vegetables, we should take measures to “lighten” them. “Heavy” vegetables include all root vegetables: carrots, beets, etc. “Heavy” products are like hard wood: they burn for a long time and sluggishly, although they provide a lot of heat. For example, it is known that birch is very suitable for fireboxes, since its wood is denser than spruce. Oak wood is even warmer, although of course such wood is rarely used, since oak is good for other purposes. The warmest is coal, although it requires special ignition. So it is with you and me: “heavy” foods require special “ignition” or stimulation of the fire of agni - stimulation of the processes of digestion and metabolism. Here you and I can use all seasonings that stimulate agni fire. A “hot” taste is spicy, and the hottest of the spicy ones is red chili pepper. However, this option is not always suitable for people from the Central Russian Plains. Or, let’s say, taste “extremism” is more suitable for southerners than for us, people of “average taste orientations.” There is another taste that, unlike hot, is “warm” - this is the spicy taste. Therefore, to compensate for “heavy” products, you can use hot and spicy components. It should be borne in mind that onions are bitter-spicy, and garlic is spicy-spicy. In this case, the onion is “green” and the garlic is “white”. Like any “bitter green product,” onions directly stimulate the liver, which, in turn, has a stimulating effect on the heart (the “U-Xing” rule). This rule explains the fact that, as is known, large doses of onions “affect the heart.” Garlic is “spicy-white” and due to these qualities, unlike onions, it acts on the lungs, stimulating their work. Therefore, if you have “excess liver” - high blood pressure, increased stomach acidity - you are generally a “hypertensive type”, then you should abstain from onions. As always, Ayurveda recommends refraining from using onions as a regular food agent - every day and in large quantities. But a little bit is good.
In autumn, when the lungs are under strain and the possibility of colds is high, garlic is the best seasoning option. By the way, its anti-cold effect is more explained precisely by its functional stimulation of the lungs and, to a lesser extent, by its antiseptic properties, which, however, should not be neglected either.
What if, for example, you want to prepare your child a salad from grated carrots, and, as you know, children love it all with sugar. Carrots are “heavy”, sugar is “heavy and cold” - in general, this culinary tandem will be poorly digested, and, moreover, will create a serious load on the intestines. To normalize such a recipe, you need to add some “warm” spices to it: cardamom, cinnamon, curry, cloves. In relation to "a lot" and "a little". For Southern temperaments, "half a cup of chili per pot of soup" is normal, since there is a habituation or adaptation of the body to increased doses of stimulants and aromatic substances. For the most part, you and I don’t have this habit; for us, “at the very tip of the knife” is enough. In general, a carrot salad with sugar for a child will become quite “Ayurvedic” - it will be tasty and well digestible if you add one crushed clove to it, no more. For adults, this dose can be increased two or three times (per serving).
So any “spiciness” and “spice” will make your salad from “heavy” vegetables quite acceptable (in terms of its effect on your health). What to flavor the salad with - hot or spicy seasonings - is a matter of taste, as is the choice of the doses of spices themselves.
Second courses
Ayurveda is quite conservative in this regard. There are certain problems with main courses. Ayurveda suggests cooking for the most part. And these are either soups or porridges. Since soup is the first course in culinary tradition, porridge remains. It must be said that, indeed, when foods are fried, they acquire a “crispy crust” of brown color, which does not stimulate the stomach and pancreas at all, since these organs are stimulated by the yellow color, and brown depresses them. In addition, all these “roastings” have, in addition, a “bitter” and slightly “rancid” effect, which, among other things, also negatively affects the liver. For lovers of French fries, it should be noted that sunflower oil, when heated, also has a negative effect on the stomach and liver. It is quite difficult to compensate for this option, so everything fried should still be classified as a purely culinary delight, after which Ayurvedic cleansing and harmonization are required. However, the bitter taste is slightly compensated by the sour one, and the use of light table wines - red meat dishes, white - for fish, poultry and vegetables - makes, by the way, a lunch or dinner “with fried” much safer than without wine. But, unfortunately, there are few good wines, meaning natural wines, not fakes, and their use does not correspond to our culinary traditions. And it is better not to mention those “traditions” that are completely “corresponding”.
So in the Ayurvedic sense, the second course is “boiled” or “steamed”. Boiled ones are porridges. It’s even better if they are properly steamed in a Russian oven. Only what can be consumed is eaten raw. natural form. The rest must be cooked, so a “raw buckwheat diet” is not a recommended nutritional option, since the vitamins necessary for the functioning of the body should be obtained from salads, fruits and vegetables. In porridges, the very structure of the product is important - mucus, which miraculously normalizes intestinal function.
In relation to the well-known "Oatmeal, sir!" It should be noted that these gentlemen traditionally ate oatmeal at the beginning of breakfast, but in the amount of one tablespoon to normalize the mucus in the intestines. Following this, scrambled eggs and bacon flew there. So oatmeal played a purely functional role here. For example, the French, without using oatmeal, eat cheese, of which, as is known, there are several hundred varieties in France. However, a “dose” of five types of cheese for four diners at the table fits quite well on a saucer, since the cheese is “not placed on a piece of bread,” as we do, but is spread on the bread with the tip of a knife. Of course, soft cheeses are used for this. This option, unlike the English one, guarantees protection of the intestines due to mucus, and activation of metabolism due to bioflora. We will soon move on to eating cheese.
So you can eat porridge in its usual form - well boiled and steamed. However, there are certain Ayurvedic subtleties here. So, for example, along with buckwheat porridge, the most common is oatmeal, which is very “heavy” and also “kapha to kapha.” So the mucus-containing components perfectly protect the intestines, but it is quite difficult to digest. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to add spices to this porridge, especially if you want to sweeten it. The salty version of porridge does not require this, since the salty taste contains a “warm” component, it compensates for the natural “heaviness” of the product, or excess kapha. We usually consume much more salt than the body needs, so it is better to make a gradual transition to a more harmonious version. Try gradually adding salt "a little less than to taste" and gradually adding spices - "spicy" or even "spicy" - to taste. So you and I, without any tension, can gradually significantly reduce the dose of salt or sugar through the use of spices. It must be said that in most “diet diets” both sugar and salt are always in excess compared to what our body requires.
If you decide to just eat buckwheat porridge, without any “cleansing” and “tridosha compensation”, you should add a spoonful of ghee to it, even better with cardamom and curry. Buckwheat porridge, as we know, is “light” and “dry”, so its harmonious version - neutral in terms of its effect on the body - can only be obtained by adding mucus. In addition, buckwheat is predominantly “dark brown”, which coincides with the color of the crispy crusts that we already know, albeit in the lightest forms. Therefore, bright yellow ghee compensates for this effect. So the version of buckwheat porridge with a spoon of melted butter is a completely neutral food dish that is perfectly digestible and has high nutritional value.
Potato. Since we have already discussed deep-frying, let's move on to the boiled version. There are two such options: boiled potatoes and mashed potatoes with milk. The first option breaks down into two: “in uniform” and “without uniform.” They differ significantly from each other. Potatoes are “green”, “light”, “dry”, that is, they stimulate the liver, lighten the body - promote weight loss, calm or reduce kidney activity. At the same time, “in uniform” is “completely green”, its effect will be the most striking. The peeled version is “whiter”, where the influence of the color of the potato, or the predominant share of its influence, is in the peel. So jacket potatoes will require more Ayurvedic correction. Let's discuss the "compensation work" plan.
Flavor palette
If you decided that we are talking about “culinary tastes,” you are not entirely right. That is, you are, of course, right, since culinary specialists and chefs all over the world evaluate the range of tastes in colors: blue taste, blue, red - as well as shades of smells. However, that assessment is carried out from the point of view of the taste bouquet. We will also be interested in it, but from a different, functional point of view. Regarding the choice of medicinal tastes, we have already more or less decided: a weak liver - more green, a weak heart - more red, and so on. If the corresponding organ is in hyperfunction, on the contrary, less of the corresponding color. However, what if we want to create an Ayurvedic dish of a harmonizing nature, which will simply increase the energy of the body, make it healthier and more vigorous, without a special therapeutic effect?
