Over the last few years, the world has seen a surge in metabolic disorders owing to the changing lifestyle of individuals. Lifestyle modification has emerged as a management method for these conditions, but this concept is not new to ayurvedic professionals. The growing awareness of a disciplined lifestyle has encouraged people to reconsider the ayurvedic concept of diet/lifestyle modification.
Ayurvedic experts in conversation with Happiest Health explain the importance of these modifications.
Understanding the basics
According to experts, pathya refers to a set of dietary and lifestyle guidelines. These are tailored to the dosha or body type of an individual. Following this regime helps to balance the doshas for overall wellness. The pathya guidelines vary depending on specific health conditions, dosha, and other factors of an individual. On the contrary, apathya is used to describe a set of habits (diet and lifestyle) that should be avoided.
Dr Aparna Trusar Bagul, professor and head of the department, Dept. of Swasthavritta and Yoga at Parul Institute of Ayurveda, Parul University, Vadodara, Gujarat, when explaining the role of diet, quotes a sanskrit verse that translates to ‘no amount of medicines can do any good when a person does not follow a strict dietary modification. Similarly, no amount of medicine is required for those who follow a wholesome diet.’
“Medicines can give us temporary relief while pathya ensures lifestyle benefits that last for a long time,” says Dr Mahadevi H Mali, professor from Shri Vijaya Mahantesh Ayurveda Medical College and Research Center, Ilkal, Bagalkot, Karnataka. In ayurveda, there is scope for tailoring the diet of a person to suit their condition and requirements in the same way their medicines are customised, she adds.
Read more about DIY-diet-based on the body’s requirements here
Diet as a therapy
Dr Bagul says the primary cause for most health conditions is inappropriate diet patterns or habits. According to ayurvedic experts, a management plan for any health condition should start with staying away from causative factors. An ayurvedic physician examines the individuals and their digestive capacity and plans the diet accordingly. Planning the diet pattern itself manages half the condition, she adds.
“In addition to the dietary customisations, physicians also recommend the quantity, frequency, and time of consumption of the foods. They also educate one about the combinations of food that should be taken and avoided,” says Dr Bagul.
According to Jogendra Singh, integrative nutritionist from Dehradun, Uttarakhand, a balanced diet increases the bioavailability of nutrients and medicines. Since it is not always possible to fulfil the nutrient requirements only through diet, medicines and supplements are required to counter those deficiencies to manage health conditions, he adds.
Condition-specific diet
Although there are dietary guidelines (pathya) for a healthy person, more importance is given to the body types (prakriti), habitat (desha), and time (including seasons and age) while planning a diet regime for a particular health condition. She gives examples of condition-specific pathya such as:
- Barley (yava in sanskrit) for type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Blackgram pudding (masha payasa in sanskrit) to manage Bell’s palsy
- Brinjal cooked in castor oil to manage sciatica
- Buttermilk and its different recipes to manage the symptoms of IBS (grahani in sanskrit).
An elixir for the chronic conditions
A wholesome diet nourishes the body and provides strength and longevity, which helps prevent the occurrence of chronic health conditions, says Singh.
Those who are diagnosed with chronic health conditions should not adopt a new diet regime suddenly, says Dr Bagul. An ayurvedic physician, even before writing the prescription, identifies the unhealthy dietary habits and helps one to slowly eliminate unhealthy foods from one’s diet, she adds.
For a small scale study, individuals with gout were divided into two groups. While one group was given medicines and therapies only, the other received diet modification alongside the therapies and medicines. The study concluded that the group that received lifestyle modification (including diet) showed better results in managing the symptoms of gout.
Resuming the regular diet
What to do next when the symptoms alleviate? Dr Mali says one can resume normal diet gradually. Even if the symptoms reduce, some dietary restrictions must be followed to prevent their recurrence or relapse.
In some health conditions, fasting itself serves as a management method. In such cases, the transition from therapeutic to regular diet has to be gradual, considering the body’s digestive ability.
“After fasting, it is recommended to begin with a liquid diet followed by a semi-solid diet, and then solids so as to not disturb the digestive fire (agni),” says Dr Mali.
