Food as Medicine

Food can either have a positive or negative effect on health. We are much more likely to make a connection to a food that we have eaten recently when we feel a bad effect than to one we have eaten over a long period of time when we develop an ulcer, for example. The food we eat has a profound effect on energy, sleep, immunity, all bodily functions and on the development of disease. Eating is something we do every day and what we do every day is much more important than what we do once in a while. If we want to achieve optimum health we have to eat food which the body can readily digest and convert into nutrition to nourish the tissues. Ayurveda does not consider nutrition as a way of evaluating the diet so much as the six tastes sweet, sour, salty, pungent, astringent and bitter. By balancing these tastes according to our constitution we can not only achieve good health but can use food as medicine. Food should be fresh, organic, free from chemical compounds and mostly plants.