Here the basic school of Ayurveda comes to our aid, which recommends carrying out procedures that help “gain energy from the Sun.” Well, actually, all the energy on our Earth comes from the Sun. At least the one that you and I “eat”. The grass grows under the sun, the cow eats the grass, the cow gives milk, and so on. From this seemingly quite simple, even primitive rule, arises the decision to compose dishes so that the final “color” is yellow. More precisely, from white - yellow to orange. Color refers, as usual, to the influence of product qualities and tastes. With white and yellow it is clear: this is a combination of white and yellow products, orange is obtained by mixing yellow and red - in general, the color of the sun from sunrise to sunset. It is not recommended to eat at night - at this time of day, food is practically not digested, and everything is left in reserve.
The color of the sun "at lunchtime" - around noon - provides the optimal range of nutrition for this time. The evening sun is closer to orange, so dinner should take place in this tone. The explanation for this is very simple: our biorhythms strictly correspond to the sundial, so in the morning we have increased activity or vigor, and in the evening the tonicity of organs and systems decreases, as if we are preparing for sleep. So the red color, which is part of the color of the evening sun, increases the fire of agni and, accordingly, the digestive processes. They need to be increased, because if we decide to have dinner with you, we should not forget to help the body absorb food, since the body’s energy is already decreasing.
“Light white breakfast” - the color of an omelet with milk - perfectly normalizes “morning activity”, giving it energy, but not allowing it to turn into neurosis. Many hypotensive people “can’t live without coffee in the morning” - and here it’s easy to get out of the situation by adding a little red pepper to the same omelette, preferably sweet pepper, of course. This is approximately how the Ayurvedic nutrition system is formed. What is important here is not so much the product as the ability to make the dish harmonious.
Now let's get back to our research. If the potato is green and you add “red” to it, the green color will disappear, but black will appear, which can damage the kidneys. By the way, you can easily check the color combination using watercolor paints. The mixing of colors also corresponds to the mixing of tastes. The best option is to try converting green to yellow. There is no direct transition option, so the best option is to add yellow, so that the potatoes turn from bright green to light green. The brightness of the action will decrease sharply.
As you know, yellow color corresponds to various oils, so by adding oil, we significantly reduce the “aggressiveness” of potatoes. In addition, potatoes are “dry and light” - excess vata, oil, which is practically a common kapha, will perfectly “weight” and “lubricate” it. So, whether your potatoes are “in their jacket” or you have boiled them after peeling them, it is not recommended to eat them without oil. Another thing is mashed potatoes. If the mashed potatoes are prepared in milk with a spoonful of ghee, the potatoes immediately become “lighter” and less “hard” (since milk is “white kapha”), and less “dry” (after all, milk is a liquid) .
You have probably already noticed that our purely scientific Ayurvedic analysis leads us to what we usually do: both mashed potatoes and potatoes with butter are the usual version that we eat. We have already talked a lot about the French, Chinese and Indians, whose food system strictly corresponds to their national pathogenesis - the shift in Ayurvedic constitutions that arose in connection with the historical region of residence. But you and I have also developed a “fairly sober approach” to our own nutritional system, which, with Ayurvedic analysis, gives very good results. So in general, “traditional recipes” are not so bad, of course, for the relevant area. And only new dishes require additional correction, or more precisely, adaptation to our conditions.
Some useful tips regarding porridges. Usually preparing porridge is not difficult. It's a little more difficult with rice, which is known to have a tendency to stick together. Here it either needs to be thoroughly washed in cold salted water, then pre-soaked, or pre-oiled. You can wash and soak hard and dry varieties of rice: Central Asian and Chinese. It is easy to distinguish: this rice is more yellow in color, even dark yellow (brown rice), and most importantly, the grains are rounder in shape. “Wet rice” - Vietnamese and Korean - is whiter, even with a blue tint, and most importantly, its shape is long, like a match, with no round barrels visible. So if you decide to cook rice, the main thing is to find out whether it is “round” or “straight”, since “straight” rice cannot be soaked, it is already “wet” itself, so after an hour of soaking it begins to fall apart. It needs to be oiled: wash the rice, dry it and pour it into a frying pan with heated vegetable oil. While stirring, bring the rice to a state of “transparency”, after which your rice will neither stick together nor boil. But hard varieties cannot be oiled categorically, otherwise later it will be difficult to bring it to readiness. On the contrary, it only needs to be soaked. In this case, the usual option is two hours before cooking. Central Asian rice, such as Uzbek rice, is soaked overnight.
Ayurvedic “pilaf” - in fact, the basis of Ayurvedic nutrition, is prepared quite simply: the main thing is that during cooking the rice does not stick together, but is “grain to grain”. To do this, after any of the two options for preparing rice, which we have already discussed, it should be placed on the fire in a “flat” pan. The ratio of the height and diameter of the pan should be approximately 1:3. In tall, square-shaped pans, the rice will burn. Fill the rice with water 1 centimeter above the level of the grains, bring to a boil over high heat, and then leave on the lowest heat. Cooking time for rice depends on its hardness and pre-soaking time, and ranges from 20 to 40 minutes.
This technique is the basis of all “pilafs,” including Uzbek ones, whether they are Ayurvedic or non-Ayurvedic. Although, in general, Uzbek pilaf is an Ayurvedic dish. When properly prepared traditionally, it provides excellent functional compensation for people living in the corresponding region.
However, you and I will be interested in “traditionally Ayurvedic pilaf”. Here the situation is quite simple: there are options for preparing “vegetable” pilaf, when vegetables are added along with rice. But for you and me, this option is not very familiar. But the fruit option can please both you and your guests, and especially children. In addition, rice, as a product, is “white”, like a “white sheet of paper” - any “color” agent “colors” it. So any medicinal dish can be easily prepared based on Ayurvedic pilaf, adding ingredients of the corresponding colors. You can add any fruits and vegetables of your choice. So the eastern food system (both Ayurvedic, Chinese, and Central Asian) operates on the principle: properly cooked rice is boiled with everything that is available.
Options with dried apricots, raisins and everything that has a “yellow” tonality are very good. However, cherries, cherries, and apples will also give your culinary “construction” a unique shine. The taste of rice is bland - “white”, which also means the absence of taste as such. Therefore, we will allow the whole bouquet of spices from hot pepper to curry, however, do not forget about the constitutions. Without scaring you with Ayurvedic names of dishes that are difficult to pronounce, such as “masala doodh” - hot milk with saffron and pistachios, “naryal dudh” - hot milk with coconuts and spices, or, for example, “bandgobhi kofta” - cabbage rolls with nuts and paneer, we note that our rice porridge with milk is also widely used, naturally with cumin seeds, grated fresh ginger, turmeric, lemon juice, with grated coriander or spinach leaves, etc.
By the way, if you were able to read the Indian transcription of “stuffed cabbage rolls with nuts and paneer” the first time, I congratulate you, because your author failed.
However, let's get back to the serious stuff. Thus, Ayurvedic porridges consist of cereals, vegetables, fruits, but the main thing in them is the final correction of taste with spices. You shouldn’t think that only cooks live in India: for example, if an Indian woman is going to cook something, she goes to the market and buys the “masala” she needs there. What do you think it is? That's right, these are pre-prepared spice mixtures for various meat and dairy dishes. At the same time, Indians are very happy with our “jail” - hot milk with pieces of bread, pre-fried in butter with the addition of - yes, you read that right - turmeric, grated nuts, ginger, etc. As we have already said, with a kapha constitution (Indian type of women and men), mucus prevails, which must be combated by using spices that warm and stimulate metabolic processes. That is why in India they even put spices in tea, which, however, is also not bad.
