Ayurvedic Concept of Ahaar Pachan or Digestion
Ayurveda is a holistic healing science. The main objective of human life according to Ayurveda is to attain the following four goals or Purushartha:
Pursuing one’s religion (Dharma)
Attaining economic and financial development (Artha)
Attaining regulated sense-gratification) (Kama) and
Accomplishing liberation (Moksha).
The basic objective for attaining all the four goals is health and that is Arogya.
Aahar in Ayurveda
In Ayurveda, the term food is referred as Aahar. It includes all the food items that we ingest, whether solids or liquids. Food is the only thing which we allow to enter in our bodies very easily and which show an impact sooner or later in our overall heath and body structure. In Ayurveda, aahar or food is very important. That which passes through the aaharan process is called aahar. Food needs to consumed very carefull as some food is injurious to health. Food has to be adequate in terms of quantity/amount. The food that we intake also need to balance in terms of calories and nutrients. Food has got psychological and socio-cultural values also and it is this factor for which Ayurveda scores over others.
Aahar Pachan in Ayurveda
The process of digestion is known as Aahar Pachan in Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, any food (ahar) passes through the following:
Taste (Rasa)
Uses (Guna)
Potency (Veerya)
Metabolism resultant (vipak), and
Impact (prabhav)
