Rishi Ayurveda Hospital and Research Centre

Sunday, 12 August 2012

Why a Healthy Breakfast is Important to Lose Weight?

Most of the overweight people tend to skip meals. Breakfast is the most easier meal to be skipped. Everyone is in a hurry. We do not have time in the rushi

ng hours of morning to listen to demands of our body. Hunger can be easily suppressed at this time of the day. This is a simple fact- you eat less, you weigh less but is it that simple? Do you really lose weight by not having breakfast, leave alone a healthy breakfast? Let us find out why mom (even ancient Ayurveda practitioners) used to say- Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

What Does Breakfast Do?

Just try to take out the average time of your meal gap everyday. Suppose you eat between 8 to 9 pm every night and then wake up between 6-7 am in the morning, you have already not eaten anything for about 10 hours. Your body needs to recover from this brief period of starvation (thus the name breakfast) but then you skip your breakfast and have your lunch between 12-2 pm (depending upon the work load at your office). Now the meal gap has gone up to 16-17 hours. Till now you have not supplied the fuel to your body that keeps you running throughout the day. This might backfire on you because skipping meals almost always leads us to overeating. Now try to remember, did you had anything in between- not having breakfast and lunch? May be a handful of peanuts or popcorn, shared sandwich with colleagues, a number of tea or coffee (with all those teaspoons of sugar)? These things that seem to be little in amount, contain lots of calories and fat.

Rishi Ayurveda Hospital & Research Centre

What Type of Food to have in Summers?

If you want to stay cool in summers, take the right type of food. Read the list below to have an idea about what to have and what to avoid in summers!

Take more carbohydrates, sufficient protein but lesser fats.
Have more fluids like water and other cool summer drinks and less semi-fluids.
Decrease your intake of solid foods. Instead, have easily digestible food that can cool your body like summer special fruits and vegetables.
Have more of vegetarian food and less of non-vegetarian food as they have warming effect on your body

Rishi Ayurveda Hospital & Research Centre

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)

Rishi Ayurveda Hospital & Research Centre

What do Fruits Mean to Cultures of World?

Fruits are cherished by almost all cultures of the world. How? Just look at these facts

Apple- In almost every culture, the apple is ripe with symbolic meaning and mythical folklore. They can sign
ify wisdom, joy, fertility, temptation, peace, love, masculinity, and youthfulness.

Cherry- In Japan, the national flower cherry represents beauty, courtesy, and modesty.The ancient Chinese regarded the fruit as a symbol of immortality.

Pomegranate- Pomegranate was often used as a herbal remedy to lengthen life and restore vigor, these qualities often made it a symbolic link between the living and the dead. Pomegranates in China are associated with fertility.

Fig- In the Mediterranean region, natives take fig tree as some images of the Garden of Eden. After eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve covered their nakedness with leaves that are usually said to be from the fig tree.The fig tree has a sacred meaning for Buddhists.According to Buddhist legend, the Buddha, achieved enlightenment one day in 528 B.C. while sitting under a Bodhi tree, a kind of fig tree.

Pear- The ancient Chinese believed that the pear was a symbol of immortality. In Europe, it was customary to plant a fruit tree at a wedding. The longevity and fruitfulness of the trees were thought to give strength to the marriage and children.

Strawberry- It is a member of the rose family and symbolizes rebirth and health. Many cultures believe that strawberries are an aphrodisiac and they make sure that newlyweds are served these magical berries.