Colored spices
Having studied Ayurveda, or, let’s say, read rave reviews about its capabilities, the question arises where to get all this. Well, firstly, until recently, in the pre-crisis era, all of the spices listed could be easily purchased on the market and even in stores, however, as we already know, the main principle of Ayurveda is “natural environmental friendliness,” by which refers to the use of those products that grow in the region of residence. We have already studied, or at least become acquainted with, the influence of Ayurvedic constitutions, the calculation of which was carried out on the basis of biorhythmic principles. Time, as a number system and as a biological system, is based on the number six, which determines the energy system of influence. Or, as the ancients said, the influence of the celestial spheres. In addition to this “ethereal influence,” there is also a completely material influence, based on the number 10. First of all, this number determines the material sphere (the monetary number system). Part of the influence of the material, in contrast to the “heavenly ether,” is the influence of the Earth. This influence corresponds to different regions of residence - east, west, south, and so on. And, by the way, it is this system that includes the five colors and five organs with which we have already become acquainted.
This is why it is very important to take into account the influence of region when doing color therapy. This influence is taken into account automatically if you use those components that grow on your territory. As you may know, recently in “Europe” and “America” it has become fashionable to prepare salads from flower petals, based on the understanding that flower petals, even unknown to you, do not contain toxic substances. All this, of course, is a matter of taste, however, dried flower petals provide an excellent option for using them as “color spices”. So, for example, saffron can be completely replaced with exactly the same success by crushed petals of “marigolds” - our calendula. Then - the same thing: pink, red, blue, lilac - any, especially since flowers, as you know, fade, and petals picked in time will not cause too much damage to your flowerbed.
The petals should be dried in the shade, away from drafts, but it is better to dry them outdoors. To use them as seasonings, you just need to grind them into powder with a regular coffee grinder - and the whole range of possible “color therapy” ingredients is in a jar on your shelf. Now it's time to move on to where our prepared dried flower petals can be most attractive.
First course theory
As always it will only be general principles and rules, since a more detailed version is not allowed by the space of this book, and, in general, we are talking mostly about the Ayurvedic modernization of familiar dishes.
So, soups. Soups are divided into three categories: lean, milk and broth-based. In general, soup, which first appeared as a culinary dish in Egypt, was a decoction, so soup by its nature is more closely related to broth. It doesn't matter whether it's vegetable broth, fruit broth, meat broth or fish broth. At the same time, as a rule, everything that does not spoil it is placed in it. In cooking, especially Ayurvedic cooking, experience is determined by knowing not what can be done, but what cannot be done, since everything else is possible. For you and me, the situation seems much simpler. We have quite firm rules for creating the taste or color characteristics of a particular dish (in the sense of a planned effect - an impact on the constitution, the treatment of a disease).
Firstly, about the broths. The broth itself is "kapha to kapha" or mucus. What is easy to verify: good broth or “strong” broth always turns into jelly when cooled. Since the effect of the soup is based on the “action of the broth,” we can assume that we are taking kapha broth with you and the rest of the “bookmark” should correspond to the desired effect: either harmonizing or healing. We will consider the option of creating Ayurvedic or “harmonious” soups.
Broths can be divided into three groups: strong, medium and weak. Strong bone broth is obtained by cooking meat on the bones for at least 12 hours. These include “khash”, “kharcho”, jellied meat, aspic - if we are talking about fish. In such broths, the influence of kapha is very significant, and, naturally, such broths require correction. When using them in their pure form, without dilution, it is necessary to “lower” kapha at the expense of “spicy” and “red”; a typical example of such compensation is “kharcho” soup. (Therefore, jellied meat without pepper and garlic can only worsen the health of you and your guests). In this case, spicy foods should be added to the broth during cooking, since “jellied meat with mustard” is not the same jellied meat into which spices are added during cooking. In addition to “spicy”, you can also add spices, but more for taste, since the effect of only spicy broth is clearly not enough to compensate for strong broths.
A medium broth is obtained by cooking meat on the bones for 2 - 3 hours, or by diluting a strong broth at least twice, which is extremely undesirable: firstly, your dish will sharply lose its quality - it will be less digestible, and secondly, it will lose taste. So it’s not advisable to dilute it; it’s better to just cook it knowingly with your future dish in mind. An average broth does not need to be compensated by being spicy; just enough spices - if pepper, then allspice, bay leaf, coriander, etc. The spicy taste in such a broth will not be compensated by kapha, and will act on its own: by adding hot pepper to the average broth, you will have an additional effect on the cardiovascular system.
Finally, weak broth is a dietary broth. White meat: poultry, fish, veal, beef - undesirable. And without bones, of course, except for poultry and fish. Both chicken and fish are boiled with bones. Cooking time - no more than an hour. This broth is more suitable for using light spices: dill, parsley, mint, tarragon (tarragon). Cloves, being "highly spicy", will give an additional "anti-kapha" effect in this broth.
Now - about tastes. Tastes are also selected according to the principle of compensation: for kapha (“heavy” and “cold”), sour, salty, spicy, and having a warming effect are suitable. However, this is not enough in soups, so the range can be expanded. Sweet goes well with sour, bitter and astringent are not used in soups, however, if there are appropriate products: “astringent” zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, eggplants, the share of spicy can be increased.
An even greater range of flavors is provided by the combination of three tastes, the basis of which is the sour - sweet - salty taste, typical of “Ukrainian borscht”. In general, this flavor option corresponds to “average” broths. When preparing a dish from “strong” broths, a spicy taste is added, so the sour-salty-spicy version is a typical “kharcho” soup.
“Weak” broth is suitable for vegetable soups. Weak broth can also be used for fruit soups, however, this is usually not done, since the sweet taste increases kapha, and hot spices are not added to fruit soups. And in general, fruit soups are more compotes than soups. Vegetables, being predominantly a “fresh” product, require “acidification”, so sour and salty components, for example, pickles, are additionally introduced into vegetable soups.
Vegetable soup cooked with vegetable broth rather than meat broth, will have a reverse anti-kapha effect due to the alkaline components included in the vegetables. Therefore, either vegetable soup is prepared as an anti-kapha remedy, or during the cooking process it is necessary to add a spoonful of “kapha”, preferably ghee. The widespread belief that sautéing vegetables in vegetable oil is better for vegetable soups does not correspond to either Ayurvedic or culinary realities. Vegetable oils are “very heavy” kapha - their breakdown requires great expenditure from the body
Ayurveda -- a system for maintaining and restoring health
Ayurveda is the science of life, the science of how to be happy.
She says that, despite its endless diversity, it is based on one single reality, and this reality is Happiness.
Being a Vedic Science, Ayurveda does not limit itself to abstract statements "happiness is the basis of life." Being a very specific science, Ayurveda gives the same specific implementation and achievement of its goals and concepts. Believing that the only thing in life is Happiness, Ayurveda devotes itself to achieving it.
Ayurveda (Ayur-Veda) is the oldest existing healthcare system, a legacy of ancient India. Its name literally translates as "Science of Life". It has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an effective alternative system. IN last years Ayurveda has been brought back to life in its entirety.
This is the science of establishing balance in the mind and body; she uses twenty approaches to achieve and maintain excellence in all areas of life. In the Western world, Ayurveda, its therapeutic principles and significance have been thoroughly re-evaluated and reinterpreted. Intensive research has led to a synthesis of the basic concept of Ayurveda and the advanced theories of modern medicine. This synthesis placed Ayurveda at the forefront of medical thought. Panchakarma is a unique Ayurvedic body cleansing process that allows the body to free itself from excess toxins (including at the cellular level). Panchakarma plays a key role in restoring the balance of mind and body.
