Ayurvedic Diet Tips To Remain Healthy This Monsoon

While the onset of monsoon might please everyone, its onset does brings home various water borne diseases like jaundice, typhoid, cholera and flu. To make sure one enjoys this rainy season, we should follow few regulatory changes in your diet and treatments to prevent ourselves. If you're not a fan of conventional medicines, you can use all natural ayurvedic treatments to do so. Some effective ayurvedic remedies which promise to treat the symptoms and help one recover are:

According to ayurvedics there is accumulation and aggravation of the two doshas - vata and pitta

1. Vata

Accumulates during the dry or dehydrating heat of the summer. It becomes aggravated during the rainy (Monsoon) season which causes weakened digestion, acidic atmospheric conditions and gas produced from the earth.

2. Pitta

Accumulates during the rainy season due to the acidic conditions of the atmosphere and a weakened digestion. It is aggravated during autumn when the heat returns. This occurs after the cooling spell of the rainy season. The food and lifestyle should thus be such which helps in balancing Vata and Pitta.

Follow these eating tips during the monsoon -

Diet in monsoon according to Ayurveda

1. One should consume light and fresh foods prepared from barley, rice and wheat.

2. Including cow's ghee, lentils, green gram, rice and wheat in daily diet is beneficial.

3. Consume small piece of ginger with rock salt before every meal to improve digestion.

4. Use sour and salted vegetables for soup.

5. Drinking boiled water mixed with a little honey is recommended as this helps detoxify the water that is infused with impurities due to the rain.

6. Add ginger and green gram in your daily diet.

7. Eating warm food and avoiding uncooked foods and salads is better.

8. Drinking of excess of fluids also helps to prevent further slowing down of metabolism. One should avoid consuming stale food.

9. Consumption of leafy vegetables needs to be avoided during monsoon too.

10. Avoid curd, red meat and any foodstuff, which takes longer time to digest. One may have buttermilk instead of curd.

Abhyangam or oil massage:

This mode of treatment helps to get rid of various aches and pains that can crop up during monsoons like joint pains due to arthritis and weak bones. However, this also helps to rejuvenate your skin that gets dull and pale during monsoons.

Abhyangam oil massage imparts sheen and glow to your skin while keeping your bones healthy. Steam treatments that follow oil massages, use a medicinal decoction to open the pores in the skin which help in detoxification. It reduces the swelling, stiffness and pain in the joints and helps to relax the muscles.

Swedan or heat treatments: There are two types of heat treatments offered in Ayurveda during monsoons.

Patrapottali swedan:

This heat treatment with bolus prepared from leaves of medicinal herbs helps to relieve pain and swelling in arthritis, spondylosis and other types of pains in the bones and joints.

Ruksha swedan:

This is a dry heat treatment which gives patient relief from pain due to rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic ailments.