Ayurveda gives long life in and happiness, as well as therapeutic, preventive and hygienic means and methods for physical, mental, social and, most importantly, spiritual harmony of a person. Ancient Ayurvedic (Vedic) treatises are based on a holistic approach to health and longevity, like any Vedic science or technology.
Ayurveda has been practiced for thousands of years and is a time-tested system. To maintain and restore health, treatment, longevity, she, of course, does not use artificial chemicals, but uses nutrition, including herbs and others, minerals, metals, as well as lifestyle, physical and breathing exercises (Hatha Yoga and Pranayama) . In addition, Ayurveda also recommends avoiding alcohol and smoking.
Components of Ayur-Veda
Three doshas: Vata, Pitta, Kapha;
Three gunas: Sattva, Rajas, Tamas;
Six tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, spicy, astringent; about 6 tastes in Ayurveda;
Five mahabhutas (elements): earth, air, space.
Ayurvedic tips for improving digestion
Eating is a life-sustaining act. This process, according to Ayurveda, is sacred and important for the development of consciousness, no less than for physical health. When we eat while sitting, our stomach is in a relaxed state, and our stomach is focused on the taste and smell of food. This greatly improves digestion. Another way to enhance digestion is to stimulate Agni, or digestive fire, before we eat. A weak digestive fire can cause heaviness after eating, so Ayurveda recommends eating a small piece of fresh with a few drops of lemon juice and a few pinches of salt before a filling meal. It begins to activate the salivary glands, producing the necessary enzymes so that the nutrients in the food are easily absorbed.
Balancing the digestive fire is a key principle of Ayurvedic medicine. Therefore Ayurveda offers a number of general measures to improve digestion. Digestive Agni can be compared to the burning of fire. If the flame is very low, it will take longer to cook the food. And the same thing, if the fire is too strong, the food may burn. If we put a huge log on a small fire, it will put it out. Our digestive fire must be balanced so that we can digest food efficiently and smoothly. Taking ginger with lemon juice helps increase digestive power. Although, if you suffer from excessive Agni (Pitta), which causes too much internal heat and acidity, then pomegranate chutney will be more beneficial for you.
The following Ayurvedic recommendation also applies to Agni. Ayurveda advises avoiding cold drinks and cold foods in general. It is like pouring cold water on hot logs. Ice water or cold drinks served in restaurants extinguish the digestive fire. Even juice (!) or milk (!) from the refrigerator is too cold for digestion. The juice should be consumed warm, and the water should be consumed only without ice (or preferably boiling water). Once you get into the habit of drinking hot and warm drinks, you will notice a sudden improvement in your digestion and how you feel during and after meals. Cold drinks and foods mixed with warm cooked foods can create stomach cramps, bloating, and general stomach discomfort. If you have a Pitta dosha imbalance, you can drink cool drinks between meals. Cold and frozen foods are also not recommended for Pitta. Try making drinks with rose water, or milk mixed with dates or fresh and sweet mango.
The next recommendation is related to the time of day you eat. Have you ever had a late dinner and found it difficult to wake up the next morning, or that it was difficult to be active and productive throughout the next day? These are frequent side effects improperly digested food. The best way To free yourself from these problems - follow natural instructions for favorable times for eating. is strongest between 12 and 1 pm, the digestive fire is also strongest at this time. Agni is associated with the Sun. This is one example of how Ayurveda seeks to attune our mind and body to our environment.
Ayurveda advises that lunch should be the main meal of the day as this is the time when the digestive fire is at its most efficient. As the Sun sets, so does Agni. Dinner should be lighter than lunch and before 8 pm. Eating late in the evening and, especially, at night is harmful to sleep: after 10 pm the body works to burn toxins and continues to digest the food eaten during the day. If you eat after 10 pm, the food produces toxins (ama) that accumulate in the system, and as a result, you wake up tired the next day. If you are unable to wake up fresh and clean, then it is important to analyze the amount of food you eat and the time of dinner.
Another Ayurvedic tip for digestion is to drink a fresh yogurt drink called Lassi after meals. This drink consists of 1/4 cup of fresh homemade yogurt, 1 cup water at room temperature and sugar to taste. Lassi is light and contains lactobacilli, an essential bacteria that lubricates the intestines. Lassi helps reduce gas and bloating. It is also very tasty and makes food more satisfying to the palate. There are many recipes for Lassi.
The following recipe is useful to prevent gas and bloating:
1 cup water at room temperature
1/4 cup fresh homemade yogurt
1 pinch ground ginger
1 pinch ground cumin
1 pinch ground coriander
1 pinch of salt
Blend in blender for one minute. Drink after lunch.
Recipe for increasing energy:
2 parts shelled sesame seeds
1 part white poppy seeds
1 part fresh coconut (or dry coconut if you don't have fresh)
Soak everything for an hour or until the ingredients are soft. Grind to a smooth paste. Add to vegetables or other foods when cooking. Eat for dinner. The dose is a tablespoon of this paste.
Vegetarian Ayurvedic diet
It’s not so simple here - you can’t just list a list of recommended products and give recipes...
Firstly, Ayurveda (the Vedic science of health and nutrition, among other things) emphasizes that all people are different and the approach should be individual.
Secondly, Ayurveda is based on a deep philosophical basis and practice...
Thirdly, Ayurveda uses spices in almost every dish, and many of them cannot be replaced with anything else. Generally speaking, nutrition (like everything else) should lead physiology - both body and mind - to balance, that is, to equilibrium, then health will come by itself.
Without delving into the fundamental essence of Ayurveda, you can simply buy a book on Vedic cooking (for example, “Vedic Culinary Art”) and cook according to it. This will already be good, :–) her recipes do not use meat, fish, mushrooms and other harmful things. :–) You can get recipes from the vegetarian recipes page. The only problem will be the availability of the necessary spices.
Without recipes there will be great difficulties :–) because if you list the foods that Ayurveda does not recommend - meat, fish and seafood, mushrooms, cheese, eggs (including mayonnaise), onions and garlic, vinegar, peanuts, yeast bread , coffee and black - then the typical reaction is the phrase “what then to eat?!”... :–) In fact, from rice, vegetables, milk, legumes (peas, beans, lentils, different varieties of mung bean and dhal), cereals, flour , fruits, raisins, sesame seeds, you can prepare so many different and very tasty dishes! :–) A person unfamiliar with Ayurveda has enough imagination for fried potatoes and raw cabbage... :–) But Ayurveda recommends consuming raw cabbage in small quantities, because they are difficult to digest.
If you are serious about Vedic nutrition, then it is advisable to learn and understand the basics of Ayurveda - the three doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) and what foods they correspond to; six tastes (sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent) their connection with doshas and what foods they correspond to; seven dhatus [tissues] and processes of food digestion; three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas), their influence on a person and products corresponding to them; basic spices, doshas and spice gunas; the principle of preparing a six-stage Ayurvedic meal; cooking and eating; optimal daily routine. This is enough for a start. :–) The only thing is that there are almost no books where all this would be written without errors and inaccuracies... :–) Therefore, you need to consult with those who have been involved in Ayurveda for a long time.
If you still want to get the most general recommendations regarding nutrition, here they are:
2. General rules meals that improve digestion:
main meal at noon (12:00 local time);
eat only while sitting;
eat in a calm, quiet atmosphere, do not watch TV, do not read, do not be distracted;
do not eat in an emotional state (excitement, anger, anxiety, sadness), wait until your consciousness calms down;
after eating, do not get up from the table for at least 5 minutes;
do not eat again until the previous food has been digested (at least 3 hours);
eat only when you feel hungry;
eat slowly;
chew food thoroughly;
eat 3/4 of your capacity;
do not eat cold food;
eat only fresh food, just prepared or, in extreme cases, prepared today;
do not drink a lot of liquid during meals, especially cold ones; it is advisable to wash down your food with hot Ayurvedic boiling water (boiled for 20 minutes);
do not use milk with other products, especially those with a sour or salty taste - drink it only boiled and hot with hot spices (you can add sugar, banana);
combine only compatible products;
use spices to digest and absorb food;
do not consume industrial cheese (due to rennet), ice cream or cold milk, heated or cooked honey;
do not eat yogurt with gelatin;
include all 6 Ayurvedic tastes in your main meal every day.
adjust nutrition to individual characteristics, season, weather;
do not eat foods with sour and salty tastes before bed (even do not drink kefir);
do not eat a lot of fried, sour and salty foods;
study physical exercise, the best thing is asanas.
Six Stage Lunch - Ayurvedic Lunch
6 dishes are consumed: first those that take a long time to digest, then lighter ones. This lunch restores balance in the body:
Stage 1. Floury or heavy sweet - for example cake; or pie; or sweet noodles (for example, with raisins); or bread and butter.
Stage 2. Raw vegetables, that is, a salad of finely grated vegetables, seasoned with sour cream or oil (preferably olive), with lemon juice and spices (ginger, pepper), with homemade bread - for example, finely grated white or blue cabbage with sour cream and spices - salt, pepper, ginger and others].
Stage 3. Legumes or lentils, or beans, or chickpeas, or dal, or mung beans (if soup, then cook with spices and with the lid open on low heat in a lot of water) - for example, lentil soup; or boiled beans (peas); or cutlets made from peas (lentils, chickpeas).
Stage 4. Cooked vegetables (well-cooked, stewed or fried), add oil (preferably ghee) in moderation - for example vegetable stew(spices are fried in oil, then vegetables, you can add green peas, then add water and cover with a lid); or boiled cabbage leaves fried in batter; or vegetable cutlets (any); or potato pancakes; or vegetable soup (carrots, cabbage, green peppers, potatoes, green pea, cauliflower, you can add a little rice or buckwheat, season with fried
spice oil).
Stage 5. Cooked rice or other cereal, for example, with chutney (sauce) - for example buckwheat or other porridge with spices; or boiled rice with spices and ghee (or butter); or steamed rice. [Chutney (sauce) can be made from sour cream and spices; or kefir, banana and spices (mix finely chopped banana with kefir and boiled water 1:1 and add sugar and spices - salt, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cordamom); or from fruits (apples) and spices (fry the spices in oil, then apples, add water and cook
15 minutes)].
Stage 6. The last stage is the easiest. For example: fresh or juice or compote or lassi (drink) or spice tea.
So, let’s repeat the basic recommendations for improving digestion:
Eat while sitting, in a comfortable, calm and familiar environment, without the TV on, reading or anything else.
Eat a piece of fresh ginger with lemon before a heavy meal, or drink pomegranate chutney to balance Pitta.
Drink Lassi after lunch.
Avoid cold drinks and cold foods.
Lunch should be the main and largest meal of the day. Dinner should be lighter and taken before 8 pm (before sunset).
There is one approach to natural healing that could not be implemented in India and thereby become part of Ayurveda. Although in its inner essence this is a completely Ayurvedic method. We are talking about the use of fermentation for medical and food purposes.
It must be said that the word kwath itself, which is often found in descriptions of Ayurvedic preparations and is usually pronounced “kwath”, is actually the ancient Slavic “kvass”, that is, an aged infusion. But kwath does not involve fermentation, and kvass will not be kvass if there is no “spark” in it.
The fermentation process occurs under the influence of bacteria, which are always present in the air and penetrate into any product, no matter how we boil or sterilize it. Naturally, any given fermentation medium offers advantages to one or another group of bacteria. Some of them are very beneficial for the human body, for example, lactic acid, and some are pathogenic, for example, staphylococci. It's all about what substances the bacteria produce during the fermentation process. These could be vitamins and mineral complexes, and there may be toxins.
Thousands of species of bacteria fly in the air on dust particles, and each of them has thousands of strains. And therefore, a whole symbiosis is always involved in the fermentation process, which, in addition to bacteria, can also include fungi. It is almost impossible to reliably calculate in advance whether such a symbiosis will be useful to us and to what extent. After all, we don’t even really know its composition. And during the process of fermentation (fermentation), waves of multiplying bacteria follow one after another, and this process depends on many circumstances - for example, on temperature.
However, there is a way to influence this process that directs it as a whole: this is the preparation of the medium. For example, if we initially take an acidified nutrient medium (with vinegar or lemon juice), then it is the lactic acid bacteria that will gain an advantage, which create just such an environment. Many types of media made from raw plant foods are “good”, meaning they attract bacteria that are good for us. For example, herbal or vegetable pulp remaining after squeezing juices. Soured natural products are not at all dangerous to eat; on the contrary, they become healthy. Although many housewives have already developed a reflex: if it turns sour, it means it goes into the trash can.
But everything that has been sterilized, heat-treated, turns sour through an unfavorable channel: pathogens swarm here, this is their environment. It is not for nothing that it is believed that food that has already been cooked (thermally) should not be reheated. Even if the germs are killed by reheating, the toxins will remain.
Lactic acid bacteria grow best at temperatures in the range of 20-25 degrees Celsius. This is exactly the temperature of our houses and apartments. Therefore, in Russian conditions it is possible to ferment even without special starters - everything is already in the air. But in India and other hot countries the temperature is between 30-40 degrees Celsius, and this range is favorable for many pathogens. Therefore, in hot countries, you can ferment either in the mountains or in an air-conditioned hotel room, and then using a proven starter.
But here’s what’s interesting: regular milk “correctly” sours even in hot conditions. Nature has prepared it in such a way that pathogens have little chance in it. This is why fermented milk products, especially yoghurts, are so widespread in India. After all, refrigerators and pasteurization have not yet reached there.
The essence of the fermentation process
During the process of fermentation, or lactic acid fermentation, the decomposition of sugars, polyhydric alcohols and proteins to lactic acid occurs. According to this scheme, vegetables are fermented and salted, as well as lactic acid products are prepared.
Lactic acid fermentation is caused by the bacteria Streptococcus lactis (lactic streptococcus) Bact. Bulgaricum (Bulgarian bacillus), Bact. Acidophilum (actually lactic acid bacillus), Bact. Casei, Bact. Delbrucki Bact. Brassicum (cabbage stick), Bact. cucumeris fermentati (cucumber stick).
All these bacteria are antagonists of putrefactive microbes, and hence their important medical role. Lactic acid and fermented products stop the processes of putrefaction in the body, which always occur when meat and other protein animal products are abused.
Even the list of main types of lactic acid bacteria is impressive. And perhaps only a professional microbiologist can understand the details of the fermentation process. What remains for us? Well, we can follow recipes accumulated over centuries, observing them in detail and controlling the intermediate stages of the process - by taste and smell. If something goes wrong, our tongue and nose will immediately tell us - without any bacteriological analysis. And then we will either have to change the fermentation conditions (for example, lower the temperature or add starter), or we will have to pour out the contents of our jars and start all over again.
This raises the question of the importance of proven starter cultures. In the past, nomadic peoples now living on Russian territory have accumulated a huge number of fermentation methods. Now they are gradually becoming our common property. You can name, for example, the Kalmyk Em kurunga, which is a stable symbiosis of thousands of species of bacteria and fungi. Products fermented with its help can be stored for months without refrigeration, practically without changing their properties.
It is very important to find and distribute such starter cultures. This is the health potential of both small and large nations.
Fermentation is external digestion
During the fermentation process, a huge number of biochemical processes occur in parallel. Even if lactic acid fermentation dominates, the decomposition of proteins and cellulose also occurs simultaneously. Something similar happens to what happens in the stomach and intestines of humans or animals. Fermentation changes and transforms food towards simplification. Does this make it better or worse for us?
The answer depends on what and how to ferment. Does it make sense to ferment fresh fruit? Is it just to keep them longer? But at the same time, many completely ready-to-use nutrients will be destroyed and lost. Fruits are best eaten as they are, raw! But fruit and vegetable peelings and pulps, which we usually throw away, are an excellent environment for bacteria that know how to decompose what our stomach cannot handle. Bacteria extract nutrients from foods unsuitable for our digestion and give them a form in which we are already able to absorb them and which often turn out to be very useful for us.
But if you “ferment” the product, it becomes a kind of slag, ash, in which there is practically nothing useful left. During the fermentation process, generations of bacterial strains replace each other, “fermenting” everything that is possible. What some bacteria didn’t like, others will eat up.
Therefore, the nutritional value of the product first increases and then decreases during fermentation. The optimum, depending on conditions (primarily temperature), lies from ten to twenty days. To better navigate, you can use the so-called ORP meter, that is, an oxidation-reduction potential meter. As soon as the ORP begins to decrease, fermentation should be stopped and the jars or buckets should be placed in the refrigerator.
Both concentrated and refined products can be given to bacteria. After all, bacteria can “revive” them and give them biological strength. But at the same time, the bacteria themselves degrade somewhat, lose vitality and are tempted to turn into a pathogenic strain. Therefore, when fermenting, for example, old or overcooked cereals, you must use a new portion of starter each time, and not what is left from the previous fermentation.
You can do otherwise when working with natural products. In this case, part of the resulting product is a starter for the next time, and this process can continue indefinitely. After all, the nomadic peoples of the past did not go to the pharmacy to purchase a suitable strain of microorganisms!
The best way to preserve your unique sourdough starter is to distribute it to all your friends and acquaintances! If it goes bad on you, one of your friends will definitely still have it. This is similar to the fact that real manuscripts do not burn and do not disappear.
Sourdough training
As already mentioned, thousands of species of bacteria travel on airborne dust particles - both beneficial to us and pathogenic. There is always completeness in Nature, and it is our business and responsibility how we use this completeness.
By creating a certain environment for fermentation, we thereby call on certain types of microbes to be active. Here is a field for applying our knowledge and intelligence! If an animal intuitively chooses food and thereby, without realizing it, creates a destiny for itself and its descendants, then we consciously create ourselves through the choice of our food.
What should we do if, due to the heat or unsuitable products, our favorite sourdough began to work worse and worse, the taste of kvass or sauerkraut changed for the worse, and there is nowhere to get the original sourdough?
You will have to train the sourdough, and first of all, “knock out” pathogenic microorganisms from it. They could come, for example, because we added too much sugar and did not take enough living, natural ingredients. Now we will conduct “training” sessions for the team of microbes - we will ferment them with just forest herb cake, and no sugar! The result will be something very sour, but no one forces us to eat or drink it. Then, for example, we will ferment carrot-beet pulp with the resulting product. But then we’ll try to make kvass from acorns with the addition of a small amount of sugar, and we’ll taste it. And the taste will most likely improve significantly!
And improved taste means that useful and nutritious substances have increased, and toxic substances have disappeared. And we receive new nutritional information, which will now direct our evolution.
You don't have to be a microbiologist to ferment foods consciously and successfully. You just need to understand the basic principle: fresh plant food improves the structure of the sourdough, and the passion for sweetness or the convenience of using concentrates worsens this structure.
It is known that a horse that eats oats in the city becomes weaker within a couple of years, and its hair begins to peel off. And returning to the grass, the animal becomes younger again and recovers. The same thing happens with microbes. The same thing happens to us.
Sourdough is not just a colony of some microbes. This is a single living organism, a symbiosis, although distributed. It can lose or acquire some strains of microorganisms, while maintaining its integrity. We must try to educate him and make him our friend. To do this, we need to feed him the right food on time, pamper him a little and tune him to our needs. And he will serve us faithfully!
Where to get the right bacterial symbiosis
If your friends don’t have a suitable starter, then you can take it from Nature! When we say that during fermentation, bacteria come from the air, this is both true and false.
If the product is sterilized, then the only channel for the arrival of bacteria is, indeed, airborne dust. The dust is what was just lying under our feet and was lifted into the air by a gust of wind. What is there, what animals are sitting there - only God knows. Using such bacteria for fermentation is like hiring workers through an advertisement on the Internet. It is much better to use the recommendations of trusted friends!
If, for example, we simply passed the greens through a meat grinder (without heat treatment), then the bacteria are already in the minced meat. The same ones that grew with the plant and were in a symbiotic relationship with it. They will ferment the product, keeping airborne guests away from the pie. This bacterial community is, as it were, recommended to us by the plant itself. These bacteria have adapted to this particular plant food and produce substances that are beneficial to the plant. And they will probably be useful to us too.
Communities of bacteria friendly to us are bred not in the biochemical laboratories of scientific institutes, but in the laboratories of Nature - in its clean places, saturated with life - along mountain rivers, in meadows among flowers, near waterfalls and lakes. Where the arteries of life are concentrated. And everything that comes from the venous system of Nature specializes in destruction and destruction. These are symbioses of ravines, forest thickets, and swamps.
Therefore, if you suddenly have dysbacteriosis, do not waste money and time on taking bacterial cultures from pharmaceutical jars - they are weak and unreliable. Just go into the forest, pick and eat flowers - right from the root, along with all the bacteria inherent in them. Just follow one requirement: the place where flowers are collected must be clean and beautiful.
Kvass recipes
The easiest way to safely get your first fermentation experience is to use, however, a pharmaceutical culture, for example, Lactobacterin. After practicing with it, you can move on to using farm sour cream and other natural starters.
So, pour two glasses of any type of dry peas purchased at the market into a three-liter jar. For example, chickpeas or mung beans. As a last resort, you can use regular peas from the store. The fact is that market peas retain germination and retain vital symbioses and the corresponding bacteria. Store-bought, factory-made peas are sterile. Even when using sourdough, the difference is noticeable.
It is better to sort and rinse the peas in advance.
Add a glass of granulated sugar to the jar. Now we take a jar of lactobacterin, fill it with water, stir, and pour it into a three-liter jar.
If the peas float, they must be placed in gauze and equipped with a sinker - the surface should be clean. Anything that floats should be caught immediately with a strainer.
Now we close the neck of the jar with several layers of gauze (from dust and flies) and be patient. It should take 10 to 14 days until the kvass is ready.
The very next day the mixture should begin to bubble, and foam should form on the surface of the liquid. This indicates that life in the bank has started and is developing. As soon as the bubbling stops, the kvass is ready. This will mean that enough organic acids have formed in the jar to interrupt the fermentation process.
It is best to store this kvass in the refrigerator. But if you actively use it, you can leave it in a warm place. Every time you pour a glass of kvass, you need to add a glass of water to the jar and add a teaspoon of sugar.
You can last a month on one filling of peas.
Instead of peas, you can use acorns, any edible seeds and seeds, cereals, for example, millet or wheat. Try to please your taste and experiment.
The appearance of such kvass can be very suspicious. But don't lose your composure. First you need to smell it. The smell will immediately reveal the secret of its suitability. The “correct” kvass smells very tasty - comfort, satiety, a summer field.
Then try one teaspoon of the drink - but don’t swallow it right away, evaluate its taste. It should be pleasant, and depending on the amount of sugar initially added, it should be either sweetish or downright sour. And kvass must be sparkling – like champagne. If you definitely don’t like the taste, spit out the kvass and rinse your mouth thoroughly. This means that something went wrong, and the contents of the jar will have to be poured out. Try again, slightly changing the fermentation conditions or use other products.
Bubbly, young kvass contains alcohol. Some people like it. However, with this kvass you can really get drunk.
Medicinal kvass is prepared with a minimum amount of sugar - one tablespoon per jar. Such kvass is very sour, and those who have increased acidity of gastric juice should dilute it several times with water.
Farmer's sour cream is usually not sterilized and therefore contains colonies of lactic acid bacteria. Therefore, at the next stage of your experiments, you can use it as a starter. As a result, you will get Bolotov’s kvass. Take a teaspoon of “live” sour cream, grind it in a small amount of water, then add more water, and so on. Having brought the total volume of such sour cream water to a glass, pour it into a three-liter jar with the prepared fermentation composition. Next - everything is as described above.
To prepare kvass, you can also take forest herbs. They will do you a lot of good. Fermentation, like boiling, extracts from the herb useful material, however, does not kill the life contained in them. But, for example, fermentation destroys organic poisons, so even kvass made from celandine, aconite, and hemlock can be used for medicinal purposes. But this is a delicate matter and requires a lot of experience. At first, it is better not to try such potent herbs and limit yourself to dandelion, squash and plantain.
Therapeutic use of kvass
Kvass, along with herbal juices, are important sources of free amino acids. Therefore, they are simply manna from heaven for those patients whose digestive process is severely impaired and who cannot digest proteins. Such patients reach complete exhaustion and die. Because they don’t know about natural cooking!
In addition, the organic acids of kvass dissolve and neutralize toxins accumulated in the tissues of modern humans, and also neutralize many pathogenic putrefactive bacteria.
Kvass is an important both therapeutic and preventive remedy.
Kvasha
How is kvasha different from kvass? In kvass we use liquid and throw away the waste substance. In kvasha, both liquid and substance are involved. When preparing cheeses, on the contrary, the liquid is squeezed out and only the dry matter remains.
There is no fundamental difference here. Kvasha, however, can be consumed the very next day, while kvass and cheeses must be aged.
Fermentation softens and transforms coarse fiber. It can be successfully used not only for processing ordinary garden crops, but also forest and field grasses and even tree leaves, which have denser cellulose.
For example, you can pick a dandelion in a clean place in nature, wash off the obvious dirt from it (but do not scald it with boiling water!), add farm sour cream, then put it through a meat grinder and wait - from several hours to several days. The result is a tart-bitter seasoning that can be used for first and second courses.
There is no need to be afraid that the dandelion has “spoiled” - it has fermented, that is, not pathogenic, but beneficial bacteria have developed in it. But, as always, taste test it. What if the sour cream was sterilized?
Cheeses
If you squeeze ready-made sauerkraut, for example, from snyti grass, through cheesecloth, and then keep it in the refrigerator for more than a week, you will get herbal cheese - very interesting and healthy dish. Such cheeses have a rather sour taste, and this is a criterion for their “correctness”. Sour means no pathogens. The finished cheese can be lightly salted to add flavor. And if you add dill or cilantro seeds to the sauerkraut before squeezing the whey, this will make the cheese even more aromatic.
The liquid that has been squeezed out is the finished starter and can also be stored in the refrigerator.
Such cheeses do not increase cholesterol! They are rich in free amino acids and vitamins. You can take them with you on long trips, and they will not deteriorate in the heat. Perhaps they will just become a little more sour.
Russian classic: sauerkraut
And of course, speaking of pickling, let’s not forget to give a recipe for sauerkraut. The fermentation process preserves the bactericidal properties of cabbage and the vitamins it contains. Usually late varieties of white cabbage are used. It is advisable that the cabbage be sweet rather than bitter - this will help the fermentation process.
The peeled heads of cabbage are chopped into strips 3-5 millimeters wide, then they are sprinkled with salt (half a glass per bucket) and lightly crushed by hand so that the salt dissolves in the cabbage juice. To speed up the fermentation process, you can add granulated sugar - also half a glass per bucket.
The cabbage prepared in this way is placed in a fermentation vessel (tub or bucket) and compacted. The top of the chopped cabbage is covered with whole cabbage leaves, then with gauze, and a plate of suitable size is placed on top. A fairly heavy pressure is placed on it, from which the cabbage settles and becomes covered with brine. The brine is an important point. Without it, fermentation will not proceed correctly, the cabbage will be dry and limp. It is important that the cabbage does not appear from under the brine, otherwise mold will quickly grow on it.
Best Temperature for sauerkraut – 18-20 degrees Celsius. The cabbage is ready when it stops foaming and turns white or slightly creamy and crispy. The turbidity of the brine disappears and it becomes transparent. Usually it takes 10-12 days.
To add an original taste to cabbage during its preparation for pickling, you can add carrots or beets grated on a coarse grater. You can also use apples (whole or cut in half), the Antonovka variety is best. You can add sour berries - cranberries, lingonberries. It’s good to add spices - for example, bay leaf, cumin.
We emphasize that sourdough is usually not used for sauerkraut, which is why it is so important to maintain the correct temperature. Fermentation works best in rural areas, where, as a rule, milk is fermented nearby and the necessary bacteria are in the air. In urban conditions and where the environment is unfavorable, you can play it safe and start the fermentation process with pharmaceutical lactobacilli. The taste of the resulting cabbage will depend on the strain of starter used.
Sauerkraut should be stored at a temperature of 0 to +2 degrees Celsius. This is the temperature of a winter cellar or refrigerator. When mold appears on the surface of the cabbage, the damaged layer must be removed, not allowing the brine on the surface to disappear.
Now about the specific proportions of the recipe. For 10 kilograms of cabbage you can take half a kilogram of carrots, a kilogram of apples, 200 grams of cranberries, up to 200 g of salt, 1 teaspoon of cumin.
This and similar fermentation recipes were created in central Russia and were traditionally used in the fall, when the temperature was optimal for lactic acid fermentation.
Salt-free pickling of cabbage
This cabbage is prepared without salt, naturally. The best temperature for this process is 20-25 degrees Celsius. Herbs are added to shredded cabbage - dill, celery, as well as dill seeds, caraway seeds, and shuttle cloves. These additives stabilize the bacterial composition and inhibit pathogenic microorganisms. Since salt is not used, the cabbage will not simply yield juice, and without this the fermentation process will not begin. Therefore, in order for the cabbage to be immediately in the fermenting liquid, it is poured from the very beginning cold water. Everything else is the same as with regular fermentation. Since the temperature is somewhat higher and there is no salt, the process proceeds more rapidly and is completed in a week.
What else can you ferment?
You can ferment anything - carrots, beets, celery root, onions and garlic. You can ferment forest herbs collected during the growth period while they are still tender. For example, dandelion stems or dandelion leaves ferment well. Having received the first experience of fermentation, you will then inevitably expand the field of your experiments. However, be careful, and if something goes wrong, do not hesitate to throw away the product of unsuccessful fermentation - after all, health is more valuable! If it doesn’t taste good, then the fermentation failed.
I’ve had pickled chickpeas in my refrigerator in a plastic container with a sealed lid (Taper Ware) for six months now. I slowly use it and wait for it to finally go bad. But it still doesn’t spoil! So with the right technology and the right products Fermentation can significantly extend the shelf life of foods by preserving all the beneficial nutrients and converting them into a more easily digestible form.
AYURVEDA IN RUSSIA
State modern conditions in Russia it is characterized by a violation of the ecology of the human environment, urbanization of life, and difficult social conditions. All this leads to a sharp deterioration in health, a decrease in the immunity and ability to work of Russian citizens, and an increase in nervous and mental disorders.
Modern medicine, despite its high achievements, cannot cope with the medical problems of modern life. The current situation can be corrected through a reasonable combination of traditional and modern treatment methods.
Today, health problems must be posed and solved from a broader perspective. The Western medical system alone is not enough for this. No matter how advanced systems of medicine are, each has its limitations, and modern Western medicine is no exception.
The documents of the World Health Organization proclaim that in order to achieve a higher standard of health for the entire population of the globe, the full cooperation of all systems of medicine and all who practice them is necessary.
The use of Ayurveda in Russia as a complementary or alternative medical system will help solve many health care problems.
For the first time in our country, interest in Ayurveda was shown in 1989 after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Negotiations were held between the Governments of India and Russia on the opening of an Ayurvedic treatment center in Minsk. Indian Ayurvedic scientists were tasked with treating children affected by an explosion at a nuclear power plant, as well as developing methods for the prevention of radiation sickness.
In 1990, a special department was created under the USSR Ministry of Health to integrate Ayurvedic traditional medicine into the Russian system. Ayurveda was included in the “List of Types of Medical Activities”. For unknown reasons, the department was disbanded, and in 1998, despite the positive experience of use in Russia, Ayurveda was excluded from the “List of Types of Medical Activities.”
1993, 1999 and 2002 Russian-Indian memoranda on the integration of Ayur-Veda in the Russian Federation were signed.
1996 – 1998 Indian Ayurvedic doctors treated victims of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. Ayurvedic methods were applied to 85 patients. The most common complaints from patients were: headache, sleep disturbance, pain in the joints and spine, irritability and fatigue, characteristic radiation injury. Many patients also had symptoms of gastritis, enterocolitis, stomach ulcers, duodenal ulcers, increased blood pressure, significant decrease in immunity, manifestations of osteoporosis. For 2 to 3 months, patients underwent complex Ayurvedic therapy.
As a result, the majority of patients experienced an improvement in their subjective well-being, headaches and joint pain disappeared, dystrophic processes stopped, and tissue regeneration processes intensified.
clinic of the Moscow Research Institute of Pediatrics and Pediatric Surgery of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation for two years (1996 - 1998) carried out joint work with Ayurveda specialists from medical center Kottakkal, Kerala, India.
During this time, 105 children (age from 3 to 16 years) with diseases such as bronchial asthma, vegetative-vascular dystonia, scoliosis, cerebral palsy, gastrointestinal diseases and etc.
Daily medical monitoring of the children's condition was carried out using a full range of clinical, laboratory, instrumental electrophysiological research methods (EEG, REG, ECG, ultrasound, X-ray and other methods). After inpatient treatment, observation continued on an outpatient basis.
95% of children after a course of treatment using Ayurveda methods using herbal preparations, massage and yoga showed a high and fairly stable (up to two years) clinical effect on the main diseases and associated complaints, such as headache, vestibulopathy , sleep disturbance, increased fatigue, psycho-emotional excitability, etc.
In children with cerebral palsy, coordination of movements improved, muscle strength increased, gait became more stable, hemodynamics and indicators of bioelectrical activity of the brain improved.
The first experience of using Ayurvedic methods in pediatrics showed the possibility and effectiveness of their use in a number of diseases. In addition to the disappearance of complaints, regression of the main clinical manifestations in the process of Ayurvedic treatment, positive dynamics of general somatic manifestations, neurological disorders, and improvement in cerebral hemodynamics were noted, which indicated a direct and positive effect of the treatment used on all parts of the pathogenesis of these diseases. Not a single child had any complications, adverse reactions, toxic or allergic manifestations to the drugs used.
The chief physician of the institute, Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation G. G. Osokina, makes a conclusion about the advisability of continuing research to study the long-term results of treatment using Ayurveda methods and studying the possibilities of using these methods to treat other socially significant diseases in children.
From 1995 to the present, thousands of Russian citizens have been successfully treated. The geography of Ayurvedic centers has expanded: not only Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok.
Despite all the positive trends, there are also a number of issues that need to be addressed at the level of state regulation and public united self-regulation.
Ayurvedic educational and treatment standards have not yet been adopted. Only one Russian has completed higher Ayurvedic medical education. All other Russian so-called “Ayurvedic teachers and doctors” either have no Ayurvedic education at all, or have certificates that do not give the right to either teach or practice Ayurveda. Just as there cannot be amateur doctors, there cannot be amateur Ayurveda doctors. In India, to obtain a diploma as an Ayurvedic doctor, you need to study for 6 years; for doctors, the second Ayurvedic education lasts 2.5 years.
In Russia, as in other countries, for high-quality and safe use Ayurvedic methods and medicines According to WHO experts, traditional medical systems should have their own codification, regulation, be taught openly and systematically, and be used in medical practice, taking into account and based on thousands of years of experience.
The experience of using Ayurveda in Russia allows us to draw some conclusions:
In the field of treatment of diseases, Ayurveda effectively treats a number of diseases against which modern medicine has no satisfactory means. Neurological and endocrine disorders, skin diseases, diseases of the digestive tract are areas where Ayurveda can be used as an effective alternative system. It is known that in many cases, even after eliminating painful symptoms, the patient does not feel a complete recovery. In such cases, Ayurveda can be used as a complementary treatment since the main emphasis in Ayurveda is on restoring homeostasis and not just treating symptoms.
In the field of prevention and health promotion
According to Ayurveda, man has many innate potencies. Appropriate treatment and training will help to reveal these potencies. RASAYANA rejuvenation therapy has effective techniques for restoring and strengthening physical and mental strength.
In health literacy
Health literacy of ordinary people plays a very important role in the healthcare system. In Ayurveda, the concept of health is extremely accessible to the understanding of the common man. Knowledge about the interaction of the human body with the environment makes it possible to actually prevent diseases, and use harmless medicines to maintain health. In modern Western medicine, prevention is carried out at the level of early diagnosis of the disease, i.e., at the moment when a person is already sick.
Ayurveda is an “ecologically friendly” medicine; it is entirely based on nature. Treatment in any form should provide support to the body in the fight against pathology. Ayurveda places special emphasis on the body's natural resistance to disease.
In the field of medicines
In the treatment of certain diseases, including many chronic ailments, Ayurvedic preparations have been found to be particularly effective. These diseases include: rheumatoid arthritis, stomach ulcers, urolithiasis, bronchial asthma, diabetes, fat metabolism disorders, diseases thyroid gland, dysuria, unilateral paralysis, sciatica, jaundice, fistulas, skin diseases, etc.
In Ayurvedic medicine, there are many medicines that help improve memory and intelligence in children and adults.
In Ayurvedic preparations, plants are used in their natural form, and not in the form of synthetic substitutes, and, as already noted, these preparations do not have side effects and are not addictive.
The domestic drug registration system does not identify traditional medicine drugs, therefore it does not take into account that a large number of Ayurvedic drugs have long proven themselves in the Russian market. These are drugs such as Liv52, Cyston, Speman, Lin-Kas, Verona, Bonjigar, Insti, Van Bi, Softovak, cough lozenges and Doctor Mom syrup, a number of other medicines and dietary supplements. The effectiveness and demand for the Ayurvedic approach is indirectly evidenced by the steady growth in sales of these products, by an average of 25% annually.
In the field of scientific research
Ayurveda provides Russian scientists with extensive material for study and opens up new areas of research in clinical medicine and pharmacology.
It should be especially noted that in Russia there are enormous resources medicinal plants. Of exceptional interest is the study of the possibility of their application using the theory and practice of Ayurvedic science.
The joint work of Russian and Indian scientists will help improve the effectiveness of scientific research.
Preliminary conclusions and recommendations:
Ayurvedic medicine is an effective alternative/complementary scientifically presented medical system that is actively included in everyday medical practice. Russian doctors and patients are waiting for the legal, qualified, scientifically based application of Ayurveda in the healthcare system, the opening of research, educational and medical Ayurvedic institutions in Russia.
Literature
Beijing Declaration 2008, WHO Congress of Traditional Medicine, Beijing, China
Materials of the 1st International Scientific and Practical Conference, Moscow, 1996.
Conclusion on the treatment carried out using Ayurvedic methods, Moscow Research Institute of Pediatrics and Pediatric Surgery of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, chief physician of the institute, Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation G. G. Osokina, 1999.
“WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2002–2005”, World Health Organization, Geneva, 2002.
A. H. Carrillo-Arcas
President of the Ayurvedic Russian-Indian Association
